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Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.), Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute's Washington, D.C. office and professor at Yale University, will present a public lecture at the Woodrow Wilson School entitled, "Strategic Drift and Dwarfish Leaders," at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22, 2005, in Bowl 016, Robertson Hall.

General Odom is an expert in military and strategic issues; intelligence issues; Asian economic and security issues; Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian studies; and European politics and military issues.

Odom previously served as director of the National Security Agency (1985 to 1988) where he was responsible for the nation's signals intelligence and communications security. Prior to this he served as assistant chief of staff for intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer. From 1977 to 1981, General Odom was military assistant to the President's assistant for National Security Affairs. As a member of the National Security Council staff, he worked on strategic planning, Soviet affairs, nuclear weapons policy, telecommunications policy, and Persian Gulf security issues.

General Odom has authored and coauthored numerous books. His most recent works include "America's Inadvertent Empire" (2004, Yale University Press), "Fixing Intelligence For a More Secure America" (2003, Yale University Press), and "The Collapse of the Soviet Military" (1998, Yale University Press), which won the Marshall Shulman Prize.

General Odom's articles have been published in Foreign Affairs, World Politics, Foreign Policy, Orbis, the National Interest, the Washington Quarterly and Military Review. He is a frequent radio and television commentator, and has appeared on such programs as "The PBS News Hour," CNN, ABC's "Nightline," NBC News, C-Span, and BBC' "The World Tonight."

Most recently, Odom's outspoken opinions about the war in Iraq and his recommendations that the U.S. withdraw its troops have placed him in the center of significant controversy.

General Odom graduated from the United States Military Academy and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

This lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. It is free and open to the public.