The Conferring of Honorary Degrees
R. Nicholas Burns

Citation Presented by Russell Bova, Professor of Political Science and International Studies
Conferring of the degree by William G. Durden, President

R. Nicholas Burns, it is hard to imagine a more appropriate choice to deliver the commencement address to Dickinson 's class of 2007. Dickinson is a college that prepares its students to “engage the world” and to cross intellectual, geographical, and cultural borders. From classes in foreign language, culture, politics, and society, to semesters and years spent abroad in one of the many Dickinson international programs, to interactions with foreign students and scholars—including via four summer 2006 institutes for international students and scholars held on our Carlisle campus and funded by your own Department of State—Dickinson students develop and hone a global sensibility that will help guide them through the increasingly interdependent world of the 21 st century.

In your current position as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and in your past positions that have included Ambassador to NATO, Ambassador to Greece, spokesperson for Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, and Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Affairs on the National Security Council, you have spent a career engaging the world at the highest levels of the U.S. government. In the process you have crossed many borders, not only in the literal sense associated with air miles logged and passports stamped, but in the more significant sense of reaching across political, cultural, and ideological divides. From your years in the mid-1980s when you lived in East Jerusalem forging close friendships with both Israelis and Palestinians to your current responsibilities in the oversight and promotion of diplomatic approaches to a range of thorny foreign policy challenges, you have consistently earned the praise and respect of virtually all those you have encountered. Perhaps the most challenging border you have crossed in your career is that between Republican and Democratic administrations. Reflecting on this aspect of your career, one observer commented that: “Perhaps the only thing (George) Shultz, (Warren) Christopher, ( Sandy ) Berger, (Condoleezza) Rice, (Colin) Powell, (Bill) Clinton, and two George Bushes have in common is that they've all trusted Nicholas Burns.”

In short, whatever inspiration your words today to the Dickinson Class of 2007 will provide, the deeper inspiration is provided by your career of public service guided, as you yourself once indicated, by a feeling of “moral obligation,” and exemplifying the intellectual breadth and global perspective which we seek to nurture in our own students.

Mr. President, it is with great honor that I present to you today, R. Nicholas Burns, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, for the honorary degree of Doctor of Public Policy.

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R. Nicholas Burns, upon the recommendation of the Faculty to the Board of Trustees, and by its mandamus, I confer upon you the Degree of Doctor of Public Policy, honoris causa, with all the rights, privileges, and distinction thereunto appertaining, in token of which I present you with this diploma and cause you to be invested with the hood of Dickinson College appropriate to the degree.