Athens, Ga. – Lee Hamilton, the co-chair of the Iraq Study Group and former vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission, will deliver the University of Georgia School of Law’s 102nd Sibley Lecture March 27 at 2:30 p.m. in the UGA Chapel. Hamilton’s talk, titled “A Balanced View of American Power,” will address how the United States can use its power around the world to pragmatically protect the country’s interests and advance its values.
Former Ambassador and Congressman C. Donald Johnson, who now directs the Dean Rusk Center at the law school, said it is important for Washington policymakers to share their perspectives beyond the beltway. “To have someone like Lee Hamilton come to the University of Georgia campus to give his thoughts on our country’s international policies is particularly valuable at this time. He is a senior statesman, highly respected on both sides of the political aisle, who can bring valuable perspectives on how America is viewed globally and offer keen insight on America’s actions abroad,” Johnson said. “We are delighted that he will deliver this year’s Sibley Lecture, which will help to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Dean Rusk Center.”
Hamilton is currently president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He represented Indiana’s 9th Congressional District for 34 years, beginning in January 1965. While in office, he served as chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, the Joint Economic Committee and the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress.
In early 2006, Hamilton was named co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, which was charged with providing a forward looking, bi-partisan assessment of the situation in Iraq and was created at the urging of Congress. Previously, he served as vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission and co-chaired the 9/11 Public Discourse Project to monitor the implementation of the commission’s recommendations.
Hamilton is a graduate of DePauw University and the Indiana University School of Law. He is the author of A Creative Tension – The Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress; How Congress Works and Why You Should Care and co-author of Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Established in 1964 by the Charles Loridans Foundation of Atlanta, the Sibley Lecture Series honors the late John A. Sibley, a 1911 graduate of Georgia Law. This year’s lecture will help to celebrate the establishment of the Dean Rusk Center – International, Comparative and Graduate Legal Studies in 1977. The center was created to expand the scope of research, teaching, and service at the University of Georgia School of Law into the evolving international dimensions of law. It is named after former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who taught at the law school for nearly 25 years.
