Oscar G. Iden Lectures
The Oscar G. Iden Lecture Series brings distinguished voices in American foreign policy and international diplomacy to Georgetown University.
Established in 1976 and endowed by Oscar G. Iden — a School of Foreign Service graduate, class of 1924 — and his late wife Cecilia, the series honors their legacy of public service and commitment to international education.
Past presenters
Lectures by decade
2017 — Ambassador Jane Dorothy Hartley
Former United States Ambassador to France —Watch the lecture
2016 — Ben Rhodes
Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications —Watch the lecture
2012 — The Honorable Jane Harman
President and CEO of The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars; former member of the US House of Representatives —Read the speech
2011 — Dr. Vishakha Desai
Professor and Special Advisor for Global Affairs to the President of Columbia University
2010 — Dr. Helene Gayle
President and CEO of CARE USA; President of Spelman College
2009 — Gen. Brent Scowcroft (Ret.)
Counselor and Trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board; Chair of the Intelligence Oversight Board; Former US National Security Advisor
2008 — Zalmay Khalilzad
US Ambassador to the United Nations; US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation —Read the speech
2007 — Anthony C. Zinni
Former Commander in Chief of US Central Command; US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace; US Special Envoy for Qatar
2003 — Paul Wolfowitz
Former US Deputy Secretary of Defense; Former President of the World Bank Group
2002 — Maurice R. Greenberg
Chairman and CEO of American International Group
2001 — John D. Negroponte
US Ambassador to the United Nations; United States Ambassador to Iraq; 1st Director of National Intelligence; Former United States Deputy Secretary of State
2000 — Samuel R. Berger
US National Security Advisor
1999 — George J. Tenet
US Director of Central Intelligence —Listen to the speech
1998 — Lee H. Hamilton
Member of the US House of Representatives —Listen to the speech
1998 — Newt Gingrich
Speaker of the US House of Representatives —Listen to the speech
1997 — Dr. Anthony Lake
US National Security Advisor —Listen to the speech
1996 — Dr. William J. Perry
US Secretary of Defense —Read the speech
1994 — General John A. Shalikashvili
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff —Read the speech
1991 — Henry E. Catto
US Ambassador to the United Kingdom
1990 — Chester A. Crocker
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
1989 — Edward J. Perkins
US Ambassador to South Africa
1988 — David D. Newsom
Author and Columnist for Christian Science Magazine
1987 — Soedjatmoko
Rector of the United Nations University; Former Ambassador of Indonesia to the US
1986 — Donald F. McHenry
Ambassador and US Permanent Representative to the United Nations
1985 — Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
US Ambassador to the United Nations —Listen to the speech
1984 — Dr. Peter F. Krogh
Dean Emeritus and Distinguished Professor, Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service —Listen to the speech
1982 — Walter Stoessel, Jr.
US Ambassador to West Germany —Listen to the speech
1981 — Martin F. Herz
Director of Georgetown University Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
1980 — Hugh Mackintosh Foot, Lord Caradon
Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations; Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; Governor of Cyprus; Visiting Fellow, Harvard and Princeton Universities
1979 — George H. W. Bush
41st President of the United States; 43rd Vice President of the United States; Former US Director of Central Intelligence
1977 — Anne L. Armstrong
US Ambassador to the United Kingdom —Listen to the speech
1976 — Carroll Quigley
Professor, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service
About Oscar G. Iden
Oscar G. Iden (1891–1983)
“To all but his intimate friends, Oscar, otherwise known as ‘Captain,’ exhibits a shadow of reserve, but beneath the surface is a great fund of good-fellowship.“
Georgetown Yearbook, 1922
Oscar Glenn Iden, a 1924 graduate of the School of Foreign Service, was a career public servant, a lifelong student of public affairs and a generous friend of Georgetown University and its Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. He and his late wife, Cecilia, endowed this lecture series, which began in 1976.
Oscar Iden was born in 1891, spent most of his childhood in Nebraska and launched his long career in public service at an unusually early age. Exaggerating his fourteen years by two, he joined the United States Navy in 1905. He sailed for a year with President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Great White Fleet,” which “showed the flag” around the world from 1907 to 1909.
Leaving the Navy in 1908, Oscar Iden began his civil service career as a Treasury guard. He joined the Income Tax Division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1914 and would remain with the IRS throughout his long professional career. He was commissioned in the Army of the United States in June 1917 and served until August 1919 as a captain on the staff of the Commanding General at Camp Lee, Virginia. Thereafter, he served for an additional 28 years in the IRS Income Tax Unit. Drawing on his training as both a CPA and a lawyer, Oscar Iden specialized in investigative and legal work related to income tax evasion. He was in charge of major investigations in the United States, Cuba, and Europe and is said to have recovered substantial sums for the U.S. Treasury from European havens.
Shortly after his retirement from the IRS in 1948, he was recruited for a special mission by Senator Hung Butler, the Nebraska Republican Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. For six months, Mr. Iden conducted an undercover investigation of the economic and political situation in the Territory of Hawaii, in connection with the statehood bill later defeated in 1950.
While fully engaged in his career with the IRS, Oscar Iden earned degrees from several Washington-area universities. At Georgetown, he earned a Certificate in Foreign Service in 1922 and a Bachelor of Foreign Service in 1924. He then earned a Master of Political Science from American University in 1928 and a Bachelor of Laws from National University (later merged with George Washington University) in 1931. Later that year, he was admitted to the District of Columbia bar. An avid reader and lifelong student, he pursued further graduate studies—in accountancy, statistics and psychology—at George Washington University and Columbus University (now a part of Catholic University Law School).
Oscar and Cecilia Iden, who married in 1915, traveled extensively throughout their sixty-six years together. On December 17, 1983, at the age of 92, Oscar Iden died, two years after his wife. Their great goodwill and generosity will continue to benefit present and future generations at Georgetown University.