Keith Hansen, former National Intelligence Council official, will be the featured speaker at the Fireside Chat on March 24 at 7pm in Sierra Nevada College’s Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, rooms 139/141.

Given recent WikiLeaks arrests and controversy, Hansen will discuss this topic from a policy and intelligence perspective. Host Andy Whyman will lead this community dialogue addressing the question, “How does a democracy balance the public’s right to know against the need to preserve national security?”

Fireside Chats — a concept that grew out of the Seniors Conversation Café — are an ongoing series of evening discussions with some of Incline Village’s most interesting community members. It represents a partnership between Sierra Nevada College and the IVGID Senior Programs. Refreshments will be served.

Hansen joined SNC’s International Studies program as a visiting professor in fall 2010. He teaches courses on Global Issues and U.S. National Security Issues. Deeply involved in negotiations on the disarmament of nuclear weapons, as well as on a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing, he served for more than three decades with the government in military and civilian assignments. In Washington he served in various positions, including as the National Intelligence Officer for Strategic Programs and Nuclear Proliferation, where he supported the treaty ratification and counter-proliferation efforts of various administrations through the intelligence community’s efforts to produce national estimates on nuclear and proliferation issues.

Now retired from 35 years of government service, Hansen is a consulting professor of international relations at Stanford University. He and his wife live in Incline Village, but volunteer with various organizations in the United States and overseas. He is the author of several books about nuclear test bans and intelligence technologies.

For more information on the event, contact Shelia Leijon at (775) 832.1310, shelia_leijon@ivgid.org, or Debi Noonan at (775) 831.1314, ext. 7420, dnoonan@sierranevada.edu.