Conservative pundit William Kristol to speak

Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, one of the nation’s most influential neoconservative commentators, visits Bates College to discuss the impact of Sept. 11 on American foreign policy at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Presented by the Bates College Republicans, the event is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please call Nathaniel Walton, vice president of the Bates Republicans.

The Bates co-sponsors of Kristol’s visit are the offices of the president and the dean of faculty; the departments of anthropology, political science, sociology, and theater and rhetoric; and the Bates College Historical Society, College Lecture Series and Representative Assembly. The Young America’s Foundation is also a major co-sponsor.

Kristol is editor and publisher of the Washington-based political magazine The Weekly Standard, which he helped found in 1995. An early and forceful advocate for the removal of Saddam Hussein, Kristol is widely considered a leading spokesperson for the political right.

He is the author or editor of several books including The War Over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and America’s Mission (Encounter Books, 2003), which he co-authored with Lawrence Kaplan, and regularly appears on Fox News Sunday and other Fox News programs.

“The Bates College Republicans hope that through bringing William Kristol to campus, the Bates community will better understand the nature of U.S. foreign policy after Sept. 11,” said Walton. “There are few individuals in politics or media today who can speak with as much clarity or foresight on this subject as Mr. Kristol.”

Prior to starting The Weekly Standard, Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. During the George H.W. Bush administration, he served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, and was chief of staff to Secretary of Education William Bennett under President Reagan.

Before coming to Washington in 1985, Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in government and holds a doctoral degree in political science, also from Harvard.