The former commander in chief of the U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Eugene Habiger, will discuss the role of nuclear weapons in the 21st century Feb. 26 at 3:30 p.m. in room 150 of the Student Learning Center.
Habiger has often drawn attention to nuclear dangers remaining in the wake of the Cold War.
“When the war ended, the loser didn’t really lose. We still had this massive military might on both sides staring each other in the face,” Habiger said in a 60 Minutes interview. “The fact that we have not been able to get down to lower and lower levels of nuclear weapons is troubling to me.”
Habiger earned his undergraduate degree in psychology at UGA in 1963. He went on to a career in the U.S. Air Force that culminated in his appointment as commander in chief of U.S. Strategic Command at Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska. The command has responsibility for all U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy strategic nuclear forces supporting the national security objective of strategic deterrence.
Habiger retired from the military in 1998 and began a second career as a public administrator, first with the U.S. Department of Energy and later as president of the San Antonio Water System, his current position. He also has become a public advocate for reducing the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons. He is a member of the board of directors of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit organization founded by Ted Turner and former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn whose mission is to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
