Richard Lugar

Richard Green "Dick" Lugar ( born April 4, 1932 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American politician. He was from 1977 to 2013 one of the two U.S. senators from the state of Indiana. He belongs to the Republican Party and from 1987 to 1995 and from 2003 to 2007 Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Lugar sat down heavily in the Senate for the dismantling of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in the world.

Life and work

Early years and education

Richard Lugar attended school in his hometown of Indianapolis and was at the same time scouts, where he received the highest award of the Eagle Scout. He completed his studies at Denison University and graduated in 1954 from to then switch to the Pembroke College, University of Oxford in England, where he studied politics, philosophy and economics. Here he remained until 1956 and then served from 1957 to 1960 in the United States Navy.

Political activity

From 1964 to 1967 Lugar was a member of the school board of Indianapolis and was then elected mayor of the city. In this capacity he was closely associated with the called " Unigov " Treaty on the administrative reform of the city of Indianapolis and linking them with the Marion County. His confirmation was made in 1971 and shortly thereafter he was unofficially to decentralize to " Richard Nixon 's favorite mayor " because of his efforts, the business of government to the municipalities.

Richard Lugar came in 1974 for the first time as a Republican candidate for elections to the U.S. Senate, but was defeated by Democrat Birch Bayh. In 1976, he ran again and won this time against Vance Hartke. In subsequent years, he successfully defended his seat over several elections successfully and was last confirmed in 2006 with a majority of 87.4 % of voters. He applied in 1996 for the nomination as Republican presidential candidate, but went to Bob Dole.

Lugar was instrumental in the ratification of the Senate for the laws that reduced global production and use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In 1991 he initiated together with the later chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn, an initiative to destruction of potential weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. To date, more than 5900 nuclear warheads were destroyed by the Nunn - Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which were previously directed to the United States.

As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Lugar supported reforms in agriculture in 1996, which ended the state's production in the 1930s. He initiated a biofuel program to reduce the dependence of the U.S. economy on foreign oil. He also reformed the national food stamp SNAP system and promoted the statutory lunch program for schools.

In June 2007, Lugar called for the first time publicly a change of course in Iraq policies of President George W. Bush. Its strategy of military surge in Iraq was delaying necessary adjustments of U.S. foreign policy and confine their diplomatic options. Lugar's remarks were interpreted as a sign of a significant decline in support of the President within his own party on this issue.

In a vote of his party on 8 May 2012 Lugar lost the nomination to Richard Mourdock, the candidate of the Tea Party movement. Joe Donnelly succeeded him in the Senate.

Awards

For his political work Lugar received a number of awards, including the Guardian of Small Business and the Spirit of Enterprise. Lugar is 34 - times honorary doctorates at several universities. He is a member of the Nuclear Threat Initiative ( NTI ). 2013, the Federal Cross of Merit awarded him. Also in 2013 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.