For the last four years, SNU’s Department of International Relations has held a “Diplomacy Forum” in order to offer its students a chance to communicate with prominent people in the field of international relations. On September 11, the forum invited Dr. Kenneth Duberstein, a former White House Chief of Staff as its 16th speaker.

Duberstein is one of those people whose career can hardly be summed up in a single paragraph. He served as White House Chief of Staff for the Reagan Administration during the late 80s, which is just a small part of his decades-long history of government service. He has also worked in the private sector for many different companies including Chrysler, The Boeing Company, and Fannie Mae. Currently, he owns the consulting firm “Duberstein Group,” and is working for the Brookings Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics as well.

Meeting “Students of the Harvard of Korea”
“Having been White House Chief of Staff, you would think everybody would want to pay attention to that, but whenever I mention The West Wing, that’s what everyone wants to talk about,” said Duberstein half -jokingly, following Professor Yoon’s introduction in which he mentioned his years as a consultant for the famous TV drama, The West Wing. He opened his speech saying, “I am really honored to be here today. I am involved in the Harvard Institute of Politics, and everything I’ve heard about SNU has made mention of this being the Harvard of Korea. So I’m eager to share insights with you today.”

On current American politics, and the presidential election
During the forum, Duberstein mostly talked about the upcoming American presidential election between the incumbent president, Barack Obama, and his republican opponent, Mitt Romney, who survived “a very brutal primary.” Duberstein pointed out that the two candidates are “absolutely evenly tied” at the moment, and that this is why the 11/6 campaign is going to be “the most negative and expensive” in his lifetime. It will be “the race to the bottom,” not “the race to the government.” There were two questions asked: who will win, and more importantly, whether or not whoever wins will be able to govern when the country is almost evenly split.
Unusual for a republican, Duberstein had openly supported Obama in 2008, and his campaign of “lofty promises of hope and change.” In contrast, Duberstein described the current Obama campaign as unhealthy, “a campaign of fear and loathing.” Furthermore, he noted that he would have to answer “No” to the question “Are you better off today than you were four years ago with the current administration?”, the famous race-winning question by Ronald Reagan challenging the Carter Administration in 1980. Duberstein explains that the economy is the biggest issue now, and that President Obama has not done exceptionally well in this area because of wrong priorities, too much weight on the health care issue and too little on improving the economy, despite increasing debt and a rising unemployment rate. Moreover, Duberstein believes that many US business owners feel “they have no trusted relationships” with the White House, where few have any background in business.
However unsatisfactory the Obama administration performed economically, Duberstein predicts that Romney will still have a tough race though his campaign is right in focusing on criticizing Obama’s four years of economic policies. He explained that people are not yet comfortable voting for Romney, because they think “he is a rich guy, not able to relate to average Americans,” and “he is a flip-flopper,” as in the case of his changing positions on the issue of abortion. In addition to Obama’s clear lead in the area of so-called soft issues, such as issues concerning seniors and women, he noted that it is possible that far-right republicans with a serious social agenda might end up defining Mitt Romney.

What America wants and needs from its president
Another interesting point Duberstein made about the US presidential election was about the “likability” factor; “We Americans like to like our presidents. Likability. Reagan was more likeable than Carter… One of the things working for Obama is that poll after poll indicates that about 60 percent of the American people think that he is more likable than Mitt Romney.” He further explained that the question is “Who do you want in your bedroom or kitchen for the next four years?” – something which Duberstein labeled the “Acceptability Threshold,” or “the Duberstein’s Bedroom Test,” which Romney has yet to pass.
Describing the upcoming election both as the “referendum on the last four years” and the “choice election,” Duberstein concluded that it is extremely hard to predict who will eventually prevail. Instead, he strongly emphasized that what America needs most is real leadership, which will not only deal with policy issues such as tax reform, and defense spending, but also decrease the deep polarization of left and right that has made so many Americans lose faith in politics. “Our system of government in the US works best when the president leads and sets clear priorities. Congress can’t do it. There are 534 people… The largest megaphone is with the president of the United States.” Acknowledging the tough economic situation in the US and the scarcity of real leadership, however, Duberstein quoted his old friend Colin Powell who used to say “Don’t sell America short, we will it figure out….”

Duberstein’s moments at the White House
During the Q&A session, when asked about memorable moments during his time at the White House during the Reagan era, he recalled one story that summed up everything; “one of my responsibilities back then was to proofread all the speeches that came to the president’s desk. We were on our way to the Berlin Wall in Europe, and the State Department had rejected one part of a speech. I looked into the speech, and thought it was a hell of a speech… and I told the President he should leave it in… He was reviewing the speech for the last time, and when he got to the paragraph, he looked at me and said, ‘It’s going to drive the State Department boys crazy, but I am going to leave it in’, and fifteen minutes later: the signature line of the 8-year-Reagan’s presidency -- ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ It was a defining moment in American history, and it fundamentally began the end of the Cold War,” said Duberstein.
At the very end of the forum, Duberstein described how he, as a chief of staff, had to be awake all the time, even answering phone calls well past three in the morning, saying, “The first fundamental threshold is that, if you don’t wake up the president when you should wake him, what you are screwing up is the first page of the newspaper in America.”

“It was one inspirational speech. I loved how Dr. Duberstein openly shared his first-hand experiences at the White House as well as his own personal feelings about the upcoming US election,” “He is such a good speaker. I had so much fun. I guess I should try watching the drama, The West Wing, after all,” were some of the common responses from the audience after the talk. Many also expressed how they appreciate SNU inviting more and more speakers from around the world these days, and that they are looking forward to more opportunities such as this forum.

Written by LEE Sukyoung, SNU English Editor, sukyoung123n@gmail.com
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com