Thomas Countryman, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, International Security and Nonproliferation October 26, 2012

SPEAKER: Thomas Countryman, U.S. Assistant Secretary, International Security and Nonproliferation
Paul Carroll, Program Director, Ploughshares Fund
TITLE: Addressing Next-Generation Proliferation Challenges
DATE: Friday, Oct. 26, 2012
TIME: 11:30 a.m. check-in, Noon program

PLACE: SF Club Office, 595 Market St., 2nd Floor, SF
PRICE: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID)
CONTACT: Riki Rafner, Director of Media and Public Relations, (415) 597-6712
Michael Traber, Public Relations Fellow Media interested in attending should please RSVP to mtraber@commonwealthclub.org and please bring business card to event.

U.S. Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman will speak about the global nonproliferation regime and some of the major multilateral diplomatic efforts to address proliferation challenges. The nuclear threat did not die with the Cold War, and with nations such as Iran and North Korea indicating they're not afraid to flex their nuclear muscles, the U.S. and the world need to be ready to figure out what to do next. Career diplomat Countryman will explain what the U.S. can do to prepare for such issues.
Countryman’s career in the State Department started with his position as a consular and political officer in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Since then he has held a variety of government positions, including serving as the Political-Military Officer at the American Embassy in Cairo during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and being Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs from 2009-2010. He has been given the Superior Honor Award by the Department of State for his assignments at USUN, EUR/SCE, Rome and Athens, as well as the Presidential Meritorious Service Citation in 2007.
Countryman earned a degree in economics and political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where he graduated summa cum laude. He later studied at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Paul Carroll, the Program Director for Ploughshares Fund – a San Francisco-based fundraising organization that disperses donation funding to a host of organizations dedicated to finding creative solutions for nuclear arms reduction – will moderate the discussion. Carroll has served at the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency before joining the Ploughshares Fund team. He holds his B.A. from Rutgers University and his Masters of Public Policy from the University of Maryland.