 My personal definition of moral and morality can be found within the following ideas Believing in something transcendent of oneself To be unselfish and to nurture empathy the pursuit of the common good fairness and kindness a Gap it love Translated into the well-being of the other Confucianism's learning to be human The powerful protecting of the weak a compassionate appetite for social justice we're living in turbulent times and The global order is creaking under the weight of myriad challenges from climate change to militant extremism from migration to genocide and mass atrocities from Populism to terrorism None of these challenges can be met successfully Without moral global leadership. I think new values as well as new strategies are needed to meet these forces and to close the gaps American foreign policy should be radically Reconstructed by integrating a true grasp of reality complexity with a perpetual infusion of moral imagination Jonathan Moore worked over a span of 50 years in humanitarian action public service and education Jonathan Moore served six presidents primarily the state defense and justice departments at the United Nations He became the first full-time director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy school of government at Harvard and he was involved in establishing the school's Schoenstein Center on media politics and public policy Jonathan a man of tremendous integrity a man of moral convictions a man of Vibrancy and humility a man dedicated to the most critical issues of our time in complex ways a man who embraced that complexity and the man who loved people he Was always very thoughtful wise And represented real moral values. He was a person of great integrity and He brought a moral aspect to just about everything that he thought about Jonathan was an inquisitive Intellectual who based his judgments on question after question but with morality and ethics as the guiding light Are we nurturing the better angels of our nature as we would like to think our Qualities of empathy and altruism integrated in our public policies as much as they used to be or enough to deal with the dilemmas that we face The yearning and the perseverance for true well-being for all must eventually take hold He was an individual that led by example showed much virtue and such caring and Very very personable in his love and commitment for peace throughout the world He assisted United Nations and other relief programs serving Afghanistan Cambodia Croatia Haiti Kosovo Rwanda Samaya and Sri Lanka At the United Nations he helped conceive what became his coordinator for humanitarian affairs He I think was a real gentle man in the Best version of that word He was kind. He was bright. He was intelligent He But he was not overly assertive or aggressive. He listened to people He Considered things pretty carefully was measured in his response and usually very wise in what he said He would ask so many questions He forced you to think about these complexities in trying to solve problems And that's the beauty of Jonathan Moore How do scholarship and theory apply to policy and action and how can the two realms reinforce each other? I think he really believed in the Institute for Global Leadership and its mission He got it some people don't and really recognize its value in combining intellectual rigor with practical field experience to have students confront real issues in the field and recognize that Complex issues usually don't have simple answers They have complex answers and it's best to understand what you're doing before you try to figure out a solution Before being fully aware of it. I think I was fascinated by international affairs and cross-cultural experience. I Was drawn to the idea of public service. I wanted adventure Excitement and if not to make the world a better place to understand it better IGL as experiential learning program Really tries to encourage our students to grasp the world to go out and to experience What learning is all about in the field and that was Jonathan's big message the thousands of students who went on all sorts of immersive education and opportunities throughout the globe have Jonathan to thank for that because he gave the kinds of credibility and vice Insight and contacts that enabled us to send them safely and prepare it into the world. I Came to believe that working in policy jobs at various headquarters had to be severely countered with work in the field on the ground because the policy priesthood can take on a life of its own drifting from its purposes and because Headquarters is not a good place from which to understand the truth and the field is a better place to find it as US ambassador to the United Nations and representative to its economic and social council He led negotiations against South African apartheid and global drift net fishing and efforts to support African economic development as US coordinator and ambassador at large for refugees He was the principal official directing assistant Resettlement and repatriation programs worldwide. We live in a world now where we think of ourselves Jonathan taught us that it's really essential to think not only of ourselves, but to reach out to all those around us The second key requisite which emerges is the relationship between morality and pragmatism One is more abstract the other is more proximate Our instinct is to keep each from corrupting the other and we perceive risk and difficulty in conceiving and managing a Synthesis which could be benefit both a prodigiously delicate balance I've already asserted that a good policy needs more moral content that effective strategies have a better chance if they are less segregated from moral values But the other side is perhaps more profoundly true without application the moral imperatives have no active life They remain pristine uncorrupted by the nasty Instrumental pressures of being put into practice and therefore essentially in ought worthless to be moral is to be operational Jonathan alternated between serving in government and in academia He believed that being an in-and-outer as he put it was really important to understand the common interest and To see how various pieces of the big picture come together Public service is an exalted calling. You can do it anywhere at any level its inherent devotion generates energy and carries the spirit Jonathan was a Man of civic virtue. He was somebody who understood that Non-partisanship was essential that public service was meant to live up to the highest ideals of integrity and Decency I've been curious for a long time about what I felt to be a gap between our a sensible approval of general principles and norms Concerning moral philosophy spiritual values political ideals on the one end and on the other the relative absence Call it insufficient presence of it in our behavior in this case has revealed in our foreign relations The two realms seem to be uncomfortable with each other Tolerant but wary of excessive intimacy each more secure and a separateness which doesn't threaten the purity of Philosophical or the reality of the practical Why this void exists is not entirely a mystery But my sense of the reasons for it and awareness of the differences of opinions surrounding it have not calmed my discomfort I have a stubborn belief that various manifestations of flawed strategy and incompetent performance Internationally could benefit from a greater moral input Jonathan was so instrumental in really promoting Morality and morale being a faculty which needed to be developed in our leaders our future leaders our global leaders We're at odds with each other at loose ends Yet we prefer to settle our differences through polar combat in narrow negative terms Which divide divert and obstruct us from common purpose? We lack a national ethos a consensus about our collective effort and our commitment to public good Jonathan in many ways was the true north of the board He was somebody that I relied upon as a seer has a mentor as a guy that I could trust Without any doubt. He was a tremendous critic and he suffered no fools an Absolutist or fundamentalist approach applying moral values and dealing with real challenges will not work Intolerant extremism or rigid dogma can be destructive to the purpose There are too many moral imperatives and to create a complexity in the environment of need and action One of the things that I appreciated is that although we are of somewhat different political views He being a Republican for most of his life and me a Democrat We nevertheless shared a common belief in the importance of justice telling the truth Being honest. We need tolerance Flexibility compromise in the search for common ground in our public discourse and public policy when we started the process of putting the IGL in the forefront of reconciliation within Iraq I used Jonathan continually and he challenged me as we went through the many many iterations of stop starts And he Was always my go-to person Jonathan knew the issues he admired complexity and he was fearless The material tasks require the moral ally foreign policy need not forsake altruism Even as it must be disciplined and tough-minded There is an absolutely Imperative need for ethics and morality to be incorporated into every complex decision that has made on the global arena We will not achieve a greater national cohesion and be fully competent for dealing with urgent challenges Without more dedicated participation by our full pluralism That would be consistent with our founding principle of the sovereignty of the people that our public institutions and leaders Require that citizenry to inspire and instruct them and hold them accountable Can the people lead the leaders? our students Could take away the fact that one has to have an open mind the curiosity The intellect the morality the ethics and then the leadership to tackle these different problems There are many dilemmas across wide-ranging areas of policy and geography In order to deal with them soul-wrenching choices must be made and nerve-rattling compromises must be attempted Moral certainty isn't the way to do this whereas moral search is and in that very distinction There is necessity for adaptation Flexibility respect and risk to get a result probably somewhere in the middle Which doesn't fully satisfy anyone but which may be a way to begin to get out of trouble and head towards a viable future the Institute for global leadership has established the Jonathan Moore Memorial Lecture in moral global leadership in memory of a distinguished public servant who over 50 years made enormous contributions to human security both Nationally and internationally we also hope that the lectures will shape public discourse and influence both policy and practice on a range of Consequential issues Encouraging a more integrated relationship between the moral and the political depends upon Simultaneously avoiding both abstract and absolute pronouncements and invigorating people to discover their own moral compass to determine their own moral prescriptions We thought it would be a great honor to be able to memorialize his contributions to the board by establishing a lecture series in his name based around the theory and Issues that were most important to him and that was really morality and leadership, I think it's important to recognize Jonathan and His incredible Contributions as a public servant over many years and his role in providing guidance to the Institute I think it was a way for us to honor and respect him Jonathan to me was one of the few servants of the government That did not Want something from the government He wanted to do it And be part of helping humanity Because it was the right thing to do and that's the way Jonathan lived his life. We all miss him I Kept showing up in places that kept turning out to be educational and rewarding This is what life is supposed to be isn't it an adventure Katie I'm so sorry that I am out of the area along with my wife We most we both wanted to be here with you For the award the Joanne and Robert Benetton public diplomacy award This special award means more than all the other awards that we have given Because he's part of our family and will always be part of our family and we Really feel very passionate that this is should have been the first award and probably the last award within the awards For all the work that he's done in humanity and thank you very much Katie for allowing him To do all the work that he did to as many many years of government service. Thank you again President and mrs. Monaco Ambassador power members and friends of the More family ladies and gentlemen as we've seen and heard in the video Jonathan Moore was a distinguished public servant and academic Who used his remarkable talents to improve the human condition during a career spanning 50 years? He served six presidents in the state defense and justice departments and at the United Nations Where diplomacy is the very essence of the institution? At the United Nations he helped conceive what became its coordinator for humanitarian affairs He became the first full director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and Was involved in establishing The schools Shorenston Center on media Politics and public policy Jonathan Moore was an effective diplomat who built relationships built and based on trust and respect Trust is the oil that lubricates international relationships It takes time to develop and is intensely personal He explained and promoted the national interest, but never Lost sight of the common interest Jonathan understood that we need moral global leadership to build a world of order and justice There can be no global order without global justice and no global justice without global order and An order informed by justice is one that is most likely to be deemed legitimate and Therefore most likely to endure Jonathan Moore served for ten years on the external advisory board of the Institute for Global Leadership With Characteristic dedication Today the Institute also recognizes his sterling contributions to diplomacy and Humanitarian action the Robert and Joe and Bendon's in public diplomacy award posthumously We do so with immense and abiding gratitude It couldn't be said of him in the words of the poet Alexander Pope He was a friend of truth of Soul sincere in action faithful and in honor clear It is with great pleasure that I invite Jonathan's daughter Jennifer Moore Professor of law at the University of Mexico School of Law to accept the award And I also dies president Monaco and mrs. Mono to join me on the stage to present the award Good evening ladies and gentlemen My name is Maria Figaro a coop chew and I'm pleased to be here as chair of the advisory board of IGL But also a very proud epic alumni from the class of 1993 Imagine that I saw a bunch of like 20s up there. It's crazy And on behalf of everyone here tonight I'm so pleased to have the honor to introduce ambassador Samantha power as many of you have heard IGL is much more than a research center and a place committed to global inquiry and experiential a learning For the past 34 years Generations of IGL students have flourished Thanks very much in part to the generosity and commitment of an incredible global network as You've just heard Ambassador Moore was one of those members of this family He was much much beloved member a generous compassionate person someone who always engaged who took time for mentorship Not just of students but also of faculty and as a board member He kept the Institute very grounded in some of our core beliefs the beliefs that kind of continue to guide our mission One of these is that there is no substitute for bearing witness Get close as ambassador power has said in some of her speeches allow students to get out of the classroom and into the world and Experience what is one of the most powerful things that we can do Understanding the different realities of our world challenging our own mindsets and being brave Sometimes to confront very difficult situations But in doing so being able to create leaders with humility and compassion of which we need many more of in this world Another critical value of the Institute that we hold dear is the responsibility to give voice and in all that we do Whatever our field or whatever our background there is always a Group of people that is shunned Misinterpreted unheard and we all have a responsibility to break this silence and make sure those voices are heard in whatever way possible We hope that this annual lecture will be a moment of reflection and of celebration Inspired by the incredible life that you just saw on the video before you and on the family that is here and as well And what better way to honor him than to turn to one of his students and one of his mentees and one of his most treasured friends someone who now inspires us in her own right I Remember very clearly the day that I first met ambassador power as a new international relations graduate I had landed my dream job at the council on foreign relations And my days were filled with listening to a procession of foreign policy luminaries debating issues over lunch and Park Avenue in New York I was in awe of the people around me just incredible names that I had seen in books and and lectures But I was also very aware of the limitations of such an elite institution Foreign affairs was changing very quickly new actors new issues and CFR members were very aware of this and Then Samantha power walked in I Can't remember the topic of her first speech, but I do remember how it felt her message had incredible passion incredible energy I think she may have pounded on the lectern a few times And she certainly was telling of room full of people twice her age that it just wasn't good enough She told stories that could only be voiced by someone who had born witness refugees genocide brutality and what were we gonna do about it as a Journalist who had covered the issues one family at a time the strength and moral conviction of what she said that night Cut through the foreign policy blather and I was in awe the room felt a jolt Now this is what a foreign policy rock star looks like I thought and she's a woman hallelujah Ambassador power has gone on to hold an incredible number of other roles throughout her life And we look forward to many more a teacher a mother an advocate a government official a Pulitzer Prize winning author She has all these things and what I have always admired about her is that she has never shyed from bearing witness and from using her voice To inform to cajole and to push So when it was announced that she would become the US ambassador to the United Nations for the Obama administration It made perfect sense to me in a place where negotiations on peace and security can sometimes resemble a high stakes poker game We have been very very lucky to have a person of ambassador powers integrity and skill at the table bearing witness and giving voice We are fortunate that at least for a little while She's just down the road and she's taken a bit of time off to produce an incredible piece of work it's given her time to reflect and to weave a personal narrative with a geopolitical one a very rare and incredible look at a person and at a Seat of power that we don't often get a sense to to to look at through her eyes We are seeing new perspectives and are gaining a deeper understanding of the world And I would encourage you very much to take a look at her work We are deeply grateful for all that she's done We are happy that she is with us tonight to share some of her reflections and also to a pay tribute to a person That she knows and loves quite dearly. I'm sure ambassador more is smiling tonight. Thank you ambassador Thank you so much. This is a tremendous honor Maria Thank you for the the fire in your remarks. You don't often get fire in an introduction. So thank you Thank you, mr. President. We call them President Monaco And Mrs. Monaco remind me your first name Zoe Zoya hopeless. I should have looked into that beforehand. Sorry. Zoya. Thank you so much for being here and for your leadership as well Professor Williams, thank you for all you do here for your students and to everyone at the Institute for global leadership Thank you to the people in the the First Rose here who were Jonathan's beloved friends and family members and colleagues It's wonderful. It's the honor of a lifetime Very moving Lesson lesson number one if you're gonna cry make sure your husband is here So he starts clapping at the minute That's the first lesson of the education of an idealist just So I'm so deeply touched to inaugurate this lecture It's gonna get easier I promise having Katie and Charlie and Jenny in the audience Parts of Jonathan The fuel and the foundation for all of the things you saw in the video It just just I'm so touched to be to be part of this so Jonathan was a mentor of mine a friend of mine read about him in Glorious detail in the the book that I've just done the education of an idealist because he was a huge Part of my education as was Katie as was Jenny's work also from afar on refugees and immigration and asylum I got to know Jonathan when I was fresh out of college. So thank you all to the young people for being here I was older than you but not that much older than you when I got to meet this Incredible person this practitioner this Amateur moral philosopher Amateur theologian I think as well at times When I first met him at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace He was wearing a maroon sweater a light green Oxford shirt underneath and brown corduroy's I Very rarely saw him wearing anything else other than those But I was reminded in the video that his kind of fantasy island Beige suit was also a staple So I think I know Katie will tell us he sort of alternated But the one constant was in my memory at least was that his Rockport shoes were always Tied up with duct tape silver duct tape so Just so you know even if you achieve as much as Jonathan Moore achieved Well, maybe it's not even even if you maybe it's one of the reasons he achieved as much as he did in his life Which was long but too short Is his focus was on what mattered? And that meant never taking the time to go get a new pair of shoes when duct tape would do Jonathan and Katie welcomed me into their various homes in Washington DC initially Then in Weston and at the Cape Together and separately they gave me a quality of attention that was extraordinary I'm a great writer once said that he found himself falling in love with a different face Every day falling in love with a different face no matter where he went in the world Jonathan saw Everyone around him. He saw people He saw in people and Katie does the the same Jonathan and Katie Trek all the way to a remote village in the west of Ireland For my wedding to Cass Sunstein in 2008 I think it's safe to say it was that my wedding to anyone anywhere was not something they saw coming And they were instrumental in you know coaching me through the years through various crises but we Arrived of course a few days earlier than the others in the wedding party and it was a surprise given how early we were arriving When we got to the baggage claim we saw Katie and Jonathan And they were there because they were gonna see friends before the the festivities began And I just I just thought this is the most perfect way to launch my my wedding week Is to run into them there and it became even more perfect because I watched Cass and this was the first time I think I'd waited at baggage claim with my husband to be and I realized And Jonathan very quickly realized that Cass for all of his many incredible qualities and believe me so many incredible qualities, but the patience to wait for bags was not one of those qualities and I watched Jonathan watch my future husband and I watched him just Delight in the the implosion and the meltdown that was on the verge of happening He took in this newly revealed feature of my soon-to-be spouse Like an anthropologist kind of unearthing a new pattern in human behavior and this was Jonathan and even the smallest details or reflections of someone's character or Disposition or temperament Everything was an occasion for discovery and delight and mischief and it was It was remarkable. He stayed in my corner all through my time serving in the Obama administration Both as Obama's human rights advisor initially and then as his UN ambassador Even as Jonathan's health deteriorated I leaned on him for advice and counsel During some of my toughest experiences in the job. He never held back his views or Soft peddled his advice and he was very unusual in the sense that he was both a phenomenal listener and a person with very very strong views often you don't get those two qualities together, but I Really have never have never known anybody even a little bit like Jonathan Moore And I think the video only begins to capture some of this so tonight in Jonathan's honor I will offer a Non-exhaustive account of what I learned inside and outside government the lessons that I will emphasize here Are ones that Jonathan either tried to teach me? even if I sometimes was stubborn and didn't immediately learn them or lessons that he taught me by example and Even though I'm sure future lectures will emphasize various policy themes. I'm actually not here tonight to talk about policy I think that I'm right in saying that for Jonathan leadership and morality were not Exactly rooted in questions of policy as such I think as you heard Jonathan believe that as he put it to be moral is to be operational Thus above all moral leadership required an open heart a searching mind and Above all a readiness to engage tactically, you know get to get one's Hands dirty to roll up one's sleeves, but to engage tangibly with people in one's community So with all of that what has this idealist this unrepentant idealist learned From a fellow unrepentant idealist Jonathan Moore and what have I learned from the world? first and this is probably not the direction that you were necessarily expecting but I Have learned that a disposition toward gratitude Is an indispensable foundation for sustaining one's idealism in a very very an ever messier world? Cicero once said gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues, but the parent of all others I Worked as was said as a war correspondent in the Balkans I worked there from 1993 to 1995 when I first got to Bosnia. I was 22 years old I returned to the United States just before my 25th birthday You can imagine that time in one's life is extremely formative I witnessed atrocities and brutality of a kind that I had previously only read about and The experience was in many respects searing When I lived in the region though, I did a decent job of retaining perspective even as I was horrified by the depravity of the perpetrators around me or the certainly the crimes being committed around me and and even as I was often devastated by the losses that were being suffered by the people who were my neighbors or my friends and I actually somehow in that period did a decent job perhaps influenced by Jonathan and Katie who I'd come to know the year before I Move there But I did a decent job of stock taking of counting my blessings even against that backdrop Through my journalism which was published in outlets like the Boston Globe and the Washington Post. I felt Incredibly privileged to be able to give voice as Maria was talking about to the experiences of People who were denied agency and who were denied their voices I was not being targeted for my faith or my ethnicity and above all I was really acutely conscious of this because I had a UN press pass if the shelling in Sarajevo got too intense or Even if I just needed a proper meal Or a shower which was not possible under siege. I Unlike the Bosnian civilians. I was interviewing. I could leave I could board a UN convoy or get on a UN plane They could not they were trapped and so I always had that sense of I'm lucky against that backdrop I'm grateful for for my privileges. I Came back to the United States I was Reunited with Jonathan and Katie in this great miracle one of the great miracles in my life that they had been living in Washington before I left and then I came back here to go to Harvard Law School and suddenly they lived here and they were they were Living in Weston and Jonathan was back at the Kennedy School where he'd made such a mark Years previously. He was writing. He was mentoring young people And he was traveling abroad consulting for the UN and for other And for non-governmental organizations on humanitarian issues. We in this period had countless lunches and coffees and Interestingly while as I mentioned I had somehow retained perspective and a propensity for gratitude in Bosnia. I Suddenly was losing it back here in my privileged new life on this luxurious campus with you know as I noticed 50 flavors of Snapple at the local At the local grocery So I had this propensity for gratitude and then suddenly that propensity was kind of drying up So one day as I was droning on about my struggles Readjusting to life as a student after living under siege and Being a reporter and as I was devolving into the very particular form of narcissism That 20-somethings some 20-somethings this 20-something at least exhibited Heavy on self-pity Jonathan jolted me back to reality Altering my disposition maybe even permanently with a single slaying comment. I'm sorry. He said have you been ethnically cleansed? Like actually not so much, you know what the hell my heart at law school. What am I whining about a few years later After I had finished a draft of my first book a problem from hell America and the age of genocide. I Was I guess I didn't realize I was really doing it, but I apparently was complaining Incessantly to him about how awful it was that my original publisher had originally had a home for the book And I went off and spent five years writing the book and then as soon as I finished the book the publisher dropped the book and I noted My despair that every other publisher that then I had sent the book to was also rejecting the book So I was over at that time I think about more than a dozen publishers had rejected this book and so I was Understandably beginning to worry and again may have been losing this propensity for gratitude that I'm that I think is so important Jonathan had an entirely different take He told me that I should recognize how delusional I had been to have thought That it would be easy to publish a 500 page book on genocide in the first place and He said and I'll never forget. I know exactly where we were sitting when he said he exclaimed cheerfully The miracle is that you ever had a publisher And because he went on and because you thought you actually had a publisher You went out and you wrote the book and now you have a book. What could be better than that? So talk about glass half full glass half empty The New York Times columnist a dear friend of castes of mine David Brooks has characterized gratitude as a kind of laughter of the heart a laughter of the heart and In his letters and papers from prison Detrick Bonhoeffer who knows something about perspective wrote quote in normal life We hardly realize how much more we receive Than we give and and life cannot be rich without such gratitude it is so easy to Overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others and Jonathan just had this perspective practicing gratitude every day At the end of his life instead of cursing the darkness of his illness He expressed gratitude from what I could tell at least from afar Constantly to his visiting friends people who took the time to come to Weston and to and to visit with him to his grandchildren and to his children to Katie whom he seemed to love more ardently Fervently every day of their marriage and to his caregivers. He knew everything about each of his caregivers It's it's just not not that common, right? He knew where they came from not only where they came from to know the country that somebody comes Okay, that's one thing. He knew the minutest details about each of their lives and what they were going through He saw them He made them laugh and they made him laugh. I have never been to a memorial service where a caregiver was one of the featured speakers That's everything you need to know about Jonathan and Katie Not long after Jonathan passed away. I Institutionalized a practice which I recommend especially the young people here But to all of us really even to myself because I have to keep reminding myself to do it But I institutionalized a practice With my dear friend the human rights activist John Prendergast each night Before John and I go to sleep We email each other the three things that have happened during the day For which we are grateful Sometimes amid all the cruelty and bad news that seems to be a constant One has to strain to find the third of the three gratitudes but honestly never for very long and the effect of this ritual is to change our John and my our respective Dispositions during the day so it has nothing to do with what you're typing late at night It's what you're going looking for during the day to actively seek out examples of simple kindness around us Jonathan did this naturally. He didn't need a ritual And now that I don't have him around to help me correct course This is my way of disciplining my days to increase the odds that I live by his remarkable example Second and I only have four lessons second if one lesson in my experience stands out above the others It is that family and friends make everything possible Mr. Bendinson in the video presenting the award posthumously to Jonathan Beautifully appropriately thanked Katie for I think he put it as he put it allowing Jonathan to do the work She definitely did allow him if that's the word but she did so much more than that She was his fuel. She was his accomplice and she was if I'm not mistaken the person who drove him To every single to the he drove him not to the country but to the airport and Collected him from the airport for every single foreign trip that he ever took maybe even domestic too But I have the ones I know about her the foreign trips And if you know Jonathan and maybe you could get a sense from the pictures and the slide That's a lot of foreign trips That's a lot of trips from Westin to Logan, but the love affair the foundation I can imagine Jonathan on the plane coming back from Rwanda or someplace and just knowing that it was going to be Katie Right there come as he came out of security greeting him every single time without fail It's the foundation. I had my two children. We are suppose we had them I guess I Had we had our two children, but I had my two children during my time Working at the White House and like so many working parents I was all too aware that I would not get to redo the parts of their early months and years that just word by During my 14-hour days on the on the on the national security job I told myself that I was binging in my work life and that the day would come when I would binge with my family Creating a permanent home with Cass for the four of us Still every couple of months. I would try to step back to assess Whether I was getting enough done in my job to justify all the time away and even during productive periods and as I write in the book there were many many periods that really did feel impactful and productive I Never felt great about my choices. I think because there's always a cost. There's always an absence from somewhere Not long before I became UN ambassador Facebook executive Cheryl Sandberg published lean in her influential book about some of the obstacles that women confront on their paths to professional and personal achievement Because I was juggling my job in the Obama administration while trying to raise two small children Once I got to the UN I was often asked by journalists where I came down on Sandberg's argument in Responding I sometimes said that the weight of my balancing act made fall down Seem a more apt description of my life than lean in But usually in order not to depress people I invoked Hillary Clinton Who I once heard say it's not so much lean in as lean on Lean on that's back again to my second point about family and friends and what they make possible While I was at UN ambassador Cass was teaching here in in Cambridge during the week I thus leaned so heavily on a woman named Maria Castro was our nanny an immigrant from Mexico I leaned on my parents. My mother was working still works at Mount Sinai as a kidney transplant physician She'd get the call mom emergency meeting of the Security Council I need you to babysit you know get down from upper upper east side. I need you in midtown quickly And she'd be there my stepfather would be there My my remarkable The parents when I would walk in my my mother Again already in her 70s would be sprinting down the long hallways of the walder for the glamorous Ambassadors residents at the walder of Astoria trying to keep up with my daughter on her scooter My stepfather would be pitching wiffle balls to my Young son with his wiffle ball bat who was hitting these balls They were lodging in the chandeliers at the at the walder of Astoria And and I had this legion of friends who carved out time to act as an extended family You know playing picking up the kids from school from play dates from sports practices Playing with them laid into the evenings when I couldn't leave the offices and taking them on outings all around new york city I could not have done my job without leaning on this network of people And the one thing I learned again is even if you can't ever find what feels like the optimal way of integrating Work and life the the deep truth that I think jonathan lived every day is that Whatever your status, whatever your job your title, you know When you when the day comes where you where you turn in whatever the equivalent of your white house badge is What is left is one's own garden, right and what one has sown and cultivated third Lesson uh that I Initially learned from jonathan and then saw affirmed both inside and outside government But is that dignity human dignity is an underestimated force in politics and geopolitics I was deeply influenced when I was young when I was 18 years old by the Stark image of a man in beijing who became known around the world as tank man We never learned his actual name And this was the image that came to define the crackdown on chinese protesters in tianaman square in june of 1989 the man wore a white shirt and dark pants And he carried a pair of shopping bags He was pictured standing in the middle of a ten lane chinese boulevard Stoically confronting the first tank in a column of dozens When I first saw that picture of tank man in june of 1989 the summer after my freshman year I thought to myself That is an assertion of dignity just standing there with his shopping bags Effectively daring the chinese tanks To keep moving the man was refusing to bow before the gargantuan power of the chinese military His quiet but powerful resistance reminded me Of the images that I had seen as a as a as a child as a high school student When I first began reading about the civil rights movement the images particularly Of the sanitation workers in memphis some of you have have seen those images Who and these were the sanitation workers who strike that martin Luther king jr Had joined shortly before he was assassinated in 1968 And the strikers carried these placards these signs and the signs simply read I am a man with am underlined. I am a man And I think if you look at history even recent history the role of dignity is is omni present So why did a tunisian fruit vendor Set himself on fire igniting not only mass protests in the country of tunisia But this you know cascade of protests around the arab world that became the arab spring He felt humiliated. It was dignity Why have many russians supported vladimir putin Despite that country's stagnant economy and the quality of life issues that many russians also describe Not being satisfied with at least partly I think it's fair to say because Many russian people believe that putin has restored russia's status as a major player on the world stage That russia was seen through and seen past after the end of the cold war Dignity a version of dignity Why did millions of voters who supported barack obama in the 2012 presidential election Turn shift to donald trump In 2016 nine percent of the voters who voted for obama in 2012 shifted to trump in 2016 Many said we don't know of course we can't get in everybody's mind But many said that they felt ignored that that the elites And others and just the system the man however you want to look at it, but that their their country Was looking past them that their country was moving on without them that they were getting left behind dignity When I became u n ambassador, I decided to try to show a respect for the worth of my colleagues From different countries and and the worth of their nations By meeting with each of my fellow permanent representatives Which it was very surprising for me to learn had not been done before by a u.s. Permanent representative Uh, I think what motivated this was many many conversations with jonathan and the kinds of relationships He built when he was our ambassador to the economic and social council Working out of the same U.s. Mission to the u.n. Where I then had the privilege of working And I was influenced also by the the spirit of something that cas and I often heard vice president biden Say quoting his own mother, which is nobody's better than you, but you're better than nobody Nobody's better than you, but you're better than nobody the u n charter Sort of enshrines this principle as well It says that the u n is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all of its members What could be better than that? But I promise you almost nothing at the u n conveys equality Between the united states and let's say the democratic republic of congo The most destitute country in the world by many by many measurements Nor between the country of malta teeny weeny country of malta and china right and just as a practical matter Um equality is stated, but it's it's very hard actually to achieve in the day-to-day functioning of the u n So the least I felt I could do is at least go show that each country's ambassador matters intrinsically And equally by going and visiting with each of them and what was amazing was that so few people worked At the missions of very small countries I mean some missions were just uh The the ambassador was the was the staff and then their spouse was enlisted Uh in order to answer phone the phone or you know attend meetings that the ambassador couldn't couldn't attend This was true of the small island nations for example But some of these were so understaffed that they actually missed important votes or they missed important negotiations And if the ambassador at some of these smaller missions, for example had a doctor's appointment or something like that or had to travel home for Consultations they often lack the backup to ensure that someone would take their place I was the united states. I got to be the united states. Uh, we were the host country You're the most powerful country in the richest country in the world And at times there is absolutely no question that this privilege and this sort of conventional Uh set of metrics around power have led the united states to take other countries And the people who live within them for granted So by visiting the other ambassadors were also going to their missions rather than having them come to the us mission Which was the tradition the practice for the host country I was able to actually see how they lived the the art that they Uh placed on their walls that they wanted to showcase The family photos on their desks the books that they brought with them all the way to america I inquired about their upbringings How they became diplomats what they miss most about their countries And what challenges they found most daunting Most significantly regardless of their size their wealth or their geopolitical heft I could show them america's respect And here again my role model was jonathan And also somebody with whom jonathan got along with very very well the affirmant my aforementioned stepfather eddie eddie And jonathan had this in common But eddie who i had in my life i have in my life still and had in my life for three decades before i became u n ambassador Basically there was no taxi driver and this is true jonathan no taxi driver No medical patient. He was a physician No person at a local cafe with an unusual accent Was immune to his questioning He wouldn't happen to be from Uzbekistan would you He would ask before sharing his love of silks from samarkand If he spotted a very tall thin african with facial scars He might ask do you come from the dinka or the nuweir tribe? And these conversations i watched throughout my entire life often ended up in an exchange of telephone Numbers and an agreement to meet for coffee later eddie and jonathan both read incredibly widely But they supplemented what they learned in books by engaging the walking talking libraries That populate our daily lives the people around us and lord knows that's true here at tufts and at fletcher During my three and a half years as the us ambassador to the un i was able to visit with the ambassador Of every member state in the un except north korea Of around 50 of the 191 ambassadors who i went to visit Reported that no us permanent representative in history had ever set foot in their mission before And many treated america's visit As a very special occasion dressing up Very formally as if it was a wedding Or some kind of very important occasion whereas i'm sort of schlepping over there and and probably paying less attention Then i should have to the trappings They would bring national delicacies from home that they're you know, they or their spouse may have prepared for me And they always had a camera usually one of not a you know, not even an iphone camera But one of those like big cameras. We don't see anymore at the record to record the moment for posterity. That was america's visit And i you know, it's fair to say that i look forward to many of my courtesy calls But there were some i was not enthused by like the idea as an abstraction It was a good thing to do But then in the crush of work or given some other personalities of different people I wasn't always like skipping you know up the stairs into these missions And so one that i was particularly unenthused about i will admit uh was my meeting with the cambodian ambassador This was a man who in un meetings basically mumbled His country's turgid prepared statements He betrayed no charisma that i could locate whatsoever He began our meeting by holding up a set of talking points I couldn't even see his face and just reading these talking points And i just thought well, you know when some you lose some um, but This was so moving to me when i asked him about uh, what life Had been like for him as a boy growing up under the chimera rouge His manner was transformed he dropped the piece of paper And he described to me how the chimera rouge had executed his father For being a teacher as he put it When they murdered his sister who was a housewife he said quote They did not have to give a reason so they executed his father because he was a teacher But his sister they just executed um He noted that he and his surviving siblings Nearly starved to death as was true of course for many under the chimera rouge and then At the very end of our meeting he said something very simple and just deeply profound which is Quote i am surprised by how much food is wasted at the u.m. And quote part of valuing dignity For jonathan meant seeking out the humanity of those with whom we disagree The russian ambassador to the u.m. Vitaly churkin Was my arch foe When i arrived in 2013 to begin my stint in new york Vitaly had already been there for seven years He represented a government that was locking up and even at times assassinating its critics at home uh russia in 2014 would invade its neighbor ukraine It would subsequent to that indiscriminately rained down bombs on the syrian city of aleppo among other civilian centers in syria But even as vitaly and i clashed bitterly in public We both worked tirelessly and at times with great difficulty To build a substantial relationship I invited vitaly to nba games. I invited him and his wife to the theater I met with him after work after some of our fiercest clashes to try To engage on substance in a way that we both knew was completely impossible in public For him, you know to have done so in public could would have potentially Uh Jeopardized certainly his career if not more and no matter how intense our disagreements and sometimes we couldn't talk and we had no Uh, we had no interaction around the workplace because it just became too much For instance after russian interference in our election But even in those periods no matter how intense our disagreements or how problematic i found russia's actions I always took his calls and he always took mine Vitaly in seeking to see him as more than just the sum of the policies of russia, which i abhorred Vitaly had a large personality and he was effective. I saw this from the very beginning in disarming The positions and the the opposition of some of our respective colleagues When i once went on too long speaking before the council Vitaly responded quote after hearing all that the permanent representative of the united states felt she needed to share with us today I am tempted to read my statement twice and quote You might be having that feeling right about now in my speech um On another occasion when we were arguing after a council session I told him that I knew that he had mixed motives half sincere and half ulterior No, he countered we are fully sincere about achieving our ulterior motive You can see why he was challenging To outmaneuver By seeing his capacity for humor and in humor there is humanity By seeing his positive qualities and and by developing as strong a private bond as we could given the circumstances I do believe i also was able to get more done for the united states and the world than i otherwise would have done Russia did not interfere with president obama's pathbreaking efforts to end the ebola epidemic Vitaly and i worked together to embed the iranian nuclear agreement into international law And even when we disagreed fundamentally because i tried to understand what motivated him and and knew him I think i was better able to predict what he would do next which was a strategic advantage My final point my fourth lesson and the one i want to leave you with tonight Which has been reflected already i suppose in some of the comments, but Is that there really is I think on the basis of a pretty varied career Nothing more meaningful uh than having the opportunity to serve Uh jonathan's was a life of service as you heard a republican for most of his life He served as a senate aide worked under six presidents Holding positions in several government agencies including department of state defense and justice He coordinated the u.s response to refugee issues under president reagan Worked as one of president george h.w. Bush's top officials at the u.s. Mission to the un Help create Has a legacy at the un that is very profound because he created the position A full-time un coordinator for humanitarian emergencies that individual and their team is active all around the world as we speak Looking back on his contributions to public service Though it is striking now from the vantage point of living in an era of domestic political polarization How unthinkable a career trajectory like his can seem today For someone who isn't in the civil or the foreign service to do what jonathan did And work as a political pointy in six different administrations serving under both republican and democratic presidents Today, I think would be extraordinary and jonathan was not at all a political He embraced politics. He worked as a senior advisor on political campaigns. He got his hands dirty But his loyalty, I think it's fair to say was to a set of principles When in his mind the republican party departed from those principles In fundamental ways It it really couldn't be his party anymore. I didn't leave it. He would say it left me Uh, we are living at a time now when loyalty to party and loyalty to principle are often in direct tension But this is not the first time that such attention has surfaced so vividly jonathan was associate attorney general At the department of justice in 1973 Where he worked under president nixon's attorney general elliot richardson Like jonathan richardson dedicated his life to public service By that time richardson had already been secretary of health education and welfare and secretary of defense And now he was serving as attorney general And like jonathan richardson would ultimately serve leaders of both parties working for seven presidents from eisenhower to clinton In 1973 when president nixon asked attorney general richardson to fire The special prosecutor investigating the watergate break-in because the special prosecutor was insistent On getting the tape recordings made by nixon of his oval office conversations richardson refused to do so refused to fire the special prosecutor He resigned in protest as did jonathan And the saturday night massacre that followed the firing of the special prosecutor by nixon unleashed a public outcry That forced nixon's hand Evidence from the tapes implicating nixon were made public And the rest is history richardson explained many years later quote we The people of the united states Have delegated responsibility to the president to everyone in government to serve our interests They are public servants in the literal sense And so we do literally hold them accountable In a manner that people of many other countries don't do end quote Today we have a president who has reportedly told at least one high ranking official I need loyalty. I expect loyalty His attorney general has taken this message to heart as we have seen time and again By contrast, we have also seen this parade of public servants who have risked their careers And even arguably their personal security by testifying before congress Lower level people than elliott richardson and than jonathan moore But people whose names have now come to embody the spirit of richardson and moore People whose names we will know now going into the future people whose names I really hope above all that the young people in the audience know bill taylor maria yuvanovich lieutenant colonel vinn man Two names we don't know career officials at the white house office of management and budget Whose resignations only came to light a full two months After they felt they could no longer serve a president who in instructing them to hold up assistance to ukraine Were asking them to break the law and weren't looking to draw attention themselves. They just resigned. They just couldn't do it The principal was too important of obeying what was so explicit in the statute Even though the sordid circumstances that necessitated the impeachment inquiry are ones that I Fervently wish did not exist For those of us intent on drawing young people into the kind of life of service that jonathan lived The inquiry has produced a profound unintended benefit of showcasing the unsung heroes who put country first It's the greatest advertisement for the civil service and foreign service That we have seen in some time When I think about the majesty and the meaning of public service, I often think of jonathan's advice When I called him for counsel after john mccain Uh and the wall street journal editorial board among others began calling for me to resign over syria Given that I had celebrated in my writing those who resigned on principle over vietnam I thought it reasonable to at least ask the question of whether it was right for me to remain in government Given the diabolical atrocities being carried out by the Assad regime in syria and our ineffectual policies That weren't failing to stop the atrocities When I spoke with jonathan about what I should do he was firm quote You need to keep arguing for what you believe on syria But even if it is the most important and most deadly conflict on the planet right now You can't let syria become the only measure of what you do You can use your position to help a lot of people out there The world is filled with broken places pick your battles and go winsome and quote This was perhaps the most important advice I could have received public service offers one such tremendous opportunities to do good jonathan reminded me to make the most out of every day in the job and to stay grateful again As long as I could point to tangible useful actions whether helping get the paris climate agreement Across the finish line. So it became international law. So if one day an american president We drew from it. It would still retain the force of international law Securing the release of political prisoners around the world helping get the un to finally recognize lgbt rights as human rights Or mobilizing a multinational global coalition to end the abola epidemic I really wanted and needed to stay where I was there was too much to be done In closing I would just say that as I've traveled around the united states and abroad since leaving office in 2017 I have heard and have asked myself Many variants of the same question. Maybe some of you have posed this question It's usually posed Gingerly, but it's and me sometimes meekly, but the question is are we going to be okay? Is everything going to be okay? america's greatest asset remains This democracy and the citizens who comprise it and this impulse to Impose even if it is not readily granted democratic accountability The best predictor of whether we will be okay is if our citizens who stand to benefit Or lose from political decisions Choose not only to organize and to vote But to be part of the effort to pull us back from the brink Like all institutions governments, whether the one in washington dc Or at the state house in boston Or institutions like those here in medford All institutions are comprised of individuals Individuals have the power to do great and small good To do great and small harm And they have the power to do nothing In the case of the u.s. Government the people who comprise it Also have the choice as to whether to embrace the hardest challenges that the world is presenting One can and this is I think really really important and and one should Define service in many ways. There's so many ways to serve You can serve in the military you can serve as a teacher As a tutor for a newly arrived immigrant or refugee who is arriving in the least hospitable climate in this country Arguably since the second world war jonathan serve locally He helped establish what we know today as the cape cod national seashore park We haven't even heard about this service, right? This is everywhere you go It's a different form of service He served in government in all the ways that we've heard about tonight He served students and the community at the institute of politics and at the shore instin center at the kennedy school writ large He served also in the smallest ways of all By spreading this spirit of gratitude by seeing the dignity of all the people he encountered He served by being an exemplary son Husband father grandfather colleague and friend that is service And the integrity and spirit that jonathan brought to serving others Will be sorely needed in the coming years Ultimately for all of the policy prescriptions and the structural reforms that one can offer jonathan taught us never to lose sight of the fact that the direction of our communities our country and the broader world Will always come down to the actions of individuals. Thank you so much Thank you everyone and thank you ambassador power. I think um We have some books outside and you have graciously agreed to uh hang around for questions and maybe some signings Some questions Yeah Would people like to ask a few questions? Maybe we have time for two From the floor There are some microphones here at the uh at the at the edges anybody would like to And it's definitely late Well, if not, then maybe we'll all uh, oh you have one right here. There's one two. Okay, great The high ambassador power, um, I wondered how in your experience You've found a way to advocate for people who belong to a group with which you have no personal connection Um, I think people call it imposter syndrome Sometimes when you feel like you have this stage, but you are not able to accurately represent The interests of people who even though you don't directly share it you want to advocate for So I wondered how in the various capacities you've served how you can be an advocate for something with which you're not a part of Um, I guess I don't have a microphone that moves. Um, I guess the the best I'd say offer Two associations. I mean first With great humility Great humility my first point great humility and great curiosity um and second I really wouldn't uh You know, I would find it very hard to advocate with people. I didn't know at all. I mean, I think you have this Responsibility, um, maria mentioned in her introduction one of the other many other lessons of the education of an idealist than the ones I share But one of them is this idea of getting close and so there were countless Issues with which You know I that I never had thought about before I had the privilege of serving in the cabinet of the president of the united states. I had not Thought about the plight of the yuzidi community For example, and suddenly we find ourselves in a situation where they're being threatened with extermination You know You you it meant, you know asking the people who are briefing you every day to go and get really smart Absolutely. I use the term lean on in the context of family and friends Leaning on the expertise that that exists In our civil service in our foreign service and in the intelligence community. That was something I got better at doing and really tapping knowing kind of where to look But that's where the humility comes in and then also Again, my second point sort of preparation When I could I left the office and travel I still had a reporter's Instinct that if something was happening the the better way to get to know what was happening was not to read Briefing papers was to be out in the world and I systematized meetings With representatives of groups the rehinga is another example of a group that I knew very little about before I went into government and yet You know the plight of the rehinga became a defining Dimension of our relationship and later in the trumpet during the trump administration an outright genocide would be perpetrated So just if ever there was a rehinga who was passing through in new york, you know my staff just knew I would I want always to hear from people who've borne witness and you know you have to be careful because you You know everything has to be you want to make sure that that you're meeting with people who are independently minded Even if you're getting an array of different perspectives But so either going you know moving man to mountain or mountain to man if mountain was coming to to new york city But but never losing that humility I mean to know I'm not I'm never going to be an expert on these eddies, but I have a responsibility To digest information as expeditiously and rigorously as I can and then offer And a relatively informed recommendation, but it's a great question. Thank you so much Was there one? Oh, I think we're just doing this one. Yeah I thank you. I'm a current epic student and we read your book in class And wait, what's it like to be able to say I always love this about sherm creating the epic program. You're just like I'm an epic student I am I am so epic You don't even know how epic I am. That's that's all sherm It really is like the best acronym Um, so in class we read one of your interviews, um with the new yorker and you talked about um, your kind of like Change and maybe change an opinion. Um in responsibility to protect and um kind of talking about um How we need like maybe the proper capabilities before you know going into a mission like in libya and um I wonder if this is still an idealist perspective Um, I I think that's I don't I'm not blaming you who are epic, uh, but It's a mischaracterization of my position. So maybe I'll just share sort of how my views on responding to mass atrocities Have and have not evolved. Um And in general, I believe evolution is a is a healthy sign of taking in new information new experiences, but by and large I think the the framework of responsibility to protect which is often mischaracterized as it was in the in the new yorker piece. I think that you're referring to Um, it's often mischaracterized as being about military force in response to mass atrocities The occasions in which military force Anybody who believes in responsive protect would believe that military force would be a remedy Would be extremely rare Libya was one of those occasions and it wasn't it's not about me. It's not about the united states It's about basically every country in the united nations. It's about the libyan ambassador to the united nations Hearing qaddafi's words seeing what was about to happen to his people Defecting on the spot pleading with the countries of the world to come and stage a rescue mission It was about the arab league not exactly gung-ho proponents of western military intervention in the arab world issuing a statement calling on the un security council knowing that that would amount to nato But to fulfill its responsibilities to set up safe zones in order to protect civilians um, it's about qaddafi's own words and his Uh, background and what he had done in the past but So that's an exceptional circumstance and again what happened in the libyan intervention is a reflection of why military force Is such a perilous tool and always has been i mean that's that's why i oppose the war in iraq notwithstanding saddam hussein's atrocities Is that it you know, it did succeed in averting the massacres that qaddafi had threatened to carry out I absolutely believe notwithstanding all the revisionism That he had every intention of carrying out on the basis of what he had already done at that point in the conflict And on the basis of his past actions and his own words um But you can avert a massacre and still military force is never going to get at the underlying challenges in someone else's country like fundamentally So that's libya, but on the general framework the concept is a sound one the concept is not um Absolutist the concept is if a government Is targeting A segment of its own people for destruction with mass atrocities or genocide The countries and and if the government Where those atrocities are occurring is either unable or unwilling To prevent those atrocities there are plenty that are unwilling There are plenty that are unable Then the responsibility to ask what should be done reverts to countries outside those theaters And the what should be done In most cases is going to end up being call an emergency meeting at the security council Impose visa a visa ban and sanction the perpetrators of these crimes Convene a contact group of foreign ministers of the key stakeholders around that country to see if you can put pressure Just sit on a problem diplomatically Uh, maybe it's to deploy peacekeepers. This is something the african union and the sub regional groups in africa Uh or more and more often in the last 20 years insisting upon themselves without it even coming to western countries Um, you know, maybe it's about an arms embargo So you try to stop the flow of weapons whether guns or machetes into a country Where there's a risk where you're looking ahead of time or there's a risk of mass atrocities So the r2p concept gets you looking earlier because the lower cost tools Um, if you employ them earlier will have more effect later, you know once syria is burning Economic sanctions that those kinds of diplomatic initiatives when when one party is already intent on wiping out its political opposition There's are going to be of limited utility. So Again, my view is pretty continuous with what my view was before I went into government and I write in the book I don't know if you have the chance to read the book But if you read nothing else there's a chapter called toolbox which is all about applying those other tools And the vast good that was done on the lra in cote d'voix initially in helping secure the independence of south sudan before south sudan then Tore itself apart But securing independence from sudan without a mass atrocity crime being perpetrated was something nobody predicted could happen It's also about using the toolbox on other human rights issues like lgbt rights Where people are being violently attacked all around the world and one has to be really careful Uh about what an outsider's voice can and should say On issues that are so culturally sensitive in in large parts of the world. So I think you know again running your tools through a as rigorous A consequentialism as you can on the front end Taking account of the early question and having humility about what you know and what you don't know I think that's you know a really important thing to do