12th Annual Lecture in the George and Barbara Bush Distinguished Lecture Series
Currently the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Haass previously served in the State Department under Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, at the White House under George H.W. Bush, and in the Pentagon during the Carter administration. He was U.S. envoy to the Cyprus negotiations and the Northern Ireland peace process and, after September 11th, served as U.S. coordinator for the future of Afghanistan. He is the recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal, the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, and the Tipperary International Peace Award. He is also a Rhodes Scholar and received his doctorate of philosophy from Oxford University.
In his book, Dr. Haass argues that the very idea of citizenship must be revised to place citizens’ responsibilities to one another and to the country on equal par with citizens’ rights. Through a lens that incorporates civics, history, and political analysis, he presents ten obligations that he has identified as essential for healing a drastically polarized nation and for recapturing past attitudes and behaviors of Americans that contributed to the nation’s success.
