Ambassador Robert Finn, a Senior Research Associate at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination and lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School, and former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, will present a public talk titled, "Afghanistan: Points of Power" on February 11th, at 4:30 p.m. in Bowl 016, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus.

Ambassador Finn currently has a dual appointment in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton and the Woodrow Wilson School. From 2003-2005 he was the Ertegun Visiting Professor in the Department of Near East Studies. He served as the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan from March 2002 until August 2003. He had also been the Ertegun Professor at Princeton, following service as the U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan from 1998 until July of 2001. His other diplomatic postings include Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir in Turkey, Lahore in Pakistan and Zagreb, Croatia. He opened the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1992. He has received numerous awards from the U.S. government, including two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards and an award for heroism.

Ambassador Finn is the author of the book “The Early Turkish Novel,” which has been published both in English and Turkish. His poems and translations have appeared in the United States, Turkey, France and Pakistan. He reads in more than ten languages.

He holds a B.A. in American Literature and European History from St. John’s University, an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from New York University, and an M.A. and Ph.D in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey and a Fulbright scholar at Istanbul University.

This event is co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of public and International Affairs and the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination.  It is free and open to the public.