Return to the "POINTER VIEW"
                         November 2, 2001

USMA hosts annual SCUSA conference

By Capt. Martha S.H. VanDriel and
Cadet 1st Class Rob Schneider
USMA Department of Social Sciences

The U.S. Military Academy will host the 53rd annual Student Conference on United States Affairs Nov. 14-17.

This year’s conference, known as SCUSA 53, will feature more than 280 student participants from 135 colleges and universities from 21 different countries. The conference theme, chosen by SCUSA 53’s cadet staff, is "2001: A Global Odyssey -- Charting a Path for the New Millenium."

The event is organized into 16 roundtables, each focused on a different policy topic or region of interest. Some of this year’s roundtable topics include: China, Japan and Korea; The Middle East and North Africa; Democratization; Global Threats to National Security and Security and Foreign Policy in a Cyber-Future.

At the end of the conference, each roundtable produces and presents a policy paper on its topic, recommending what U.S. foreign policy should be in that area.

Other highlights of the conference include panel discussions with four senior policy experts. This year’s panelists include Michael Sheehan (USMA ‘77), assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations for the United Nations and former U.S. ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism; the Honorable Cynthia Schneider, former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands; Ralph Begleiter, former CNN correspondent and Dr. Michael Edleson (USMA ‘79), senior vice president and chief economist for NASDAQ.

SCUSA ‘53 will feature first time cadets from India and the Netherlands, as well as students from Uzbekistan.