AMES, Iowa -- Lloyd Axworthy, president and vice chancellor of The University of Winnipeg and former Canadian minister of foreign affairs, will present the seventh annual Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science at Iowa State University on Thursday, Oct. 30.
Axworthy will explore the current United States presidential election and what it might mean to Canada in his lecture, titled "A Canadian Conversation with the New U.S. President," which will begin at 8 p.m. in the Sun Room, Memorial Union. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Axworthy's political career spans 27 years -- six of which he served in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly and the final 21 in Canada's Federal Parliament. He served in several Cabinet positions, including minister of employment and immigration, minister responsible for the status of women, minister of transport, minister of western economic diversification and minister of foreign affairs.
As minister of foreign affairs from 1995-2000, Axworthy became internationally known for his advancement of the human security concept -- in particular, the Ottawa Treaty, a landmark global treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.
"Dr. Axworthy is the originator of the concept of 'human security' as a foreign policy goal," said James McCormick, professor and chair of political science at Iowa State. "He wanted to imbed that notion into Canadian foreign policy, and he did so. His greatest success related to that goal was the issuance of the 'Axworthy Challenge' in October 1996, in which he called upon the global community to develop an international treaty to ban antipersonnel landmines worldwide. Through Dr. Axworthy's tireless efforts, and in little more than a year's time, the Ottawa Treaty was completed and signed by more than 100 nations in December 1997."
Axworthy addressed human security in his book, "Navigating a New World -- Canada's Global Future" (Fall 2003).
"Where is the line we draw in setting out the boundaries for being responsible for others?" he wrote. "Is it simply family and close friends? Do we stop at the frontiers of our own country? Does our conscience, our sense of right or wrong, take us as far as the crowded camps of northern Uganda, surrounded by land mines, attacked repeatedly by an army made largely of child soldiers? I believe we in Canada have a special vocation to help in the building of a more secure order. We need not be confined to our self-interest."
Since leaving public life in the fall of 2000, Axworthy has been honored for his work. The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation presented him with the Sen. Patrick J. Leahy Award in recognition of his leadership in the global effort to outlaw landmines and the use of children as soldiers and to bring war criminals to justice. He received the CARE International Humanitarian Award, and Princeton University awarded him the Madison Medal for his record of outstanding public service. He has been named to the Order of Manitoba and to the Order of Canada.
In February 2004, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Axworthy as his special envoy for Ethiopia-Eritrea to assist in implementing a peace agreement between the East African countries. He currently sits on the High Level Commission for the Empowerment of the Poor -- UN Development Program.
Axworthy was installed as the sixth president and vice chancellor of the University of Winnipeg in June 2004.
Thomas and Elizabeth Phelps and Charles and Kathleen Manatt established the Manatt-Phelps Lecture in Political Science in 2002. The annual fall lectures focus on significant developments in international political economy during the previous year, and how the issues affect and are affected by Iowa.
Charles Manatt, recipient of ISU's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008 and former U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, gave the first lecture in 2002. Other speakers have included Frederick Smith, founder, president and CEO of FedEx; U.S. Sen. and current vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden (D-Del.); U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.); Jan Eliasson, Sweden's ambassador to the United States; and Luis Ernesto Derbez, Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs.
The event is sponsored by the Manatt-Phelps endowment to ISU's Department of Political Science, with additional support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Committees on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body. For more information, visit www.las.iastate.edu/newnews/manattphelps/home.shtml.
