June 23, 2009 Law Library of Congress Celebrates NATO's 60th Anniversary With Panel Discussion on Organization's Legal Challenges

Founded in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance of member nations that agree to mutual defense in response to attack upon one or all members. To mark NATO’s 60th anniversary, the Law Library of Congress will host a panel discussion on the legal challenges facing NATO today.

The program, which is sponsored jointly with the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, July 9 in the Montpelier Room, located on the sixth floor of the Library’s James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public but seating is limited. Advance reservations are recommended (Barbara Moore, 202-707-9834, bmoo@loc.gov).

The panel will discuss NATO’s expansion in Eastern Europe, its training mission in Afghanistan and its anti-piracy operations off the coastline of Somalia.

Panelists include Richard L. Prosen, a senior foreign-policy professional with more than 20 years’ experience in increasingly responsible national-security positions; Peter Roudik, formerly a legal adviser to the Russian Parliament and currently assistant director of legal research in the Law Library of Congress; and Maj. Gen. Melvin G. Spiese, U.S. Marine Corps Training and Education Command.

Established in 1994, the International Center for Terrorism Studies (ICTS) is an independent, nonprofit research institute associated with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies (www.potomacinstitute.org/).

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