Admiral James Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and Commander, U.S. European Command, will give a Distinguished Gates lecture entitled NATO in the 21st Century: Partnerships for Peace and Security.

He will talk about NATO's ongoing activities in Europe and in "out of area operations", including Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, as well as the “special relationship” between the UK and the US.

Admiral Stavridis assumed his current post in June 2009. He has a long career in NATO, having commanded the Destroyer USS Barry from 1993-95 during deployments to Haiti, the Arabian Gulf and Bosnia. His ship won the Battenberg Cup as top ship in the Atlantic Fleet during this period.

Admiral Stavridis, who has a PhD in International Relations from Tufts University, has also won the Navy League's John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational Leadership for his role as commander of Destroyer Squadron 21 in 1998 in the Arabian Gulf.

Latterly, he commanded the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group in the Arabian Gulf between 2002-2004 and between 2006-09 he was commander of the US Southern Command in Miami, which is focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.

He has also worked on strategic issues on the staffs of the chief of naval operations and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was Director of the Navy Operations Group “Deep Blue”, charged with coming up with innovative ideas on how to respond to the aftermath of 9/11.

William Eucker, external officer of the Gates Scholars Council, which organised the lecture, said: "The purpose of the Distinguished Lecture Series is to facilitate an intellectual exchange between Gates scholars and an individual who is making the world a better place. We are particularly pleased to host such a distinguished officer and
statesman as our first military speaker in the series."

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