Ambassador Chase Untermeyer, the founding chairman of the Qatar-America Institute, will address “The Middle East Security Situation” during a presentation to the Alabama World Affairs Council on Feb. 11 at Troy University’s Montgomery Campus.

The event, which will take place in the Gold Room in Whitley Hall at Troy University’s Montgomery Campus, will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by the presentation, which is free to members of the Alabama World Affairs Council and $20 for guests. To register for the event, visit www.alwac.org/events.

The Qatar-America Institute seeks to increase understanding of the important Qatari-American relationship in security, education, and energy.

Untermeyer served as the United States Ambassador to Qatar from 2004 to 2007, on appointment of President George W. Bush. A 1968 graduate of Harvard College with honors in government, he served during the Vietnam War as an officer in the United States Navy aboard a destroyer in the Western Pacific and as aide to the commander of U.S. naval forces in the Philippines.

Upon his return to Texas, Ambassador Untermeyer was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and a member of the Texas House of Representatives. He left the Legislature in 1981 to go to Washington as executive assistant to then-Vice President Bush.

Three years later, President Ronald Reagan appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower & Reserve Affairs. When George Bush became president in 1989, Untermeyer returned to the White House as Director of Presidential Personnel and, in 1991, was appointed Director of the Voice of America.

Ambassador Untermeyer is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of three volumes of diary-based memoirs of the Reagan and first Bush administrations.

The Alabama World Affairs Council sponsors lectures and programs on current and recent events of national and international interest throughout the year with the aim to increase individuals’ knowledge of world affairs and how they impact the United States. The Council also serves as a platform to showcase some of the world-class faculty at Maxwell Air Force Base’s Air University. The Council has partnered with Troy University, Alabama’s International University, bringing all Council events to the University’s Montgomery Campus.