Christopher Hill 
explores political 
strategies in Syria 
and North Korea

By CALEB CHADWELL

Daily Staff Reporter

Christopher Hill, former 

assistant secretary of state and 
U.S. ambassador, discussed 
current 
topics 
in 
foreign 

policy, such as ongoing peace 
settlements for conflicts in 
Syria and North Korea, at the 
Ford School of Public Policy 
Monday evening.

Hill 
was 
nominated 

as 
an 
ambassador 
by 

three 
presidents, 
most 

recently serving as the U.S. 
ambassador 
to 
Iraq 
from 

2009 to 2010. He also helped 

bring an end to the Bosnian 
War 
through 
the 
Dayton 

Accords peace agreement in 
1995, an agreement which he 
said could be applicabble to 
current global conflict.

While Hill noted it was 

not a complete success in 
helping bring about political 
change, he said he’s proud of 
the Accords in helping to end 
a violent and horrific conflict.

“There 
were 
200,000 

people killed in the Balkans, 
there were rape camps and all 
kinds of hideous things that 
had to be stopped,” Hill said.

Speaking to to ongoing 

situations with Syria, North 
Korea, China and Iran today, 
he said there were parallel 
that could be drawn.

Hill said after negotiating 

an 
end 
to 
the 
Bosnian 

conflict, he learned that a 
key to reaching agreements 

is a willingness to work and 
negotiate with all different 
parties involved. He added 
that though it’s not always 
fun, to reach peace conflicting 
parties 
must 
communicate 

with each other.

Touching 
on 
his 

experiences serving as the 
U.S. ambassador to South 
Korea and assistant secretary 
of state, Hill said though 
North Korea was one of the 
most difficult countries he 
dealt with as a diplomat, he 
thought the United States 
still needed to attempt to 
make agreements with the 
country.

“These are people only 

a mother can love; I have 
never had such an unpleasant 
experience as I did with 
North Korea,” Hill said.

He added that while over 

half of the people in the 

Republican 
Party 
today 

refuse to negotiate with 
North Korea, he commends 
former President George 
W. Bush for opening up 
diplomatic relations with 
them during his tenure.

Nuclear weapons, Hill 

said, is the biggest challenge 
for U.S. diplomacy today. 

“Look 
at 
Hiroshima, 

could we handle another 
Hiroshima in this world? 
I don’t think so,” Hill 
said. “I think the issue is 
how to stop these nuclear 
wannabes.”

China could play a role in 

putting pressure on North 
Korea and their nuclear 
program, 
Hill 
noted. 

However, he stressed that 
the United States needs 

to be more transparent with 
China for them to consider 
potentially imposing heavier 
sanctions 
against 
North 

Korea.

Speaking to the current 

civil war in Syria involving 
President Bashar al-Assad, 
the rebels and ISIS, Hill 
cautioned 
the 
audience 

against 
harshly 
criticizing 

people 
working 
to 
obtain 

peace in the country.

“I think Syria is a hideous 

situation, 
probably 
even 

worse than Bosnia was,” Hill 
said. “It’s easy to be critical of 
the people working on it, but 
you’ve got to understand the 
degree of difficulty that they 
have to contend with.”

Hill stressed the need for 

the political parties of the 
United States to pull together 
and propose a bipartisan plan 
to reach peace in Syria.

When asked his opinion 

on the recently implemented 
nuclear deal with Iran, Hill 
said while the deal does limit 
Iran’s nuclear capability, it 
also unfreezes Iranian assets 
that they could use to support 
terrorist organizations such 
as Hezbollah.

In closing, Hill talked about 

how enjoyable and fulfilling it 
was to serve as a diplomat, and 
encouraged students not to be 
afraid of pursuing a career 
with the State Department. 

“There’s 
no 
country 
in 

the world that’s more fun 
to defend than the United 
States,” Hill said. “American 
diplomacy 
should 
be 

something that we do, and do 
very well.”

Public 
Policy 
senior 

Madeline Hartlieb said she 
attended the talk because she 
is interested in foreign policy 

and pursuing diplomacy in 
the future.

“Just to hear how outspoken 

(Hill) was, especially given 
how morbid the foreign policy 
scene can seem — I would 
definitely say that it was 
inspiring,” Hartlieb said.

Public Policy junior Swathi 

Shanmugasundaram 
said 

she 
enjoyed 
hearing 
Hill 

speak because of his career 
experience 
and 
her 
own 

interest in foreign policy.

“It’s easy to get down on 

yourself 
and 
your 
career 

path, 
especially 
as 
an 

undergraduate student and 
seeing everyone pass you,” 
Shanmugasundaram 
said. 

“But to hear Ambassador Hill 
talk about how his career 
started and how it’s flourished 
is 
awesome, 
because 
you 

think ‘Wow, maybe I can do 
that too.’”

2 — Tuesday, January 26, 2016
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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

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President Barack Obama 
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2

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Mike’s dream to work for Ellen

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Haloti Ngata, defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions, participates in a dialogue 

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TACKLE AT TROT TE R

LSA sophomore Michael 
Funkhouser recently 
created a video resume of 
his achievements, posted 
on Facebook, in hopes 
of getting a summer 
internship on “The Ellen 
DeGeneres Show.” 

Could you describe your 
video and why you made 
it?

I made a video to try and 
be an intern for Ellen. I’ve 
taken some videos in the 
last couple of years, and 
there were some videos 
from news stations. I 
thought it would be really 
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those and relive all of that. 
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make a really cool video 

compiling all of those 
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have fun with it and try 
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Why Ellen? What do 
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I actually get asked the 
“Why Ellen?” question a 
lot. My answer is always 
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anyone. The issue would 
have been whether I was 
working here in Ann 
Arbor, back in Jackson 
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desk wherever I was, and 
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people.” And there was 

a chance that whatever 
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explain why. If I work 
for Ellen, I don’t have to 
explain why. She just says, 
or hopefully she says, 
“How can I help you do 
that?” which would be 
really cool.

Why did you decide to 
go about this over social 
media?

Social media is what I 
know. It’s honestly one 
of the only ways to do it. 
I don’t know how else 
I would have done it. I 
applied online, on her 
website. 

 —JENNIFER MEER

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Former ambassador discusses 
foreign policy at Ford School

HALEY MCLAUGHLILN/Dailly

Christopher Hill, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, discusses his opinions on the current state of foreign policy in 
the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy on Monday. 

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