General Wesley Clark’s military career has taken him from
Kosovo to Panama, from Europe to Washington, D.C. But starting in
October, Clark will settle at UCLA ““ at least for a couple
days a month.
Clark, who was a candidate for the Democratic nomination to run
for president in the 2004 election, will join UCLA’s Burkle
Center for International Relations, which is part of the UCLA
International Institute.
He plans to do research, publish papers, guest lecture in
undergraduate and graduate classes, and host an annual conference
focusing on national security as part of his involvement with the
Burkle Center.
The conference will be open to students.
Clark, a retired four-star general with 34 years of military
experience, said he was looking forward to joining the UCLA
community.
“I always planned to be affiliated with an academic
institution,” he said. “I love teaching, and I think
UCLA is a wonderful institution.”
A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point
and Oxford University, Clark spent three years teaching economics
and political philosophy at West Point.
Though he expects to be on campus just one or two days a month,
Clark said he planned to guest lecture in UCLA classes to which he
thought his experiences would be relevant, likely focusing on
national security issues in a broad sense.
“(I’ve had) a very diverse background,” he
said. “I think you have to have the right balance of theory
and practicum, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a
good balance.”
In addition to campaigning for the presidency in 2004, Clark
rose to the rank of Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and
negotiated peace in Kosovo in the 1990s.
He also served as the Director for Strategic Plans and Policy
for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Professor Ronald Rogowski, interim vice provost for
international studies, dean of the International Institute and
director of the Burkle Center said Clark will be a valuable
addition to the UCLA community.
“Wes Clark brings incisive and visionary analysis to
questions of economic and security policy, particularly as they
relate to future U.S. relations with Asia and Latin America,”
Rogowski said in a statement.
Clark said he has not ruled out taking on greater teaching
responsibilities in the future, but said for the moment he is only
planning on guest lecturing.
“I’ll come in, take questions and challenge their
assumptions,” he said. “In the classroom, I expect (the
students) to ask the challenging questions.”
Patricia O’Brien, executive dean of the UCLA College, said
she thought students would benefit from Clark’s
instruction.
“He really is a big-picture person, but he also brings
real depth,” she said.
Some of that depth is based on the relationships Clark has made
during his work in the United States and abroad.
“He has personal connections with leaders in the Middle
East, Latin America and China.”
Clark’s engagement at the International Institute is
open-ended, O’Brien said, and the university is pursuing the
possibility of bringing Clark into a more extensive academic
position.
Clark said UCLA has some unique advantages.
“It’s a Pacific Rim school, and the U.S. has got to
work the Pacific Rim in a more effective way than it has,” he
said, adding that economic development in that region will be an
important foreign policy topic in years to come.
“China and India are going to develop into economic
hyperpowers, and how we relate to that economic development will
determine America’s future,” Clark said.
When Clark retired, he was one of the nation’s most highly
decorated military officers since Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Since retiring from the military, Clark has become active on the
political scene, particularly on behalf of the Democratic
party.
WesPAC, Clark’s political action group, is devoted to
supporting Democratic candidates in key races.
Clark has also spoken out against the Bush
administration’s foreign policy and the war in Iraq.
“We need to find a way out of Iraq,” he said.
“I’d like to see us talk to the people who are there,
and to meet the wishes of the Iraqi people.”
He also cited the potential nuclear situation in Iran and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict as particularly pressing current
issues.
Though Clark has not said he is planning a second bid for the
presidency in 2008, that is another possibility he has not ruled
out.