Meet Hamilton’s newest visiting professor, William Luers ’51. This chemistry and mathematics major was not only a world-beater on campus, but also a diplomat for 31 years. Abroad, he was U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1983-1986) and Venezuela (1978-1982) and held various positions in Italy, Germany, the Soviet Union, and in the Department of State, where he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe (1977-1978) and for Inter-American Affairs (1975-1977). On the home front, he was President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for 14 years and President of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) for 10 years. Now he is back on the Hill teaching “Talking with the Enemy,” a seminar about U.S. efforts to negotiate with adversaries.
So how does a degree in chemistry and mathematics prepare you for a career in diplomacy?
Didn’t. I never imagined that I would emerge from Hamilton as anything other than a chemical engineer, making a living in some little town in Illinois. Then everything changed. I began the move from math to philosophy in my last year at Hamilton. I took a couple of history courses from “Digger” Graves that changed me. I took French and did miserably.
But, under paternal pressure, I did go to graduate school in chemical engineering. Already prepared by Hamilton, I transferred within a semester to philosophy. I then spent five years in the Navy. I went to Japan during the Korean War and lived in Naples as a Shore Patrol Officer for two-and-a-half years. In Italy, you discover art, food and love––and the Italian language. Those components, if you learn them in Italy, you learn them well. That was my immersion into a broader world.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your 31 years of Foreign Service?
The biggest challenge in the Foreign Service was developing the capacity to empathize with the culture of another nation while still representing the interests of the U.S. In my case I had to seek a balance, for example, between learning about the Soviets and understanding why they do what they do and interpreting them knowledgeably to Washington policy makers. Your job is both to understand and interpret a foreign country while avoiding being so shaped by your understanding that you are not able to represent the interests of the United States. This is a chronic problem for American diplomats, and how you master that is the art of diplomacy.
In a New York Times retrospective of your tenure as President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you remark that you left the museum with a greater appreciation for ancient art: “It’s fascinating to me how much we can learn from the juxtapositions of the way different civilizations have dealt with the same subjects.” Do you apply that perspective to international relations? Or did your Foreign Service experience influence the way you think about art?
After spending a life working in the world, empathizing and learning about other cultures, I would walk through the Metropolitan Museum with a greater appreciation and interest in the artists—from Egypt, the Middle East, or Asia or Europe or Africa––who have dealt with the challenges of interpreting human form, animals, emotions, heroes and so many classical subjects that artists have pursued for the past 5,000 years.
When I went to work at UNA-USA for 10 years, it was an easy transition. The Met is the world of art, the world of images, and the UN is the world of voices and languages. I had developed this type of thinking about the world. Human beings try seriously to deal with their problems and their issues in a not dissimilar way. You find this in the UN in a political and verbal version and in the Met in a visual and creative version.
What, in your opinion, is the greatest foreign-policy test for the Obama administration?
The biggest challenge is to see whether the U.S. and other nations will find it possible to agree to joint actions today that can limit the irreparable damage to our globe from climate change within the next 40 to 50 years. Your generation and your children’s generation will be faced with a different and more troubled world. It will be affected by a shortage of water, by a shortage of agricultural produce, by more stressed living conditions for a population twice the size it is today.
And then I guess on the foreign policy front, there is the challenge of establishing a coherent relationship with China for the long term, and developing a strategy for dealing with Islamic-Western misunderstandings and, indeed, conflicts.
Any tips for Hamilton students preparing for careers in foreign affairs?
You have to learn a foreign language, and I bet it should be an Asian language. As the United States becomes more and more of a partner and not the manager of the world, we have to know about foreign cultures, we have to know more languages, and we have to be committed to an understanding of what globalization means for us. And I don’t see that happening. I wish there were more young people who were committed to learning about other cultures and nations outside of the United States. Learning about other cultures also helps you understand your own country.
