UCI professor to discuss private security effects

Using private security instead of military force and its effect in developing democratic countries will be the topic at the first of four School of Social Sciences Dinner Club events at UC Irvine.

The talk will open with Deborah Avant, a UCI director of international studies and political science professor who has been quoted widely in the media lately regarding the controversy surrounding Blackwater USA, a security company rocked by allegations that its personnel shot killed Iraqi civilians.

The first dinner is at 6 p.m. Oct. 18 in the university club library on campus and is free to the public.

— Joseph Serna