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Lee Hamilton

President & Director, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Former Congressman

Lee H. Hamilton is president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and director of The Center on Congress at Indiana University. Hamilton represented Indiana’s 9th congressional district for 34 years beginning January 1965. He served as chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, the Joint Economic Committee, and the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. As a member of the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee Hamilton was a primary draftsman of several House ethics reforms.

Since leaving the House, Hamilton has served on several commissions including serving as Vice-Chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission), co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, the National Commission on the War Powers of the President and the Congress, and the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. He is currently a member of the FBI Director’s Advisory Board, the Defense Secretary’s National Security Study Group, and the US Department of Homeland Security Task Force on Preventing the Entry of Weapons of Mass Effect on American Soil.

Lee Hamilton on Dumb Luck

Lee Hamilton was very lucky to have run for Congress as a Democrat in 1964.

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3 min

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How has America changed in your lifetime?

Hamilton discusses the problems America faces as a bigger and more diverse place than the America he grew up in.

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6 min

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Is there a leadership drought in the U.S.?

Is America’s problem a dearth of good leadership, or a wealth of complexity?

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2 min

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What is America’s place in the world?

America has to use its power wisely and decently.

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8 min

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Lee Hamilton On Civic Duty

Lee Hamilton on the responsibilities of American citizenship.

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2 min

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Lee Hamilton on Untangling Iraq

Lee Hamilton, on matching your rhetoric with resources.

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2 min

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Is the American political system broken?

Lee Hamilton has a bone to pick with how our campaigns are run, and with how easy we are on our politicians.

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5 min

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Is our healthcare system broken?

Hamilton is disturbed that good healthcare is only available to those who can pay for it.

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1 min

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Is our education system broken?

Lee Hamilton, on education and the “other 50%.”

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1 min

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Are two parties enough?

Though he’s a party member, Lee Hamilton believes that the American system needs to be more open.

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3 min

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What is your question?

Are you making America work?

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1 min

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What is your counsel?

America can’t solve the world’s problems, Hamilton says, but we want to help.

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5 min

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What is your outlook?

Lee Hamilton is traditional, hard-headed, and pragmatic in his approach.

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2 min

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It’s not a given that America will always prosper, Hamilton says.

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12 min

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Where are the Lincolns, the Jeffersons, the Washingtons?

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9 min

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What do you believe?

America’s great challenge, Hamilton says, is to figure out how we use our power.

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1 min

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What do you do?

Lee Hamilton traces his career from his first term in Congress to serving on the 9/11 Commission.

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3 min

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Lee Hamilton recalls growing up a Hoosier during the War.

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5 min

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