Guest speakers at the International Security Speaker Series during the spring of 2006 included Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; James Wirtz, Professor of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School; John Mueller, Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Mershon Center for International Security Studies; Laura Holgate, Vice President for Russia/New Independent States Programs, Nuclear Threat Initiative; and Cindy Williams, Security Studies Program, MIT. Speakers addressed a wide range of timely topics, including the relationship between actual and perceived threats of terrorism, U.S. and Russian approaches to nuclear nonproliferation policy, the evolution of European military forces and U.S. policy towards the Korean Peninsula.

January 31, 2006
The Theory of Surprise
James Wirtz, Professor of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School

February 14, 2006
Panel Discussion on The Korean Peninsula in 2006: The Six-Party Talks on Nuclear Proliferation and Energy Policy on the Peninsula

• Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
• James Steinberg, Dean, LBJ School of Public Affairs; Former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Clinton
• Charles L. Pritchard, President, Korea Economic Institute
• Amy Myers Jaffe, Rice University
• Rice University Energy Program
• David von Hippel, Senior Associate, Nautilus Institute
• Eugene Gholz, Assistant Professor, LBJ School of Public Affairs

February 21, 2006
Devils and Duct Tape: Terrorism and the Dynamics of Threat Exaggeration
John Mueller, Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Mershon Center for International Security Studies

March 7, 2006
Jessica Stern, Lecturer in Public Policy, JFK School of Government, Harvard University

March 28, 2006
Laura Holgate, Vice President for Russia/New Independent States Programs, Nuclear Threat Initiative

April 17, 2006
From Conscripts to Volunteers: The Transitions to All-Volunteer Forces in Europe
Cindy Williams, Principal Research Scientist, Security Studies Program, MIT

April 18, 2006
Iraq — Whether, When and How to Disengage
Barry Posen, Ford International Professor of Political Science, MIT