From Turkmenistan to Tajikistan, Mike Shuster has traveled the world for over a quarter of century as a correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), covering the reunification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union. A correspondent since 1994, Mr. Shuster will visit Phillips Academy as the John H. Hosch III lecturer, and as a member of the 2006 Andover Symposium entitled “The Challenges of Globalization,” a new year-long education program. He will present “Covering the Axis of Evil: Intelligence, Nuclear Proliferation, and the Public’s Need to Know” on Friday, March 31 in Kemper Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. Mr. Shuster will focus on his recent time spent reporting in Iraq, Iran, and Korea. He aims to raise questions about journalism, and to share his thoughts on how to extract news from some of the world’s most troubled areas. Since 1994, Mr. Schuster has reported from Iraq, Iran, Korea, Israel, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, the Congo, and the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. He often reports on difficult subjects such as weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Pacific Rim. Mr. Shuster said, “Reporting in the Middle East can be very difficult. I have been to a lot of dangerous places where the quality of life is poor. Sometimes you have to go to places where there are hostile governments which keep close track of reporters. Then there is also the matter of a foreign culture, foreign language, and other conflicts that may be going on in the area.” “The topics of intelligence, nuclear proliferation, and public’s need to know are all related. I meant to lump them together. We have faced a number of situations in recent years where the U.S. has had to rely on intelligence to decide on the proliferation of nuclear weapons and what to do about them. In one of the cases we have gone to war on the case of faulty intelligence, which the public needed to know about. All of these topics are important for students to know about,” he continued. In 1970, Mr. Shuster began his career in journalism as a freelance foreign affairs reporter in Africa. A decade later, NPR welcomed him as freelance reporter covering business and economic issues. Mr. Shuster then became editor of NPR’s “All Things Considered
