Author Jonathan Schell spoke to an audience of about 250 North Shore residents in Alice Millar Chapel on Saturday afternoon, warning them about the United States’ current policy of empire building and intimidation in foreign affairs.

“I feel our country is headed down a dangerous path,” Schell said in a speech sponsored by the North Suburban Peace Initiative, an Evanston-based group advocating nuclear disarmament. He cited as examples the war with Iraq and conflicts over nuclear weapons with both North Korea and Iran.

The Pulitzer Prize-nominated author said an unprecedented concentration of power in the White House and the U.S. military is leading the country down this path.

“The degree of freedom the White House uses to exercise power is enabled by a breakdown of the balance of powers,” Schell said. He gave congressional approval of presidential wartime powers as an example of this collapse.

Schell said the Bush administration is using technology to try to force the compliance of other countries. “The United States is telling countries, ‘You can’t have nuclear weapons,'” said Schell. “Then they’re saying ‘We can and will use them first.'”

Instead of using intimidation to force compliance, Schell suggested that the United States adopt peaceful political solutions such as treaties and cooperative measures with other countries.