Prominent Figures In U.S. Foreign Affairs To Speak At MSC SCONA 56

From February 24-26 the 56th MSC Student Conference on National Affairs (SCONA) will once again give students from across the country the opportunity to visit Texas A&M and discuss foreign policy issues with policy experts.  The title for this year’s 3-day conference is “Cost of War, Cost of Peace: Consequences of Yesterday, America’s Vision for Tomorrow,” and the focus will be on examining how the United States can play a role in alleviating the damage caused by past conflicts in order to encourage a more peaceful future.

Throughout the conference delegates will listen to and ask questions of prominent foreign affairs speakers.  Following each speaker session, delegates will participate in roundtable work sessions with their
respective policy teams.  These work sessions will culminate in the development of a policy proposal, which each team will present and submit for critique by a panel of policy experts.  Experts will select one policy proposal for special recognition.

This year’s SCONA features a couple of new wrinkles, one of which is an Army War College Simulation on Wednesday, February 23. During the simulation delegates will have the opportunity to work through an international strategic crisis negotiation exercise with the assistance of military experts and professors.

The more prominent conference change is the fact that several of the speaker events will be held in Rudder Theatre, which will allow more members of the campus community and the general public to attend. 
These speaker events will be free and open to the public.  The change was made in part out because of a
recognition that the speakers scheduled to appear will likely attract more people than can be accommodated as delegates. 


These speakers include Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who now serves as Dean fo the Bush School of Government and Public Service and in the past has been Ambassador to Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon. 
Ambassador Crocker will likely be able to lend a great deal of insight into current events in the Middle East during his scheduled speech at 10am on February 24th.  Also on Thursday, February 24, at 2:30pm, Michael Corbin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq is scheduled to speak.  On Friday at 9am Lt. Gen. Paul Carlton, M.D. is scheduled to discuss his experience as the Surgeon General of the U.S. Air Force.  And at 1:30pm General William Fraser III, Commander, Air Combat Command is scheduled to discuss his experience with wartime, contingency and humanitarian relief operations. 

Please note that due to current events in Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan, the speaker lineup is subject to change.  For more information on MSC SCONA, visit http://scona.tamu.edu.