Southwest Harbor — UMF Professor Louis Sell will discuss Russia and Central Asia - Their Take on the Afghan Conflict this Saturday, October 17th from 2-4PM at the Southwest Harbor Public Library.

Russia and the states of Central Asia have had a long and checkered relationship with Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion in 1979 and the ten-year war that followed mark the beginning of the current Afghan tragedy. Russia and the Central Asian states played an important role in facilitating the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that destroyed the Al Qaeda camps and Taliban rule from which the 911 attacks had been launched.

In his talk Mr. Sell, who spent most of his 28 year Foreign Service career dealing with the USSR and Russia, will discuss the special historical, geographic, ethnic, political, and military perspective that Russia and Central Asia bring to the Afghan conflict. He will discuss their current policies as the United States and its NATO coalition expand their activities in their backyard.

A retired Foreign Service Officer, Louis Sell worked for 28 years with the U.S. Department of State, including eight years each in Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, and Russia. During 2003-2007, he served as Executive Director of the American University in Kosovo, which he helped to establish. He has authored a political biography of Slobodan Milosevic, published by Duke University Press, 2002. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Maine at Farmington. He and his family live in a 200-year-old house on a Christmas Tree farm in Whitefield, Maine. He currently serves as a trustee of the American University in Kosovo Foundation (AKUF). He also serves as a Director of the Camden Conference and as a member of its program committee.

Sell’s presentation is part of a Camden Conference partnership with MDI’s larger libraries and the Acadia Senior College. The 23rd Annual Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan and India: Crossroads of Conflict takes place February 19-21, 2010. For more information, please visit www.camdenconference.org.