When John Shattuck first stepped out of the esteemed halls of Yale Law in 1970, even his wildest expectations could not have predicted the next four decades of his career. Whether it’s been Watergate, the Bosnian war or the Rwandan Genocide, he's made a career out of protecting civil rights both locally and abroad. Never one for stagnation either, he’s repeatedly switched lanes as well, giving him the kind of varied experience that he believes has led him on the path he’s on today.
Shattuck started as a civil rights attorney working specifically on the infamous Watergate scandal that would eventually lead to the impeachment of President Nixon. He would try his own hand at governance and international affairs, at times becoming a panacea of sorts for some of the biggest international crises in the '90s. In 1993 he was nominated by President Bill Clinton as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He would eventually play significant roles in the U.N.’s formation of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia. He also worked on the negotiation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which put an end to the war in Bosnia. Under Clinton he was also appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic in 1998, working closely with the Czech government in their preparation for their ascension to NATO.
Now, he’s at the helm of the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. As president and rector—not to mention professor at its graduate school—he’s facing a new set of challenges with the same vigor and drive that’s made fighting for human rights such a core pillar of his career. Recently during his brief stay in D.C., Shattuck spoke to me about his career path, what’s missing in higher education, and how he gets shy students to say what’s on their minds.
Terrance F. Ross: You’ve had an extensive career that’s crossed many different fields—from fighting for civil rights, both here and abroad, to your work in government. Now you moved onto the field of education. How has your own education experience contributed to your growth?
John Shattuck: My lessons have come as much during my career as from the time I was being educated. I had a very fine education but the way in which I learned to put my education to work came more through two aspects of my career. First, as a civil rights lawyer I was actively involved in trying to help people whose civil rights or freedoms of speech had been violated. I happened to be starting my career at the time of the famous Watergate scandal. One of my earlier career activities was to make sure that civil liberties were not undermined. I represented some of the people whose telephones had been wiretapped, and we won the case against the government. That was a lesson in how to make law actually work to the benefit of the people. Later on in my career I was in government; as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights I saw the worst side of humanity as an investigator of the genocide in Rwanda. Also, I was the first international diplomat to reach the survivors of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995, so my view of how human nature works was very complicated by seeing those and many other examples. I wondered if law and education and policy could prevent human nature from getting into these horrific vices that I saw. Those experiences have helped me in my role as an educator. Ross: So would you argue that your experience in foreign policy in particular had a large impact?Shattuck: I would say so. I truly believe in bringing people together and giving them a common educational experience from many different backgrounds and points of view. I think this is the most stimulating form of education one could have. So we are building the Central European University (CEU) as the model for this kind of non-national, multiple-perspective education program.
Ross: You’ve moved around not only jobs but also industries throughout your career. Were you unfulfilled or just constantly intrigued by new opportunities?
Shattuck: Well I do think—and I teach my students the same as well—that it’s important to get out there, do a variety of things in the world, and do as well as you can while responding to the challenges that are presented to you. That’s what I’ve tried to do, and I think there was a natural progression from my interests in the rights of Americans to, ultimately, international human rights, where I started realizing that the United States is obviously only one part of the world, and it was important to raise my consciousness on a more global stage.
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