The first formal public event to be held in the newly renovated and refurbished Bailey Hall will be a scholarly kickoff to the inauguration of David J. Skorton as Cornell's 12th president.

Robert Kagan, a senior associate in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and best-selling author, will be the guest speaker for the inauguration's academic symposium, "Culture, Identity and Conflict in World Affairs," Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 4:30 p.m. An expert on U.S. foreign policy and national security, Kagan brings a fresh perspective to an ongoing campuswide focus on the relationship between culture, identity and conflict. The event itself will serve to promote further conversation among faculty and students on the significance of cultural allegiances and formations in world affairs.

Provost Biddy Martin will introduce and moderate the symposium, and Kagan's talk will be followed by comments from two Cornell faculty members: Peter J. Katzenstein, the W.S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies, and Isabel Hull, the John Stambaugh Professor of History. A question-and-answer period will follow.

Kagan writes a monthly column on world affairs for The Washington Post and is a contributing editor at both The Weekly Standard and The New Republic. His book "Of Paradise and Power" (2003) was on The New York Times and Washington Post's best-seller list and has been translated into more than 25 languages.

Kagan served in the U.S. State Department from 1984 to 1988 as a member of the policy planning staff and as principal speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz. He also was deputy for policy in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and holds a Ph.D. in American history from American University.

He also is author of "A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990" (1996) and is co-editor with William Kristol of "Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign Policy" (2000). His latest book, "Dangerous Nation: America in the World, 1607-1898," is due out this fall.

The symposium will be webcast live on the Cornell Web site. Visit http://www.cornell.edu/ on the day of the event for a link to the webcast.