Richard Lugar — 2013 Whittington Lecture

Senator Lugar has distinguished himself as one of America’s foremost foreign policy statesmen through groundbreaking bipartisan legislation and diplomatic leadership. He co-authored the landmark Nunn-Lugar Act with Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn, creating the Cooperative Threat Reduction program that has secured and dismantled thousands of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons throughout the former Soviet Union. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1985-1987 and 2003-2007, Lugar has championed nuclear non-proliferation initiatives while leading efforts to end U.S. support for South Africa’s apartheid regime and combat electoral fraud in the Philippines. His pragmatic approach to diplomacy has made him a trusted voice on global security issues.

For the 2013 Whittington Lecture, he spoke on the partisan strife in Congress, which he believes will continue unless members from each party step up to catalyze change.