President's Lecture Series with Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain Set for Nov. 19
The Presidents Lecture Series is hosted in conjunction with the Charles W. Hostler Institute on World Affairs.
Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States of America, will be the featured speaker at the President’s Lecture Series, hosted in conjunction with the Charles W. Hostler Institute on World Affairs.
The lecture, titled “Bahrain: An Open Dialogue,” takes place from 1-2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19 via webinar. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required and can be made online.
On June 23, 2017, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa appointed Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa as the ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States. Previously, in 2010, he was appointed as Governor of the Southern Governorate of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the largest in size. Shaikh Abdulla also played an active role in drafting the National Anti-Drug Strategy in conjunction with the regional office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which was launched in 2016. Shaikh Abdulla also served as a member of the Bahrain Olympic Committee from 2008 and as the treasurer until 2017.
U.S. military ties with the Kingdom of Bahrain date back to the 1970s and Bahrain, located in the Persian Gulf, has been home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet since the mid-1990s. Bahrain plays a key role in the regional security architecture and is a vital U.S. partner in defense initiatives. Ambassador Charles Hostler was the U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain (1989-93) during the Gulf War.
Previous speakers of the President’s Lecture Series include Ellen E. McCarthy, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research for the U.S. State Department, and SDSU alumna Ellen Ochoa (’80), the first Latinx woman to go to space and the former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Founded in 1942, as the Institute on World Affairs, to inform students, faculty, and the wider public on global affairs, the Institute has provided the SDSU and greater San Diego community with high-level and spirited intellectual engagement on international issues.
The Charles W. Hostler Institute on World Affairs has played an important role in sponsoring educational programs and speakers’ forums for more than seven decades. The late Ambassador Hostler, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 94, was a soldier, scholar, businessman, diplomat, humanitarian and philanthropist who used his international connections to build the institute’s network of global leaders, allowing a wide audience to understand the impact of world affairs. To honor his legacy, the Hostler Institute hosts two lectures per year in collaboration with the President’s Lecture Series.
