Lawrence Eagleburger, former secretary of state, and Gen. Brent Scowcroft, former National Security adviser, will speak at the foreign policy conference luncheon at 11:45 a.m. Thursday. The luncheon will be in the ballroom of Oklahoma Memorial Union.

The conference, "Preparing America's Foreign Policy for the 21st Century," runs from 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the union.

The conference is the second foreign policy conference OU has hosted; the first was in fall 1997.

Ambassador Edward Perkins, William J. Crowe Chair professor of geopolitics and executive director of the International Programs Center, said the conference is important because it is a place where foreign policy issues will be seriously debated.

He said it is important to include all people.

"We need to do something which will bring into this process citizen's views as well," he said.

He said citizens include students who will be future leaders.

Perkins said Eagleburger has consistently articulated his views on foreign policy. Eagleburger is called in by private corporations and the government on foreign-policy issues.

"His views are valuable," he said.

OU officials began planning this year's conference immediately after the first foreign policy conference, but have been seriously planning it for a year, Perkins said.

Although Scowcroft was a military officer, he spent most of his career in foreign affairs, Perkins said.

"His integrity and his views of foreign policy are stellar in my opinion," he said.

Eagleburger served as former President George Bush's secretary of state from December 1992 until President Clinton's inauguration in January 1993. Eagleburger served as Bush's deputy secretary of state from March 1989 until August 1992.

Scowcroft served as National Security Adviser under former Presidents Gerald Ford and Bush. He served as a member of former President Ronald Reagan's Special Review Board -- the Tower Commission -- on Iran Contra in 1986-87.

Terrence Blackburne, political science senior, said he will attend the entire conference. He said it is important to have people like Scowcroft and Eagleburger talk about global security, because Scowcroft was National Security adviser when the Cold War ended.

Blackburne said global security was affected by the end of the Cold War.

"The whole international scene just changed," he said.

Blackburne said the conference enhances OU's reputation. He said he has a friend at an Ivy League school who was surprised OU could attract people like Eagleburger and Scowcroft.

"The fact that we can get these people here to talk to us says we're doing something right," he said.

Also speaking at the conference will be Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister; former Sen. George Mitchell, who helped negotiate in the Northern Ireland peace talks; Paul Pillar, head of the CIA counter-terrorism center; Phyllis Oakley, assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research; and Paul Kennedy, professor of history and Director of International Security Studies at Yale University.
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