Society & Culture

Former U.S. ambassador to Romania to share how the country has emerged as the new Italy

Athens, Ga. – Join former U.S. Ambassador to Romania James C. Rosapepe and his wife, award-winning journalist Sheilah Kast, as they discuss a country that has survived communism and is now a thriving democracy. The couple will present “Think Italy, Not Russia: Romania 20 Years After the Revolution” at the University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk Center on Oct. 14 at 12:30 p.m. in the Larry Walker Room (4th Floor) of Rusk Hall.

In December 1989, Romanians overthrew dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, ending more than 40 years of communist totalitarianism. Twenty years later, Romania has a democratic government with a successful economy and is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Rosapepe and Kast will share the story of Romania’s evolution touching on its unique history and communist past as well as its present day culture and economic focus.

Rosapepe represented the United States as ambassador to Romania from 1998 to 2001. He currently heads an investment firm active in the U.S. and Europe and serves on the boards of several fundsinvesting in Eastern Europe and other emergingmarkets. Additionally, he has written about economic and security issues inEurope inThe Wall Street Journal, The Baltimore Sun and the Harvard International Review.

Kast is a veteran journalist who has been featured on PBS, ABC, CNN and National Public Radio. For ABC, she reported on the collapse of communism from Moscow, Russia, and Tbilisi, Georgia, and covered current U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first trip to Eastern Europe. She currentlyhosts AARP’sweekly cable TV show Inside E Street as well as her own daily magazine show on WYPR, a Maryland public radio station.

This lecture is sponsored by Georgia Law’s Dean Rusk Center along with the Georgia Society for International and Comparative Law.