Ambassador Richard J. Schmierer will address the recent events in Libya as well as current trends and developments in the Middle East at a public lecture on Monday, September 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the Monterey Institute’s Irvine Auditorium at 499 Pierce Street.
Ambassador Schmierer assumed his current position as deputy assistant secretary for public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in September 2012. He served as Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman from September 2009 through August 2012. Prior to his ambassadorship he was the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs from June 2008 through July 2009. From June 2007 through June 2008 Ambassador Schmierer served as the head of the Office of Iraq Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
Ambassador Schmierer, a State Department Foreign Service Officer with the rank of Minister-Counselor, began his diplomatic career in 1980 with assignments in Bonn, Frankfurt and Hamburg, Germany through 1984. He then served a three-year assignment at the American Consulate General in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (1985-88). From 1988 through 1992, he was posted at the headquarters of the U.S. Information Agency, and then from 1992 through 1996 at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany. He returned to Saudi Arabia in 1997, where he served as Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh until 2000. From 2000 through 2004 Ambassador Schmierer served as Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, followed by an assignment as counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, 2004-2005. From 2005 through 2007 he taught at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he published a book entitled Iraq: Policy and Perceptions.
Doors will open at 5:00 p.m. – arrive early to secure best seating.