When the Olympic torch shines on the historic side-by-side march of North and South Korean athletes in Sydney, Australia, Stephen Bosworth, a major architect of d?©tente on the Korean peninsula, will remain in the shadows. But, at least at Tufts, the US ambassador to Korea will receive ample attention for his efforts, as he assumes the deanship of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy this February.
Bosworth, 60, replaces four-star NATO General John Galvin. He will serve as the seventh dean of Tufts' most prestigious school.
The selection comes after a six-month search headed by Provost Sol Gittleman and Joel Ackerman (F, '69), managing director of Rockport Capital and a member of the Fletcher board of overseers. With help from the private consulting firm A.T. Kearney and Fletcher student Wendin Smith, the administrative search committee reviewed 60 resumes before narrowing the pool of CEOs, academics, and ambassadors to a smaller, interview-worthy group.
Bosworth himself traveled from Korea to Tufts twice to meet the search committee. He spoke before the Fletcher student government, which also deliberated on the matter.
"Searches are the most arduous thing I do, but they're also the most important," Gittleman said. "This was the strongest applicant pool of any search I've conducted. We got our first choice."
Gittleman lauded the ambassador's organizational skills, along with his national stature, and alluded to Bosworth's fund-raising abilities when he called him "extremely well connected." The provost predicted a smooth transition for Bosworth into life at Tufts, and said that the Fletcher community would be even more accepting of Bosworth than it initially was of Galvin.
"It was difficult getting the community to accept a general as dean," he said.
As with most high-level searches, applicants' identities were kept confidential. At one point, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Fletcher as a guest lecturer, and it was rumored that he might have interviewed for the post. Gittleman, however, quashed any remaining speculation. "He never was a candidate," he said.
Last June was a busy time for the embassy at Seoul. Bosworth helped facilitate a meeting in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang between the presidents of countries that are technically still at war. That summit brought to the table seemingly intractable issues of country-to-country interaction, including the possibility that families long-separated during the Korean War might eventually be reunited. It gave momentum to a process of reconciliation that continues with this summer's Olympic games, when both nations' athletes will march together.
With these sensitive diplomatic scenarios playing out in the background, the state department reportedly asked Tufts not to officially announce the appointment beyond the Fletcher community. At the Fletcher commencement ceremony, Ackerman spoke of Bosworth's appointment to the 20,000 some-odd people in attendance, and Tufts later informed the extended Fletcher community in a letter sent to 5,000 alumni. But, following Chatham House Rules (a diplomatic term meaning everyone can know something, but there may be no official statement) no press release was issued until after The Boston Globe obtained a copy of the alumni dispatch and broke the story to the national press.
"After the summit, Bosworth said it was okay," Gittleman said, explaining that the letter had been okayed by both Bosworth and the state department. "Everybody knew about this but the Globe."
The Globe story painted a different picture. Its coverage labeled the letter a "diplomatic slip-up," and implied a soured relationship between Bosworth, Tufts, and the US government. The University denies any such difficulties.
"We got permission from the department of state [and Secretary of State Madeline Albright] before we made the announcement," said Joel Trachtman, Fletcher's acting dean since Galvin's departure. "When the Globe article came out, [Bosworth] had already told us he was ready to go public."
Elizabeth Ginsberg, dean for external affairs at Fletcher, defended the alumni letter, which she attributed to Galvin.
"We were looking for a way to honor our commitment to let [alumni] know when we made a decision and to respect the state department," Ginsberg said. "In an ideal world, you would be in control of the message."
Lounging on the couches in Cabot last Tuesday, Fletcher students seemed little concerned with their new dean. "The buzz will be when he's in the building," said Mustafa Popal, a security studies student in his second year at Fletcher.
Roy Adkins, who is studying development economics, explained that most Fletcher students know little about Bosworth. To Adkins, public relations and fund raising are the most important roles of the Fletcher dean. "When I think of the new dean, I think of how much money he'll bring the school," he said.
Although Bosworth's experience comes primarily from diplomatic circles - he was ambassador to the Philippines during the time of President Marcos' unceremonious exodus, and the ambassador to Tunisia before that - Trachtman is confident in Bosworth's handle on administrative tasks. Bosworth is the former head of the Dartmouth trustees and the former executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, the group that provides energy to North Korea to reward disarmament. He also taught a course at Columbia University.
"After settling in for a year or so, the prospect of teaching a class will have great appeal," Bosworth told The Fletcher Ledger in an interview last July.
Asked by the Ledger about the circumstances surrounding the Globe story, Bosworth said the announcement of his departure did not shock any US officials. "I don't think that anyone was really surprised," he said.
President Clinton sent Bosworth to the Korean peninsula in 1997. Yesterday, a state department official called Bosworth a "very highly respected official." He said that although public commendations from Clinton and Albright won't come until Bosworth leaves Korea for Tufts on February 14, officials from Seoul to Washington admire the ambassador. "It's a little early for testimonials," he said.
"He has served with distinction," the official added, stating that Bosworth is "still working hard for the American people."
