HANOVER - Dartmouth College's Leading Voices lecture series this summer features a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a retired Navy admiral, a global health leader, a climate change diplomat, a former Defense Department official and a noted economist.

The series, “Leading Voice in U.S. Foreign Policy,” begins Friday with the talk, “Global Health and Health Assistance 2012-”by physician Kevin De Cock.

It will continue July 5 with “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women All Over the World,” by New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof and July 19 with “Shifting Sands: U.S. Interests and Policy in the Middle East,” by retired Navy Admiral William Fallon.

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern is to talk on Aug. 2.

Former Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III is scheduled to speak Aug. 9, and economist and Johns Hopkins University professor Anne Krueger will talk on Aug. 16.

The series has been matched with a class for sophomores who spend the summer term at Dartmouth titled, “America and the World: Contemporary Issues in U.S. Foreign Policy.”

The class is taught by Associate Professor of Government Benjamin Valentino, who expects about 40 students to enroll.

“My hope is that students will gain a better appreciation of the major international issues facing America today and the tough choices and trade-offs that America faces in dealing with them,” Valentino said in a press release.

The class aims to address the full array of American foreign policy debates, from climate change, to international economics, to military intervention.

“I hope students begin to understand how many ways the United States is involved in the affairs of other countries and how much what happens in the rest of the world affects our lives here at home,” Valentino said. “Given the upcoming presidential elections, in which foreign policy is likely to be a major focus of the debates … this summer seemed like the perfect time for a course on foreign policy.”

Members of the community, who are invited to the public lecture series, should also benefit from the global focus, Valentino said.

All lectures are planned to be held in the Hopkins Center's Moore Theater at 4 p.m., except Kristof's talk, which is to be held in Spaulding Auditorium, also in the Hopkins Center.

mpierce@newstote.com