Former NATO commander to lecture about military’s role on global stage
Retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis will visit St. Olaf College November 11 to deliver a lecture titled American Foreign Policy: Exploring the Military’s Role on the Global Stage.
The lecture, hosted by the college’s Political Awareness Committee, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel. It will be streamed and archived online.
Stavridis, who is now the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, spent more than 30 years in the Navy.
He completed four years as the supreme allied commander of NATO, where he was responsible for 120,000 troops on three continents and oversaw operations in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the Balkans, and piracy off the coast of Africa.
Stavridis was also commander of the U.S. European Command, overseeing 100,000 Department of Defense employees in 51 countries, and served as senior military assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of Defense.
Throughout his career, Stavridis has influenced change in the Department of Defense. As commander of the U.S. Southern Command, he reshaped the organization into an interagency, private-public model of “smart power.”
He was the first commander of the Navy’s “Deep Blue” strategic and tactical think tank after the 9/11 attacks and focused on innovation solutions to complex problems, including hospital ship operations.
He has been awarded the Athenagoras Human Rights Award on behalf of the humanitarian work of the United States Military and the Intrepid Freedom Award.
Stavridis is the author or editor of six books on leadership, maritime affairs, Latin America, and innovation including his new book, The Accidental Admiral: A Sailor Takes Command at NATO.