Ambassador Patrick Duddy will give a talk on "Trade and Policies" on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 10 a.m. at the Myrtle Beach Education Center. The event, part of Coastal Carolina University's Great Decisions in Foreign Policy Lecture Series, is free and open to the public. A preceding coffee social begins at 9:30 a.m.

Duddy is the Semans International Visiting Professor in Duke University's Office of Global Strategy and Programs and serves as a senior adviser for global strategy. He is also director of Duke University's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He teaches in Duke's Fuqua School of Business and Sanford School of Public Policy.

Before joining the Duke faculty, Duddy served as a U.S. diplomat for nearly 30 years. At his retirement from the U.S. Foreign Service, he was one of the Department of State's most senior Latin American specialists with broad experience in trade, energy, public affairs and crisis management. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the U.S. ambassador to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for both President George Bush and President Barack Obama.

Great Decisions is a nationwide world affairs educational program offering discussion and debate on topics related to international affairs, national security and U.S. foreign policy. The Foreign Policy Association selects annual topics for the program, and CCU's Dyer Institute for Leadership and Public Policy offers four of the eight topics in a lecture series.

An online course in American Studies is available as a complement to the four-part lecture series. The remaining two lectures take place Feb. 18 and 25 at the same time and location.

CCU's Myrtle Beach Education Center is located at 900 79th Ave. N. For more information, contact Jacqueline Kurlowski, director of the Dyer Institute, at jamkurlow@coastal.edu or 843-349-6952.