BOONE—A talk by NPR senior foreign correspondent Anne Garrels scheduled for March 23 at Appalachian State University has been canceled. Garrels has been called away on an assignment.

Speaking on campus in her place is CNN security analyst Peter Bergen. His talk begins at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Admission is free.

Bergen’s talk is titled “Obama’s War: Global Terrorism and the Urgency for a Stable Afghanistan.” His talk is presented by the University Forum’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

Bergen is a print and television journalist; a Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C., where he co-directs the Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative; a research fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security; and CNN’s national security analyst. In 2008 he was an adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also has worked as an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Bergen is the last person to have personally interviewed Osama bin Laden, which he did as a producer for CNN in 1997.  He is a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Preparedness Group; a Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C., and a research fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security.  He works as CNN’s terrorism analyst, and is the author of “Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Bin Laden,” a New York Times best-seller and which has been translated into 18 languages.  A documentary based on the book was nominated for an Emmy.

Bergen has traveled repeatedly to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to report on bin Laden and al Qaeda. His most recent book is “The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader.” The book was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2006 by The Washington Post. CNN produced a two-hour documentary “In the Footsteps of bin Laden” based on the book. The documentary was nominated for an Emmy.

Bergen has been a correspondent and producer for CNN and previously worked for ABC News.   He has an MA in modern history from New College, Oxford University.

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