Home
America's Role in the World

America's Role in the World

Foreign policy begins at home

The Hamilton Lugar School’s sixth conference on America's Role in the World® paid tribute to Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, one of the school’s namesakes and an exemplar of placing principle over politics for more than 50 years.

The virtual, nonpartisan event—unique to higher education—took place Tuesday, December 1, and Wednesday, December 2 to correspond with the presidential transition.

Special guests included former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley, former Directors of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Lt. Gen. James Clapper, PBS Newshour anchor Judy Woodruff, and Rohingya Burmese activist Wai Wai Nu, who was presented with the inaugural Hamilton Lugar School Global Voices for Change Award.

Secretary Madeleine K. Albright, the country's first female Secretary of State, joined former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley and PBS Newshour anchor Judy Woodruff in a conversation on foreign policy challenges facing the next administration.

Lee Hamilton on America’s Role in the World

A conversation with former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes

11am, December 1

Rep. Hamilton speaks to Ben Rhodes, author of The New York Times bestseller “The World As It Is” and co-host of “Pod Save the World.” The wide-ranging interview will touch on the Congressman’s career and legacy, as well as the importance of political unity and public support and understanding to a successful and sustainable foreign policy.

Watch session 1

The Future of Human Rights & Equality in Myanmar

A conversation with Rohingya Burmese activist Wai Wai Nu and Amb. Lee Feinstein

11:45am, December 1

Wai Wai Nu, a fellow at the Cindy Simon Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, speaks to Lee Feinstein, founding dean of HLS, about the plight of the Rohingya and the international response, understanding Aung San Suu Kyi, and the ways the US 2020 election further marginalized ethnic communities. Amb. Feinstein will also present Ms. Nu with the Hamilton Lugar School Global Voices for Change Award.

Watch session 2

From Global Democratic Recession to Anti-Democratic Wave: What the United States Can & Should Do About It

Co-sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy

3pm, December 1

This conversation on the global anti-democratic wave features Stanford University's Larry Diamond, Michele Dunne from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Minxin Pei or Claremont McKenna College, and Alina Polyakova from the Center for European Policy Analysis. Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, will moderate.

Watch session 3

#ARW6 paid tribute to Rep. Lee H. Hamilton. See the full tribute video, as well as messages from luminaries wishing the Congressman a happy 90th birthday

The 9/11 Commission & the Next Four Years

Co-sponsored by The Wilson Center

9:15am, December 2

The Wilson Center's Jane Harman will introduce this discussion, which focuses on the outcomes of the 9/11 Commission, on which Rep. Lee Hamilton served vice chair. The New Yorker's Robin Wright will moderate this discussion with former Directors of National Intelligence Lt. Gen. James Clapper and Sen. Dan Coats, the Harvard Kennedy School's Juliette Kayyem, and Amb. Tim Roemer of APCO Worldwide.

Watch session 4

The Big Foreign Policy Challenges Facing the Next Administration

Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley, Judy Woodruff (moderator)

10:30am, December 2

Moderated by Ms. Woodruff, the bipartisan dialogue will focus on major foreign policy issues facing the next administration, including China’s rise and the future of US policy toward the Middle East and Russia, among others. Both Albright and Hadley are members of the United States Institute of Peace’s Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, which Rep. Hamilton co-chairs.

Panel co-sponsors: The Media School at Indiana University, Indiana University Center on Representative Government, Pickering & Rangel Fellows Book Club

Watch session 5

The Future of Climate Activism

Co-sponsored by IU's Environmental Resilience Institute

11:45am, December 2

Janet McCabe, Professor of Practice at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law and Director of the IU Environmental Resilience Institute, moderates a discussion with three leading climate activists: Future Coalition's Katie Eder, Catherine Coleman Flowers from the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, and Kiera O’Brien of Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends.

Watch session 6

Trust & Authenticity in Social Media

Co-sponsored by IU's Ethics, Values & Technology Project

2pm, December 2

IU Media School's Elaine Monaghan moderates a panel on what it takes to be a good digital citizen and what the next presidential administration can and should do about a media ecosystem awash with fake content, lies, and propaganda dressed up as facts. Paul Barrett of NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, Emily Bell of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, Fil Menczer of IU’s Observatory on Social Media, and Julie Posetti of The International Center for Journalists will discuss what you and policymakers can do, as well as their own leadership, practice, research, and teaching.

Watch session 7

Stay in the loop

Meet our guests

Learn more about our panelists and special guests.

Check out the schedule

See dates and times for conference panels.

Read the #ARW5 recap

Read the full recap of the fifth ARW, featuring Ambassadors William Burns and Marie Yovanovitch

We have the responsibility to ensure that our first impulse in foreign affairs is one of bipartisanship. And we have the responsibility to speak plainly when we disagree with the administration, but to avoid inflammatory rhetoric that is designed merely to create partisan advantage or to settle partisan scores.
Sen. Richard Lugar, during the Senate debate on the nomination of Condoleezza Rice to be US Secretary of State (2005)

Conference conveners

Amb. Lee Feinstein

Founding Dean, Hamilton Lugar School

Rep. Lee Hamilton

Distinguished Scholar and Namesake, Hamilton Lugar School

For more information

Questions? Email Janae Cummings, Director of Communications & Marketing.

Join us in creating the next generation of great global leaders

Contact the Hamilton Lugar School's Office of Development at (812) 856-7900 or hlsdev@indiana.edu, or make your gift to the Lee H. Hamilton and Richard G. Lugar Global Leadership Scholars Program today to support scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students.