Follow us on social

Willliam Luers Angelina Jolie

At 95, William Luers never stopped believing in a US-Iran détente

The career diplomat died Saturday, but he left a legacy, and a playbook for peace

Analysis | QiOSK

Ambassador William H. Luers, whose active promotion of American diplomacy as a primary component of U.S. foreign policy continued well into his 90s, died Saturday at his home in Connecticut at the age of 95.

After a 31-year career in the foreign service, the Quincy Institute was proud to count him as a distinguished non-resident fellow.

His post-retirement career was certainly active: Luers served as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as both chairman and president of the United Nations Association of the U.S.A. He was a key leader of The Iran Project, a group of scholars and retired diplomats and military committed to preventing Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon and averting a military conflict in the region.

"Bill was an absolute giant. His work to strengthen diplomacy's role in U.S. foreign policy cannot be overstated,” said Quincy Institute Executive Vice President Trita Parsi. “Without him, there would never have been a nuclear deal with Iran, for instance."

The Iran Project to this day serves as a valuable hub for policymakers and analysts seeking to avoid misunderstandings between Iran and the U.S. in the process of finding diplomatic solutions to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon.

President Barack Obama personally credited Luers’ work at The Iran Project for bringing about the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1.

“Thanks to you at The Iran Project for your leadership on the nuclear deal,” wrote Obama in a handwritten note published in Luers’ memoir, Uncommon Company: Dissidents and Diplomats, Enemies and Artists. “It made a huge difference, and the world will be better for it.”

Luers enthusiastically sought to democratize foreign policy, touting the importance of art and culture — particularly music — to bridge cultures and overcome political barriers in the service of diplomacy.

Luers served as U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1983 to 1986, playing a pivotal role in building up the international celebrity of Vaclav Havel to protect him from assassination, a subtle act of diplomacy helping lay the groundwork for the country’s Velvet Revolution and Czechoslovakia’s transition from a one-party state and command economy to a parliamentary republic with Havel as the first president of the newly formed Czech Republic.

“Diplomacy and the arts. So completely do I believe in their collaborative power that I have spent fifty years advocating for them, fighting for them, and celebrating all that has been accomplished in their names,” wrote Luers in his 2024 memoir.

His book ended not on the note of a retired diplomat well into his 90s looking back at a life well-lived, but as a youthful problem-solver, drawn to the world’s toughest problems and asking how American diplomacy could be harnessed to end violent conflict and further the common-good. He wrote:

“With an unflinching belief in the fundamental principle of talking to the other in uncommon company, I am persuaded that we must talk even with Putin or his closest advisors to see when and whether he would be prepared to share his own thoughts on how to organize an end to the war with Ukraine. Some way must be found to seek back-channel communications with the Kremlin, with friends and associates of Putin, to determine whether there is an inclination to address our differences and explore ways to end this conflict with Ukraine. The demonization of Putin is fully understandable given the inhumanity of this war between Russia and Ukraine, but the need to converse with uncommon company, including your enemies, should override the hatred and hostility of the enemy. If the US is engaged in supporting a military conflict or conducting a military conflict, it must set objectives short of total victory. Incidentally, wins that are achievable allow the US to sustain conflicts without having to face up to humiliating defeat or endless wars.”

He is survived by his wife Wendy Woods Luers, three children, two stepchildren, five grandchildren and five step-grandchildren.


Top photo credit: Angelina Jolie poses for pictures with UNA-USA president William Luers during the United Nations Association of the USA awards dinner in New York on October 11, 2005. Jolie was honored with the 2005 UN Global Humanitarian Action Award for her work as a Goodwill Ambassador with refugees around the world. REUTERS/Seth Wenig
Analysis | QiOSK
Rand Paul Donald Trump
Top photo credit: Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) (Shutterstock/Mark Reinstein) and President Trump (White House/Molly Riley)

Rand Paul to Trump: Don't 'abandon' MAGA over Maduro regime change

Washington Politics

Sen. Rand Paul said on Friday that “all hell could break loose” within Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition if the president involves the U.S. further in Ukraine, and added that his supporters who voted for him after 20 years of regime change wars would "feel abandoned" if he went to war and tried to topple Nicolas Maduro, too.

President Trump has been getting criticism from some of his supporters for vowing to release the files of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and then reneging on that promise. Paul said that the Epstein heat Trump is getting from MAGA will be nothing compared to if he refuses to live up to his “America First” foreign policy promises.

keep readingShow less
Trump ASEAN
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump looks at Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., next to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim when posing for a family photo with leaders at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 26, 2025. Vincent Thian/Pool via REUTERS

‘America First’ meets ‘ASEAN Way’ in Kuala Lumpur

Asia-Pacific

The 2025 ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Kuala Lumpur beginning today are set to be consequential multilateral gatherings — defining not only ASEAN’s internal cohesion but also the shape of U.S.–China relations in the Indo-Pacific.

President Donald Trump’s participation will be the first by a U.S. president in an ASEAN-led summit since 2022. President Biden skipped the last two such summits in 2023 and 2024, sending then-Vice President Harris instead.

keep readingShow less
iran, china, russia
Top photo credit: Top image credit: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi shake hands as Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu looks on during their meet with reporters after their meeting at Diaoyutai State Guest House on March 14, 2025 in Beijing, China. Lintao Zhang/Pool via REUTERS

'Annulled'! Russia won't abide snapback sanctions on Iran

Middle East

“A raider attack on the U.N. Security Council.” This was the explosive accusation leveled by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov this week. His target was the U.N. Secretariat and Western powers, whom he blamed for what Russia sees as an illegitimate attempt to restore the nuclear-related international sanctions on Iran.

Beyond the fiery rhetoric, Ryabkov’s statement contained a message: Russia, he said, now considers all pre-2015 U.N. sanctions on Iran, snapped back by the European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) — the United Kingdom, France, Germany — “annulled.” Moscow will deepen its military-technical cooperation with Tehran accordingly, according to Ryabkov.

This is more than a diplomatic spat; it is the formal announcement of a split in international legal reality. The world’s major powers are now operating under two irreconcilable interpretations of international law. On one side, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany assert that the sanctions snapback mechanism of the JCPOA was legitimately triggered for Iran’s alleged violations. On the other, Iran, Russia, and China reject this as an illegitimate procedural act.

This schism was not inevitable, and its origin reveals a profound incongruence. The Western powers that most frequently appeal to the sanctity of the "rules-based international order" and international law have, in this instance, taken an action whose effects fundamentally undermine it. By pushing through a legal maneuver that a significant part of the Security Council considers illegitimate, they have ushered the world into a new and more dangerous state. The predictable, if imperfect, framework of universally recognized Security Council decisions is being replaced by a system where legal facts are determined by political interests espoused by competing power blocs.

This rupture followed a deliberate Western choice to reject compromises in a stand-off with Iran. While Iran was in a technical violation of the provisions of the JCPOA — by, notably, amassing a stockpile of highly enriched uranium (up to 60% as opposed to the 3.67% for a civilian use permissible under the JCPOA), there was a chance to avert the crisis. In the critical weeks leading to the snapback, Iran had signaled concessions in talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Cairo, in terms of renewing cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s inspectors.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.