News Release
November 2002
(Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) - Moravian College president
Ervin J. Rokke will travel to Bucharest, Romania this weekend for a
conference to assist the emerging democratic country in building leadership
and integrity. The conference (November 4-6) of high-level government
officials and military commanders will address some of the obstacles
that challenge the country in a time of transition. His trip is sponsored
by the non-profit Institute for Defense Analysis.
As with several former eastern European states, Romania
has encountered many potholes on the road to democracy. It would like
to join NATO; but in order to do so, its government, economy, and security
forces must meet standards set by the other members.
President Rokke will deliver the keynote address and lead
a series of seminars at the conference. “We’ll place particular
emphasis on imperatives for leadership, character, and integrity that
accompany Romania’s transition,” he says. Romania overthrew
its monstrous leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, on Christmas Day 1989, when
a provisional government, the Popular Salvation Front, fueled by a populist
uprising, executed the dictator and his equally hated wife. Since then,
the country has struggled to reform its economy, government, and military
forces.
President Rokke participated in a similar conference at
the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany
this summer, whose participants included several countries that hope
to become NATO members.
Rokke is a Harvard-educated political scientist and career
military officer who holds the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S.
Air Force. He served from 1994 to 1997 as president of the National
Defense University, the preeminent joint military educational institution
of the U.S. Department of Defense.
In a wide-ranging career, Rokke has served as an educator,
diplomat, and military intelligence officer in the United States and
various foreign nations. He has more than 30 years of professional experience
divided between college-level academic administration and teaching and
national security-related positions.
