Lewis Lukens

Lewis Alan Lukens is a retired American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. His final assignment was as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in London.

Lew Lukens
Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy London
In office
August 1, 2016 – January 1, 2019
PresidentBarack Obama
Donald Trump
AmbassadorMatthew Barzun
Woody Johnson
Preceded byElizabeth Dibble
Succeeded byYael Lempert
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Acting
In office
January 18, 2017 – August 21, 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
Donald Trump
Preceded byMatthew Barzun
Succeeded byWoody Johnson
United States Ambassador to Senegal
In office
October 19, 2011 – June 4, 2014
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byMarcia Bernicat
Succeeded byJames Zumwalt
United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau
In office
October 19, 2011 – June 4, 2014
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byMarcia Bernicat
Succeeded byJames Zumwalt
Personal details
Born (1963-12-25) December 25, 1963
Paris, France
Spouse(s)Lucy Buxton (1992–2014)
Andrea Topper (2015–present)
EducationPrinceton University (BA, MPP)

Early life and education

Lukens was born on December 25, 1963, in Paris, France. His father, Alan Wood Lukens, was US Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to the Republic of the Congo.[1]

Lukens attended Princeton University, where he was awarded an AB degree in history. He received a master's degree from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.[2]

Career

Lukens joined the United States Foreign Service in July 1989, serving in Southern China, Ivory Coast, Australia, Ireland, Iraq, Canada, Senegal, and the United Kingdom.[2]

From 2008 to 2011, Lukens was executive director of the U.S. Department of State's Executive Secretariat, directing management support and overseas travel for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.[2] Lukens testified under oath in a legal case related to the Hillary Clinton email controversy.[3]

From 2011 to 2014, Lukens was U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.[2]

From August 2016 to January 2019, Lukens served as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in London.[4] On June 5, 2017, while serving as Acting Ambassador, Lukens tweeted his support for London mayor Sadiq Khan, after President Donald Trump had sent a tweet critical of Khan following a terrorist incident.[1]

In February 2018, Lukens advised his superior, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Wood Johnson IV, not to follow through on President Trump's request to try to get the British government to steer the British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland; Lukens warned that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain. However, Johnson reportedly did make the attempt in an overture to the Secretary of State for Scotland.[5]

In a pair of speeches to English universities in October 2018, Lukens used an anecdote about President Barack Obama's 2013 visit to Senegal to illustrate how allies can handle disagreements. Because of the complimentary reference to Obama Ambassador Johnson referred to Lukens as a "traitor". Lukens alleged that Johnson had tried to use his position as ambassador to persuade the British government to move the lucrative British Open golf tournament to Trump's Turnberry golf resort.[6][7] Johnson forced Lukens out of his tenure as Deputy Chief of Mission in January 2019, seven months before he was scheduled to leave for his next assignment, effectively ending his diplomatic career.[8]

After the end of his tenure as diplomat, Lukens criticized the Trump administration for his handling of the State Department,[9] and for what he felt was a decline in the United States' international influence.[10] In a January 2021 interview with Newsweek, Lukens' stated that he felt "The last four years has put in doubt the U.S.'s reliability as a partner," and that Trump's administration had damaged both the relationship between the US and the UK, and the United States' international reputation.[11]

References
  1. Diplomats quiet revolt against Trump NYTimes, Retrieved June 6, 2017
  2. "Deputy Chief of Mission Lewis Lukens". U.S. Embassy and Consulates in the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016.
  3. Hsu, Spencer S. (May 26, 2016). "State Dept. offered 'standalone' PC for Clinton's email". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  4. "Lewis Lukens". LinkedIn. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  5. "Trump's Request of an Ambassador: Get the British Open for Me". The New York Times. July 21, 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-07-22. Retrieved July 22, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. Walsh, Christopher. "Allegations That Ambassador Tried to Line the President's Pockets | The East Hampton Star". www.easthamptonstar.com. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  7. Ryan, Chris (2020-08-06). "Former U.S. official details Jets' Woody Johnson's request to have U.K. move British Open to Trump's resort". nj.com. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  8. Ioffe, Julia (3 December 2019). "Trump Is Waging War on America's Diplomats". GQ. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  9. Garcia-Navarro, Lulu (October 25, 2020). "How Trump's Presidency Has Affected Diplomacy". NPR.
  10. "Trump presidency 'an aberration' – Lewis Lukens, former US deputy chief of mission to UK". Channel 4 News. 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  11. EST, Brendan Cole On 1/19/21 at 10:18 AM (2021-01-19). "Ex-U.S envoy says world leaders fear another Donald Trump in four years". Newsweek. Retrieved 2021-02-08.

Further reading
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