Joseph Hansdann
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His Excellency Lord Joseph Hansdann | |
|---|---|
| File:Cofer-bowtie.jpg Lord Hansdann with his trademark bowtie, c. 2010. | |
| President of the Imperial Social Sciences Institute | |
| In office March 15th, 2014 – March 15th, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Yosef Herzl |
| Succeeded by | Rebekah Schiff |
| Imperial Foreign Minister of Belhavia | |
| In office January 21st, 2009 – February 12th, 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Schmuel Braunstein |
| Succeeded by | Daniel Nobelstein |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 3rd, 1947 Kiryat Aronov, South Dakos |
| Nationality | Belhavian |
| Political party | Conservative Party |
| Spouse | Debra F. Hansdann |
| Residence(s) | Loweport, Arthurista |
| Alma mater | B.A., International Relations, Imperial Provisa University Ph.D. F.A., Freeport Provincial University |
| Profession | Professor of international relations, Diplomat, Theorist |
Joseph E. Hansdann, Ph.D., 1st Lord of Fallenland (born January 3rd, 1947) is the former Imperial Foreign Minister of Belhavia, a past President of the Imperial Social Sciences Institute, and a major Belhavian statesman as well as a notable academic. He is a member of the Conservative Party. He is a former professor of international relations and comparative politics at Imperial Provisa University and was the third academic to hold the post of Foreign Minister. He is of mixed ethnic Karinzgradian-Austrasian descent, as his family immigrated to Belhavia in the early 20th century from southern Australis.
As a professor at IPU, Lord Hansdann pioneered a new school of thought in international politics fusing together elements of realist and liberal thought in comparative politics that he coined "Neorealism".
As Foreign Minister under President Eli Goldman, he is known for his global consensus-building style and even-temperament. He was well-regarded by his foreign counterparts across the ideological spectrum.
He led a vigorous united front in the CDI and broader Free Pardes worlds with the formal emergence of the RCO in 2009 on global and OPA issues; however, he also enjoyed cordial, close personal relationships with his Rodarian, Tarsan, and Ulthrannic foreign minister peers that facilitated stronger CDI-RCO dialogue and quick, peaceful resolutions to rising tensions between 2009 and 2014. He was succeeded as Foreign Minister by a top aide and confidant, Daniel Nobelstein, in February 2014.
He took the presidency of the Imperial Social Sciences Institute, a leading academic body in Provisa, for its 2014-2015 term. As of late 2015, he took a tenured teaching position at the University of Loweport in Arthurista.
Early Life and Education
Joseph Hansdann was born on January 3rd, 1947, to Jürgen and Hannah Hansdann in Kiryat Aronov, South Dakos. His parents had fled southern Australis in 1945 because of internal Karinzgradian politics and violence. Jürgen was Karinzgradian, and his wife Hannah was Austrasian. As they were both academics, they managed to secure asylum and work visas in the relaxed immigration regime of the early post-Galarian years.
They settled in the rural South Dakos province, and taught their disciplines at a local provincial college. Joseph was raised in small-town Middle Belhavia, albeit in a lower-middle-income home with a younger sister, Angelika. His parents sent him to a private Rodar-Catholic parochial school that was the only non-Jewish option in their area, and he flourished there academically, graduating as valedictoreian of his class. However, he was bullied and mocked by many of his peers over religious politics, for him and his family being Skanderan Catholics amid a near-unanimous Rodarian Catholic student body and local school community.
He attended Imperial Provisa University from 1965 until 1969, where he studied international relations and foreign affairs. In the last months of his college education, he and other IPU students were caught in the crossfire during fighting between loyalist and rogue Imperial Army units in that area of Provisa amid the failed 1969 far-right coup. In fall 1969, he moved up north and entered his Ph.D. program in Foreign Affairs at Freeport Provincial University, where he secured a full-ride scholarship due to his grades, resume, and aptitude. He graduated with his Ph.D. in 1976.
Academic Career
He returned to his alma mater, IPU, in 1977 where he became an adjutant professor in the school's department of international relations. Two years later, he published his landmark thesis Neorealism: The Modern Analysis of World Geopolitics. After the positive reaction to his work, he applied for, and was granted, a full professorship in 1980, and continued to publish work from a neorealist perspective as well as actively teach four courses a semester.
He published a book in 1986 called "The World In Flux: A Neorealist Approach To Foreign Policy," which was widely panned in the academic international-relations community but modestly successful among high-income, politically-active general readers.
He served as chair of the department from 1984-1985 and again from 1989-1990.
In 1993, he attended an academic conference in Chaleur, Emmeria, where he met President-General David Choe of the Free Anikatia Movement. Choe had read some of Hansdann's work, and generally thought it practical and realistic. After that encounter, they corresponded regularly, and in 1997 Choe publicly declared he was receiving informal foreign policy advice from Hansdann. A week later, the relatively-reformist leadership of the DSRA banned Hansdann from traveling to Anikatia; the ban was reversed just four years later after the Communist regime's fall in 2001.
After his stint as Foreign Minister, he served as president of the prestigious Imperial Social Sciences Institute in Provisa from 2014 to 2015. In 2015, he took a high-profile professorship of foreign affairs at the University of Loweport in Arthurista.
Ennoblement as Lord
Political Activism
In 1979, his Neorealism essay received rapt attention in the political world, especially from Imperial Senator Julian Settas (C-Provisa). In his 1980 presidential run, Hansdann served as a foreign policy adviser to his campaign, and would informally advise President Settas throughout the 1980s.
While serving as department chair at IPU in 1990, he harshly criticized the 1990 SNIA cuts in an opinion-editorial as "destructive to our national security interests", after which he was pilloried by the left-leaning foreign policy establishment and by some officials of the Katz administration. The university put him on a three-month paid administrative leave of absence; afterward, he returned and resumed teaching.
In 2002, he surprised his friends and colleagues in the Provisa conservative political establishment by criticizing the White Terror laws as "archaic" and supporting then-Liberal Democratic President Garret Holleran's unsuccessful efforts to cease enforcement of the laws.
In August 2015, he defended President Eli Goldman's foreign policy at a moderated political forum in Arthurista in front of a largely hostile left-wing student and academic crowd, calling his former superior's approach "a steady hand, with level-headed leadership and resolve, and a thoughtful, careful conscientiousness in how he handled foreign crises. President Goldman is a fine world leader, and one of Belhavia's best." After his remarks, the crowd generally demurred and some booing by protestors was heard.
Foreign Minister (2009 - 2014)
Relationships with other states
Emmeria
He viewed Emmeria as a "bastion of liberty" whose "virtuous example...is an inspiration to us all." He oversaw closer coordination between Emmerian and Belhavian intelligence agencies, as well as several joint military exercises in 2009, 2011, and 2013.
He had a warm relationship with then-Secretary of State Lana Basara as well as her successor, Alia Kouri. Hansdann was a major proponent of indirect military action, and largely favored Emmerian-led airstrikes as opposed to direct military engagement.
Arthurista
Hansdann admitted in an 2004 interview to "falling in love with Arthurista" after visiting for the second time in his life. He wrote in 2008 that "[Arthurista] is a shining model of scientific and academic freedom and curiosity, a relatively-ordered liberal, progressive society that embraced the best of what the Enlightenment bequeathed to us."
He was, in return, beloved by the Arthuristan political and media establishment, and viewed as an "honorary Arthuristan" and "the liberal Belhavian," in reference to general Arthuristan disagreements over Belhavian social conservatism and society.
He had strong relationships with the Arthuristan leadership, and visited the country or possessions no less than 9 times as Foreign Minister, the most of any nation.
Prestonia
Rodarion
Hansdann viewed Rodarion more warily then his successor, Daniel Nobelstein, and distrusted the Central Lusankyan power. He wrote in 2007 in The Globe magazine that "the Rodarians speak out of both sides of their mouths, and always have an ulterior agenda." When he was tapped to be Goldman's first Foreign Minister, many mistook this as an anti-Rodarion move by the new president. Quickly, however, Goldman established his cordial relationship with his Rodarian presidential peers, and Hansdann's earlier views were ignored.
He did lead a strong anti-RCO move among CDI and Free Pardes governments in 2009 when the RCO announced its formation, and he criticized the organization as being "led by tyrannies," an implied criticism at Rodarion. He disavowed that charge, however, saying, "Rodarion is our world's largest democracy; however illiberal it may be, it doesn't qualify as 'a tyranny.'"
He formed cordial working relationships with his Rodarian foreign minister counterparts, including briefly with Adriano Anastasio (2009-2010), but mainly with his successor, Francesca Rafaelli (2010-2014).
Tarsas
Ulthrannia
He had a close friendship with his Ulthrannic counterpart, Eleuterio Castro de Castañón. However, he viewed the country as a whole as aggressive, expansionistic, and a threat to the global international order.
One of Hansdann's confidants, the former Belhavian ambassador to Ulthrannia (2005-2009) Norm Cole, alleged in his 2013 autobiography that Hansdann told him at a social gathering in Provisa in 2012 that "'Norm, the Ulthrannics are dangerous. G-d help us if they ever become a power to be reckoned with.'"
After the autobiography was released and Los Reyes signaled its annoyance with the remark, Hansdann denied the conversation ever happened. However, in mid-2014 after his retirement as Foreign Minister, he admitted to an Arthuristan reporter that the conversation occurred exactly as Cole recalled it.
Political Views
Notable remarks
"In my opinion, the frequently voiced opinion that the Arthuristans are pushing some form of 'progressive agenda' is a bit of a misnomer. The two dominant tendencies in the Arthuristan public sphere, empiricism and utilitarianism, are both over two hundred years old. As far as they're concerned, Arthuristans are not progressive, they merely have a realistic and hardheaded view of the world, and they find picking fights with people because of their private lives, or feuding with other countries because they believe in different economic models to be completely needless. They are baffled by 'culture wars' abroad and wonder why anyone would waste time and effort over such things. The state, they believe, has better things to do with their precious tax money than meddling with matters so evanescent and non-materiel." - interview with The Provisa Times (February 2008).
Personal life and family
He is married to Debra Hansdann (neé Schmitt) since 1969, which as of August 2015 is over 46 years. They have three daughters, Erika (age 40), a international vocalist, Christina (age 43), a nun at a Skanderan Catholic monastery, and Lea (age 44), a physician.
He speaks six languages: Belhavian English, Yiddish, Rodarian, Ulthrannic, rudimentary Anikatian, and Emmerian Farsi.