You are cordially invited to a lecture on the topic of
National Security vs. Privacy
with
John Metelski
President, Bridge The Divide Foundation
Thursday, November 7
4:30 PM
The Institute of World Politics
1521 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Please RSVP to kbridges@iwp.edu.
Much has been written in the press recently about government programs that track and record an individual’s electronic communications, both here and abroad. The intelligence community defends these programs as necessary for national security; others assert they violate the individual’s right to privacy.
This presentation will briefly examine the historical tensions which have ever been present between the rights of the group vs the rights of the individual and how various forms of government have sought to address this tension with an eye toward self-preservation. We will examine the “operative factors” affecting how these systems have (or have not) changed to adapt to this tension, including how our system of Democracy is structured to handle this issue. We will then discuss how the present situation could be addressed and evaluate the path US democracy offers to resolve this tension.
John Metelski is a retired Army LtCol. He has an engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a law degree from Georgetown. He worked for the National Security Council during the time of the Watergate scandals of the ’70s. He subsequently was counsel to and later founder of a number of businesses related to wireless telecommunications.