(Posted August 29, 2001)


HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- James Skelly, former Distinguished Visiting Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College, will speak on "Europe and Bush's America" at 8:15 p.m. Sept. 4 at Alumni Hall in the Brumbaugh Science Center on the Juniata College campus.

Skelly is a Senior Fellow at Juniata's Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1967 and went on to earn a master's degree in 1981 and a doctorate in 1984, both from the University of California, San Diego.

He has been immersed in a research project gauging European response to the new administration of President George W. Bush. "Most Europeans and their governments have been shocked and disoriented by the international policies of the new administration," Skelly says. "On some of the most significant issues, the Bush administration has chosen positions that not only differ from America's allies, but often appear to be unilateral and confrontational rejections of the policies of others."

In his talk, Skelly will outline how the relationship between the United States and Europe may evolve over the next five to 10 years and the perils that relationship may face.

In 1984 Skelly was named associate director of the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. From 1989 to 1990, Skelly was associate director for international programs at New York University's Center for War, Peace and the News Media. He went on to become a visiting scholar at the Institute of International Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1991-1992 under the support of the MacArthur Foundation.

An Irish citizen, Skelly has worked as a faculty member and administrator with several European institutions, including the Irish Peace Institute at the University of Limerick, the European University Center for Peace Studies in Austria, the International People's College in Denmark, and the Universitat Jaume I in Spain. In addition he has lectured in the United States, Europe, Russia, China and Japan.

He is a founder of the Peace Studies Association and is chair of the American Sociological Association's section on peace and war. He also has been a fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society and a senior fellow at the Center for European Studies in Budapest, Hungary.


Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.