Dr. Robert 0. Freedman, a distinguished political scientist and analyst, will discuss “The Bush Administration and the Arab-Israeli Conflict – A Three Year Evaluation,” on Thursday, March 11, at California State University, Fresno.

The lecture, sponsored by the university’s Political Science Department, will be at 7:30 p.m in the University Center, Room 200 (5240 N. Jackson). It will be free and open to the public.

“The Department of Political Science is committed to the open discussion of various points of view on current issues,” said Dr. Alfred Evans, a Fresno State political science professor who is organizing the talk.

Freedman, who is a professor of political science at Baltimore Hebrew University, and a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, is the author or editor of eighteen books, and has published various articles in scholarly journals.

He has published books on Russian foreign policy, the Middle East, and politics in Israel. Most recently, he edited The Middle East Enters the 21st Century, published by the University Press of Florida.

He has served as President of the Association for Israel Studies and President of Baltimore Hebrew University.

Apart from being an accomplished writer, Freedman has visited various countries in the Middle East at the invitation of their governments, Evans said.

He also has been a member of U.S. government delegations visiting Moscow and Beijing, meeting with Russian and Chinese scholars and government officials and discussing the situation in the Middle East.

Freedman also led a U.S. mission to Uzbekistan to help establish cultural relations between America and Uzbekistan. In 1989, he went to Tunis as a member of the Brookings Institution delegation to conduct discussions with Palestinian leaders about the peace process.

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he represented the U.S. in two European conferences aimed at improving cooperation between America and Europe over issues of the Middle East.

In addition to his host of accomplishments, Freedman has served as a commentator on National Public Radio, the BBC, and the Voice of America. He also is a consultant to the U.S. State Department and the CIA.

Freedman received his bachelor’s degree in Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania and his master’s and doctorate in International Relations from Columbia University.

For more information, call (559) 278-2988.

Copy prepared by University Relations student intern Ravneet Padda.

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