Public Seminar on Citizen Diplomacy: People Power

August 27, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Manoa Campus, East-West Center, Burns Hall Room 3012, 1601 East-West Rd.

---

Ann Wright has been a career military woman, a U.S. State Department diplomat, and for the past few years an influential spokesperson in the anti-war movement. After receiving her master’s and law degree from the University of Arkansas, Wright served for 13 years in the U.S. Army followed by 16 years in the Army Reserves, retiring as a Colonel. During this period, she also earned a master’s degree in national security affairs from the U.S. Naval War College.

In 1987, Col. Wright joined the Foreign Service and served as U.S. Deputy Ambassador in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2,500 people from the civil war in Sierra Leone, the largest evacuation since Saigon. She was also on the first State Department team to reopen the embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December 2001, after the fall of the Taliban to U.S. forces.

Her other overseas assignments include Somalia, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada, and Nicaragua. On March 19, 2003, the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, she sent a letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, stating that without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the invasion and occupation of a Muslim, Arab, oil-rich country would be a disaster. Since then, she has been writing and speaking out for peace. She fasted for a month, picketed at Guantánamo, traveled to Iran as a citizen diplomat, and has been arrested for peaceful, nonviolent protest of the war on Iraq. In the last year, she has been on delegations to Iran and has made three trips to Gaza.

Free Admission. Open to the public
Limited seating

Event Sponsor
East-West Center, Manoa Campus

More Information
EWC information, 944-7111, ewcinfo@eastwestcenter.org, www.eastwestcenter.org

---

 

Ongoing Events