On the future of diplomacy

What is the future of American diplomacy? On Thursday, March 5 and Friday, March 6, the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies will bring diplomats, journalists, politicians, and scholars to the IU Bloomington campus to debate this and other questions and engage with globally-minded students.

The fifth annual conference will feature an diversity of guests, including former Ambassador William J. Burns, Senator Todd Young, Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch, The New Yorker's Susan Glasser, and 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker.

All conference events will take place at the Hamilton Lugar School's Shreve Auditorium. However, the Richard G. Lugar Award presentation will take place on Friday, March 6 at 11:45am at the IU Auditorium (doors open at 10:45am).

Missed the conference?

Don't worry. You can watch the conference sessions here.

ARW Student Editorial Contest winner

Read Kira Axsiom's winning piece, "When the US stands for justice for all, we will not have to break the rules."

A student experience

Created with the student experience in mind, America's Role in the World addresses major foreign policy challenges with an eye toward a deeper understanding of how they affect and are affected by domestic developments. A lot of people ask us what the conference is like for Hamilton Lugar School students, and the answer is simple: our students are part of the action.

See how

Tyler Combs

A new feature to the Hamilton Lugar School's annual America's Role in the World® conference was the student editorial writing contest. Open to all IU Bloomington students, the contest was judged by Carol Giacomo, a New York Times editorial board member who covers foreign and defense policy. Tyler Combs won the contest with his piece, "For America to Save the Liberal World Order, We Must Admit that We Broke It."

2020 keynote

Ambassador William J. Burns—president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States—will headline the 2020 conference.

Burns retired from the US Foreign Service in 2014 after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, Career Ambassador, and is the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary of State.

His recent book, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal, recounts some of the seminal moments of his career, giving readers a rare inside look at American diplomacy in action.

Conference sessions

ARW conference sessions 1–6 will take place at the Hamilton Lugar School's Shreve Auditorium (355 N. Jordan Avenue). The presentation of the Richard G. Lugar Award will take place at the IU Auditorium (1211 E. 7th St) on Friday, March 6 at 11:45am (doors will open at 10:45am).

Thursday, March 5

9:30-9:45amWelcome

Amb. Lee Feinstein, Founding dean, IU Hamilton Lugar School
9:45–11amSession 1: Climate Change and the American Public

Isabella Fallahi, Youth Climate Strike
Lee Gunn, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Janet McCabe, IU Environmental Resilience Institute
Jessica O’Reilly, IU Hamilton Lugar School
Emily Atkin moderator, HEATED
11–11:15amBreak
11:15am–12:30pmSession 2: National Security Challenges in the 2020s

Andrew Bell, IU Hamilton Lugar School
Kelly Magsamen, Center for American Progress
Nicholas Rasmussen, McCain Institute
Frank Rose, Brookings Institution
Lara Jakes moderator, The New York Times
12:30–12:45pmBreak
12:45–2:15pmStudent Engagement Lunch hosted by the HLS Global Student 7
Neal Marshall Center Grand Hall
2:30–3:45pmSession 3: US-China Relations

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Axios
Wendy Leutert, IU Hamilton Lugar School
Adam Liff, IU Hamilton Lugar School
Daniel Twining, International Republican Institute
John Yasuda moderator, IU Hamilton Lugar School
3:45–4pmBreak
4–5:15pmSession 4: The Foreign Policy Inbox
Introduction by Rep. Lee H. Hamilton

Ambassador William J. Burns, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speaks with Susan Glasser, writer at The New Yorker and global affairs analyst at CNN.

Friday, March 6

9–9:45amSession 5: Richard G. Lugar Lecture

Sen. Todd Young gives remarks followed by a moderated conversation with John Stehr, Anchor Emeritus at WTHR.
10–11:15amSession 6: Presidential Elections and US Foreign Policy

Whit Ayres, North Star Opinion Research
Geoffrey Garin, Hart Research Associates
Allison Stanger, Middlebury College
Bill Whitaker, CBS 60 Minutes
Marie Harf moderator, Fox News
11:45am–1pmSession 7: Richard G. Lugar Award presentation

Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, former US Ambassador to Ukraine, speaks with Ambassador Lee Feinstein and takes questions from students.

Conference chairs

Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (ret.)
Amb. Lee Feinstein (ret.)