Wikileaks: One Year Later

P.J. Crowley to present first public lecture since leaving U.S. State Department

October 24, 2011

P.J. Crowley (front left) is the 2011-2012 recipient of the General Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership and is teaching at Dickinson this semester. The former U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs will deliver a lecture on Wikileaks on Tuesday, October 25. Photos by Carl Socolow '77

Phillip J. (P.J.) Crowley, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, will present a lecture titled, Wikileaks: One Year Later, at The Penn State Dickinson School Law on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. in Lewis Katz Hall auditorium, 333 West South Street in Carlisle. The event is free and open to the public.

Crowley is the 2011-2012 recipient of the General Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership. The position is a joint effort among Dickinson College, The Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs and the U.S. Army War College that promotes the exploration of leadership issues and military-civilian interaction. Crowley teaches at all three institutions.

Crowley resigned from his post at the U.S. State Department after criticizing the Pentagon’s treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was placed in solitary confinement for allegedly passing restricted information to Wikileaks.

Crowley will explore the impact that Wikileaks has had on global politics and the media as well as its implications on national security policies. Wikileaks, an international organization that anonymously publishes submissions of private or secret classified media and information onto a public Web site, recently released 250,000 unedited U.S. diplomatic cables, creating an internet and diplomatic sensation of enormous consequence to U.S. military members, diplomats, foreign service professionals and the media.

“When the issue of WikiLeaks comes up, it means different things to different people,” said Crowley. “It triggers many questions related to the public's confidence in government policy, government accountability, secrecy and transparency; freedom of the press, even the definition of a journalist. The government says damage occurred in the release of these documents. What has happened in the year since and why is that important?”

Atlantic Magazine recently placed Crowley on its annual list of “brave thinkers.” For more information, call 717-245-1875.

The event will also be webcast live. Follow this link.