• IUB Newsroom »
• Lee Feinstein, dean of IU School of Global and International Studies, to present O'Meara Lecture

Lee Feinstein, dean of IU School of Global and International Studies, to present O'Meara Lecture

• March 24, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Lee A. Feinstein, founding dean of the School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University, will present the Patrick O'Meara International Lecture on April 1 at IU Bloomington.

Feinstein, who has more than two decades of experience serving in high-level positions in diplomacy and foreign affairs, will speak at 4 p.m. in Presidents Hall, located in Franklin Hall, 601 E. Kirkwood Ave. The lecture is free and open to the public. He will speak on the topic, "Back to the Future:  Old Challenges and New, and the Capacity of International Institutions to Cope."

A former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Poland from 2009 to 2012, Feinstein has had a distinguished career in and out of government. A noted scholar-practitioner, Feinstein has served two secretaries of state and a secretary of defense and has worked at the nation’s top research institutes, including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution.

Most recently, he is the author with Tod Lindberg of "Means to an End: U.S. Interest in the International Criminal Court" (Brookings Institution Press, 2009, 2011).

Feinstein was national security director to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign and then served as a senior foreign policy advisor to President Barack Obama during the general election.

Feinstein was principal deputy director of policy planning under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and was previously senior advisor on peacekeeping policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

For decades, IU has been a leader in international studies, teaching more foreign languages than almost any other American institution of higher education and housing 11 federally funded Title VI area studies centers, more than any other university. About 70 languages are taught at IU Bloomington regularly, which is home to federally funded Language Flagship programs in Chinese, Turkish and Swahili, and National Language Resource Centers in African and Central Asian languages.

The new interdisciplinary School of Global and International Studies brings together these strengths and will draw upon internationally focused resources in other schools and departments at IU to expand international education opportunities for all students.

The O'Meara lecture honors an IU faculty member and administrator who for decades guided the university’s activities around the world and helped raise its international profile.

O'Meara, who today chairs the Office of International Development, since the 1960s has been at IU, where he earned his doctorate. He served as dean for international programs from 1993 to 2007 and as vice president for international affairs from 2007 to 2011. David Zaret succeeded him as IU vice president for international affairs in 2011. A renowned scholar of international development, comparative politics and African politics, O'Meara also is the former director of IU's African Studies Program.

For more information about the lecture, contact the IU Office of the Vice President for International Affairs at ovpia@iu.edu or 812-855-5021.