Former chief U.S. SALT negotiator and arms control director Ralph Earle II will be visiting NIU this week to discuss current global disarmament efforts.

Earle will address “Arms Control for the New Administration,” on Wednesday in Faraday Hall, room 144, at 8:45 p.m.

“Mr. Earle is an advocate of arms control in order to pursue national security,” Lawrence Finkelstein, NIU professor of political science and organizer of Earle’s visit, said.

The speech will include such topics as the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) and strategic arms control, Finkelstein said.

Earle served throughout most of former President Jimmy Carter’s administration as alternate chief U.S. negotiator and also as chief negotiator at the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union from 1977 through 1980.

His positions with the Carter administration included director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and principal arms control adviser to Carter, the National Security Council and former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie.

After serving in the army and pursuing a private career practicing law in Philadelphia, Earle was named principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs during the final year of the Lyndon Johnson administration. He also served as a defense adviser to the U.S. Mission to NATO in Europe.