10-18-10

Japanese diplomat Kazuhide Ishikawa to give Manatt-Phelps Lecture Oct. 26

AMES, Iowa - Kazuhide Ishikawa, a longtime Japanese diplomat, will be the featured speaker at the ninth annual Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science at Iowa State University on Tuesday, Oct. 26. His free, public lecture, "Whither the Global Economy?", is set for 8 p.m. in ISU's Memorial Union Sun Room.

Ishikawa is Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. Prior to his current position, he was consulate general of Japan in Detroit. Ishikawa is a career diplomat who has served for more than 30 years in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including positions with the Economic Affairs Bureau and Foreign Policy Bureau.

Ishikawa is a graduate of the University of Tokyo and earned a master's degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Economics.

Thomas and Elizabeth Phelps and Charles and Kathleen Manatt established the Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science in 2002. The annual fall lectures focus on significant developments in the international political economy during the previous year, and how the issues affect and are affected by Iowa.

Charles Manatt, recipient of ISU's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008 and former U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, gave the first lecture in 2002. Other speakers have included Frederick Smith, founder, president and CEO of FedEx; now Vice President Joseph Biden (D-Del.); U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.); Jan Eliasson, Sweden's ambassador to the United States; Luis Ernesto Derbez, Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs; Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian minister of foreign affairs; and Jorge Dezcallar, ambassador of Spain to the United States.

The event is sponsored by the Manatt-Phelps endowment to ISU's Department of Political Science, with additional support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Committees on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body. For more information, visit www.las.iastate.edu/newnews/manattphelps/home.shtml.

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