From NATO-Russian relations to the collapse of communism in Poland to Guantanamo Bay, Ambassador Daniel Fried ’75 has been on the front lines of U.S. foreign policy. He’ll share an analysis of U.S. foreign policy informed by his 40-year career in the U.S. government as this year’s LaFeber-Silbey lecturer.

His talk, “Central Europe and 100 Years of American Grand Strategy,” is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 4:30 p.m. in Statler Hall, Room 196.

“When I saw [Fried] in Warsaw during the 1990s, he seemed to know everyone in the Polish government, so it was no surprise when he became ambassador to Poland,” said emeritus professor of history Walter LaFeber. “During those years he also was a close adviser to Secretary of State [Madeleine] Albright. I recall that during one visit to speak at Cornell he was suddenly summoned by Albright to meet her for a meeting in Buffalo, New York, so he had to cut his trip to Cornell short.”

Fried majored in history and Soviet studies at Cornell, graduating magna cum laude in 1975. He received a master's from Columbia’s Russian Institute and School of international Affairs in 1977 and immediately began his foreign service career. Primarily stationed in central Europe, Fried played a key role in designing American policy in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. In his talk, he will shed light on the events and challenges in that region today.

A Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States, Fried is active in its Future Europe Initiative and Eurasia Center. He is quoted frequently in the mainstream press.

The LaFeber-Silbey Endowment in History Lecture is held yearly and is given by speakers who are active in public life, policy-making or academics, and who are often Cornell alumni. Several alumni underwrite the series, named for LaFeber and the late Cornell historian Joel Silbey.

Claire Perez is communications assistant for the Department of History.