Former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar to Deliver Leopold Lecture

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Former U.S. Senator Richard D. Lugar will deliver the 24th annual Richard W. Leopold Lecture Wednesday, Nov. 13, at Northwestern University.

Sen. Lugar, who represented Indiana in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2013, will speak at 7:30 p.m. on “Defining U.S. Direction on Foreign Relations” in Harris Hall Auditorium, 1881 Sheridan Road, on the Evanston campus. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public, the lecture will be followed by a reception in the nearby Leopold Room in Harris Hall.

Sen. Lugar, who served on the Senate’s foreign relations and agriculture committees, this year established The Lugar Center, with the aim of educating the public, policy makers and future leaders on critical issues facing the nation. The center’s focus is on solutions, not positions.

Lugar was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee from 1985 to 1987 and, again, from 2003 to 2007. He is probably best known for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threats Reduction program that led to dismantling and destroying the nuclear weapons of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Established in 1990 by the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the Leopold Lecture honors eminent diplomatic historian and dedicated Northwestern teacher Richard W. Leopold, the University’s William Smith Mason Professor of History Emeritus. A former president of the Organization of American Historians and author of books, articles and reviews, Leopold served on numerous government committees concerned with the preservation of historical data about foreign policy.

Past Leopold lecturers include Russ Feingold, David Gergen, Seymour Hersh, Jane Mayer, George McGovern and Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

For further information about the 2013 Leopold Lecture, call Estelle Ure at (847) 467-3005, visit Weinberg online or email wcas-events@northwestern.edu.