BRATTLEBORO — Veteran diplomat George Jaeger will discuss America's current relationship with the international community in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., on June 5 at 7 p.m.
His talk, “The New World We Face: America Alone?” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series.
The current administration's inclination to go it alone, Jaeger contends, risks isolating the US from both allies and adversaries, thus making America less relevant and China more influential. Jaeger's talk will consider a world in which America chooses unilateral action but not leadership in the international community.
Jaeger, a former U.S. diplomat, had a career that spanned the Cold War and beyond. After early assignments in Liberia and Tito's Yugoslavia, he served in the U.S. Mission in Berlin, negotiated the nonproliferation treaty in Bonn, and covered east-west relations in Paris. He was political counselor in Ottawa, American consul general in Quebec during the independence crisis, and taught foreign affairs as diplomat-in-residence at Middlebury College.
Among Jaeger's most challenging assignments were his three years as staff director of the President's Advisory Commission on Arms Control and Disarmament, his stint as a senior negotiator of the Helsinki Final Act in Geneva, and his final tour as deputy assistant secretary general of NATO and chairman of the Alliance's political committee under Lord Carrington in Brussels.
Since he retired, Jaeger has been an international consultant, has supervised elections in postwar Bosnia and Kosovo, and has continued to teach and lecture frequently on foreign affairs.
The program is free and open to the public and accessible to people in wheelchairs. For more information, call 802-254-5290 or visit www.brookslibraryvt.org.