Former US Ambassador to Speak on Foreign Affairs at ASU

Former U.S. Ambassador James A Larocco, who served in key leadership roles in the Near East, will be the featured speaker for Angelo State University’s E. James Holland-Roy A. Harrell Jr. Foreign Affairs Speakers Program on Monday and Tuesday, March 9-10, in the Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive.

Larocco will present “Finding the Key: Foreign Policy Issues in the Middle East” at 7:30 p.m. March 9. He will then speak on “The Changing Economics of the Middle East: What This Means to the U.S.” at 2:30 p.m. March 10. Both presentations will be in the University Center’s C.J. Davidson Conference Center and are free and open to the public. Larocco will also speak to ASU classes both days.

A career Foreign Service officer, Larocco retired after more than 35 years as a diplomat, then completed an appointment as director of the Near East South Asia Center of Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He has since conducted seminars, workshops and lectures at civilian and government agencies, think tanks and academic institutions, in the U.S. and internationally.

A native of Chicago whose language skills include Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and Italian, Larocco’s diplomatic posts included director general of the Multinational Force and Observers on the Sinai Peninsula, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, ambassador to Kuwait, deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires in Israel and deputy director of the Department of State Office of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh Affairs. He served in Cairo during the Camp David Treaty period and began his Foreign Service career in Saudi Arabia. He also served in the Far East, with assignments in Beijing and Taiwan.

The E. James Holland-Roy A. Harrell Jr. Foreign Affairs Speakers Program is dedicated to providing ASU students and the community with a broader worldview and exposing students to potential career opportunities in the Foreign Service.

The program is sponsored by the ASU College of Arts and Sciences, Center for Security Studies, University Center Program Council and the academic departments of Communication and Mass Media, Political Science and Philosophy, History, and English and Modern Languages.

For more information, call the College of Arts and Sciences at 325-942-2162.