International affairs

Nicholas Kristof, editorial columnist for The New York Times, discusses the North Korea crisis. He has covered North and South Korea off and on since 1986. He's served as the Times bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. He was co-recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his coverage of the Chinese crackdown on protesters at Tiananmen Square. In a column which appeared in the Times on February 4, 2003, he wrote, "The North Korean nuclear crisis is far more perilous than many people realize.

He specializes in defense and proliferation issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He directs the Endowment's Non-Proliferation Project. The Endowment has just published the new report Iraq: What Next?, which examines the weapons inspection process so far.

Her new book is A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness. It's about Eugene de Kock, the commanding officer of state-sanctioned apartheid death squads. Gobodo-Madikizela served as a psychologist on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and she spent many hours interviewing de Kock in prison, where he is serving a 212-year sentence for crimes against humanity. The book raises questions about the nature of evil and the limits of forgiveness.

Colombian senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. In a country controlled by drug cartels and corrupt government officials, she has spoken out against corruption. Her efforts have earned her and her family death threats. She travels with as many as a dozen body guards, and sent her children away. Betancourt grew up in Paris, the daughter of Colombia ambassador to Unesco. Her mother was a political activist. Betancourt book about her fight against corruption was a bestseller in France where it was first published.

Freelance journalist Stephen Dudley has been reporting from Colombia for five years for National Public Radio and Public Radio Internationals The World.

Journalist Owen Bennett Jones is the author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm. In the book, he examines the country's turbulent 55-year history. He'll discuss Pakistan's history and its current relationship with the United States. Jones lives in England and has written for The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Independent newspapers and the London Review of Books. He has also reported for BBC Radio and BBC World Television.

Investigative journalist Bob Woodward is assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. He's the author of eight nonfiction bestsellers, including All the President's Men and The Final Days — both on Watergate and President Nixon — and The Brethren, about the Supreme Court. For his newest book, Bush at War, he had behind-the-scenes access to the Bush administration in the first 100 days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Journalist Thomas Ricks covers the military for The Washington Post. Last week the Senate held hearings about Iraq. Ricks will discuss possible scenarios for a U.S. attempt to topple Saddam Hussein, and the likelihood of such an action. Ricks has also reported on U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Kuwait, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. Prior to joining The Post, Ricks wrote about the military for The Wall Street Journal. He's also the author of the novel A Soldier's Duty, about a U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan.

Photographer and reporter Scott Peterson of The Christian Science Monitor has been covering the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks. He is also the paper's Moscow bureau chief, and a former Middle East correspondent. Peterson recently attended a training camp for journalists to learn how to deal with kidnappers and gunmen. He was also a friend of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. Peterson is the author of the book Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda.

Robert Jay Lifton is professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Graduate School University Center and director of The Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at The City University of New York. He'll talk with us about the psychological impact of the threat of terrorism and the potential for nuclear war between Pakistan and India. Lifton specializes in the study of extremist religions and cults.