Historian to Give 2009 Caterpillar Distinguished Lecture in Global Affairs

Historian Andrew Bacevich will give the 2009 Caterpillar Distinguished Lecture in Global Affairs, "The Presidency and the Limits of Power," at 7 p.m., Friday, October 9 in Kresge Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. The lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Knox College Center for Global Studies through support from the Caterpillar Foundation.

A retired U.S. Army officer and professor of history and international relations at Boston University, Bacevich will discuss the development of U.S. foreign policy during the early months of Barack Obama's presidency.

Bacevich's published works include the books American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy, and The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. He is the editor of The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy since World War II, and Imperial Tense: Problems and Prospects of American Empire. His essays and reviews have been printed in The Atlantic Monthly, The Wilson Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, and The Nation. His commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe. Bacevich is a regular commentator on National Public Radio and a frequent guest on a wide variety of national news and analysis programs.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Bacevich received his Ph.D. in American diplomatic history from Princeton University. He retired from the U.S. army with the rank of Colonel. Bacevich taught at West Point and John Hopkins University before joining the faculty of Boston University in 1998. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Caterpillar Distinguished Lectures in Global Affairs are supported by a grant to the Knox College Center for Global Studies from the Caterpillar Foundation.

Prior Caterpillar Distinguished Lecturers in Global Affairs at Knox College have included His Excellency Zhou Wenzhong, Ambassador to the United States from the People's Republic of China; former U.S. Senator George Mitchell; Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago; and Richard Longworth of the Chicago Council for Global Affairs and former foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 47 states and 48 countries. Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.