Inaugural Baker Conference Features World Dignitaries

CONTACT: Michael Cinelli
PHONE: (713) 831-4794

INAUGURAL BAKER CONFERENCE FEATURES WORLD DIGNITARIES

Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
General Colin Powell will be among a group of dignitaries discussing
public policy challenges facing the world at the inaugural annual
conference of Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for
Public Policy this fall.

The conference is scheduled for Nov. 13 and 14 in Alice Pratt
Brown Hall. Former President George Bush will deliver opening
remarks, and James A. Baker, III, the 61st U.S. secretary of state,
will present the conference’s keynote address.

“This inaugural conference will be a special event launching the
series of annual conferences of the Baker Institute where people
from the world of ideas and the world of action will discuss and
debate key domestic and foreign policy issues,” said Edward P.
Djerejian, director of the Baker Institute. “These conferences will
be an important part of the Baker Institute’s mandate to lend a
meaningful voice to our nation’s dialogue on the vital issues we
face in the decades ahead.”

Among those joining Powell from the world of action are former
Prime Minister of Japan Noboru Takeshita and former foreign
ministers Hans-Dietrich Genscher from Germany, Roland Dumas from
France, Alexander Bessmertnykh from Russia, Taro Nakayama from
Japan, and Uffe Ellemann-Jensen from Denmark.

A number of renowned scholars, administration officials, policy
makers and journalists also have been invited to participate in the
panels. Marvin Kalb, a noted television journalist from the John F.
Kennedy School at Harvard University, will be the conference
moderator.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Foreign Policy
Challenges at the End of the Century.” The conference will feature
three panels-one on economic reform in the former Soviet Union and
China, another on politico-military factors and the future of
warfare, and a third on the role of culture, ethnic and religious
factors.

The conference has been made possible through the generous
support of The Coca-Cola Foundation.

The conference will open at 9 a.m. Nov. 13 in Stude Concert Hall
in the Alice Pratt Brown Hall. Djerejian will open the conference.
Rice University President Malcolm Gillis will introduce Bush, who
will deliver introductory remarks.

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