AUBURN — The Maine Humanities Council, in partnership with the Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Relations, recently announced that the Auburn Public Library has received a World in Your Library grant to bring leading experts to Auburn to discuss critical issues affecting the foreign policy of the United States

The Auburn Public Library was one of only six libraries awarded this grant in 2014. A key local partner in obtaining this grant was the Senior College of Lewiston-Auburn. All of the grant-funded programs that the library will host are open to the public at no charge.

The first program, titled “Children and War: What Can the United States Do?”, will be on Wednesday, Sept. 17, starting at 6 p.m. Recent years have seen a growth in recognition of the plight of child soldiers, from the Kony 2012 campaign to concern about war in the Sudan. University of Maine at Farmington professor Scott Erb asks what the United States can do about this on the global scale.

On Sept. 24 at 6 p.m., Professor Erb returns for a presentation titled “Oil, Islam, and the Arab Spring.” Many Americans are perplexed by the changes taking place in the Mideast, the growth of political Islam and our dependency on oil. Yet these issues promise to become even more important in coming years, and will require a rethinking of U.S. foreign and economic policy. Erb will discuss what some of these new directions may be.

Concluding the foreign policy series, Brad Babson, director of the World Affairs Council of Maine, will present “Challenges and Opportunities on the Korean Peninsula” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2. This presentation provides an historical overview of the division of Korea and the changes that are creating new opportunities for engagement.

For more information on these or other programs, visit www.auburnpubliclibrary.org.