{{Short description|American diplomat}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Lew Lukens |image = Lewis Lukens ambassador 2011.jpg |office1 = United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom |status1 = Acting |president1 = Barack Obama<br/>Donald Trump |term_start1 = January 18, 2017 |term_end1 = August 21, 2017 |predecessor1 = Matthew Barzun |successor1 = Woody Johnson |office = Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy London |president = Barack Obama<br/>Donald Trump |term_start = August 1, 2016 |term_end = January 1, 2019 |predecessor = Elizabeth Dibble |successor = Yael Lempert |1blankname = Ambassador |1namedata = Matthew Barzun<br/>Woody Johnson |office2 = United States Ambassador to Senegal |president2 = Barack Obama |term_start2 = October 19, 2011 |term_end2 = June 4, 2014 |predecessor2 = Marcia Bernicat |successor2 = James Zumwalt |office3 = United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau |president3 = Barack Obama |term_start3 = October 19, 2011 |term_end3 = June 4, 2014 |predecessor3 = Marcia Bernicat |successor3 = James Zumwalt |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1963|12|25}}{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} |birth_place = Paris, France{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} |death_date = |death_place = |party = |spouse = Lucy Buxton (1992–2014)<br/>Andrea Topper (2015–present){{citation needed|date=January 2017}} |education = {{nowrap|Princeton University (BA, MPP)}} }} '''Lewis Alan Lukens''' is a retired American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. His final assignment was as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in London.
==Early life and education== Lukens was born on December 25, 1963, in Paris, France. His father, Alan Wood Lukens, was US Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to the Republic of the Congo.<ref name=NYTimes/>
Lukens attended Princeton University, where he was awarded an AB degree in history. He received a master's degree from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.<ref name="DCM Bio">{{cite web|title=Deputy Chief of Mission Lewis Lukens |url=https://uk.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/dcm/ |website=U.S. Embassy and Consulates in the United Kingdom |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120004017/https://uk.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/dcm/ |archivedate=20 November 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Career== Lukens joined the United States Foreign Service in July 1989, serving in Southern China, Ivory Coast, Australia, Ireland, Iraq, Canada, Senegal, and the United Kingdom.<ref name="DCM Bio"/>
From 2008 to 2011, Lukens was executive director of the U.S. Department of State's Executive Secretariat, directing management support and overseas travel for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.<ref name="DCM Bio"/> Lukens testified under oath in a legal case related to the Hillary Clinton email controversy.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hsu|first1=Spencer S.|title=State Dept. offered 'standalone' PC for Clinton's email|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/state-dept-official-clinton-could-not-access-state-network-without-email-account/2016/05/26/0926c552-236c-11e6-9e7f-57890b612299_story.html|accessdate=27 January 2017|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 26, 2016}}</ref>
From 2011 to 2014, Lukens was U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.<ref name="DCM Bio"/>
From August 2016 to January 2019, Lukens served as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in London.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lewis Lukens |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-lukens-51a95525/ |website=LinkedIn |accessdate=22 July 2020}}</ref> On June 5, 2017, while serving as Acting Ambassador, Lukens tweeted his support for London mayor Sadiq Khan, after President Donald Trump had sent a tweet critical of Khan following a terrorist incident.<ref name=NYTimes>[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/us/politics/diplomats-quiet-revolt-donald-trump-tensions.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news Diplomats quiet revolt against Trump] NYTimes, Retrieved June 6, 2017</ref>
In February 2018, Lukens advised his superior, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Wood Johnson IV, not to follow through on President Trump's request to try to get the British government to steer the British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland; Lukens warned that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain. However, Johnson reportedly did make the attempt in an overture to the Secretary of State for Scotland.<ref>{{cite news |title=Trump's Request of an Ambassador: Get the British Open for Me |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/world/europe/trump-british-open.html |accessdate=July 22, 2020 |date=July 21, 2020 |work=The New York Times |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20200722121948/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/world/europe/trump-british-open.html |archivedate=2020-07-22 |url-status=unfit}}</ref>{{cbignore|bot=InternetArchiveBot}}
In a pair of speeches to English universities in October 2018, Lukens used an anecdote about President Barack Obama's 2013 visit to Senegal to illustrate how allies can handle disagreements. Because of the complimentary reference to Obama, Ambassador Johnson referred to Lukens as a "traitor". Lukens alleged that Johnson had tried to use his position as ambassador to persuade the British government to move the lucrative British Open golf tournament to Trump's Turnberry golf resort.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Walsh|first=Christopher|title=Allegations That Ambassador Tried to Line the President's Pockets {{!}} The East Hampton Star|url=https://www.easthamptonstar.com/government/2020820/allegations-ambassador-tried-to-line-presidents-pockets|access-date=2021-02-08|website=www.easthamptonstar.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Ryan|first=Chris|date=2020-08-06|title=Former U.S. official details Jets' Woody Johnson's request to have U.K. move British Open to Trump's resort|url=https://www.nj.com/jets/2020/08/former-us-official-says-jets-owner-woody-johnson-asked-uk-to-move-british-open-to-trumps-resort.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-08|website=nj.com|language=en}}</ref> Johnson forced Lukens out of his tenure as Deputy Chief of Mission in January 2019, seven months before he was scheduled to leave for his next assignment, effectively ending his diplomatic career.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ioffe |first1=Julia |title=Trump Is Waging War on America's Diplomats |url=https://www.gq.com/story/trump-is-waging-war-on-american-diplomats |accessdate=22 July 2020 |agency=GQ |date=3 December 2019}}</ref>
After the end of his tenure as diplomat, Lukens criticized the Trump administration for his handling of the State Department,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Garcia-Navarro|first=Lulu|date=October 25, 2020|title=How Trump's Presidency Has Affected Diplomacy|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/10/25/927564364/how-trumps-presidency-has-affected-diplomacy|access-date=}}</ref> and for what he felt was a decline in the United States' international influence.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-01-18|title=Trump presidency 'an aberration' – Lewis Lukens, former US deputy chief of mission to UK|url=https://www.channel4.com/news/trump-presidency-an-aberration-lewis-lukens-former-us-deputy-chief-of-mission-to-uk|access-date=2021-02-08|website=Channel 4 News|language=en-GB}}</ref> In a January 2021 interview with ''Newsweek'', Lukens' stated that he felt "The last four years has put in doubt the U.S.'s reliability as a partner," and that Trump's administration had damaged both the relationship between the US and the UK, and the United States' international reputation.<ref>{{Cite web|last=EST|first=Brendan Cole On 1/19/21 at 10:18 AM|date=2021-01-19|title=Ex-U.S envoy says world leaders fear another Donald Trump in four years|url=https://www.newsweek.com/lewis-lukens-donald-trump-mike-pompeo-diplomacy-world-leaders-1562610|access-date=2021-02-08|website=Newsweek|language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite web|last1=Lukens|first1=Lew|title=The Future of the Special Relationship|url=https://uk.usembassy.gov/future-special-relationship/|website=U.S. Embassy and Consulates in the United Kingdom|date=November 14, 2016}} *{{cite web|last1=Lukens|first1=Lew|title=Remembrance Sunday 2016|url=https://uk.usembassy.gov/remembrance-sunday-2016/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128201735/https://uk.usembassy.gov/remembrance-sunday-2016/ |archive-date=January 28, 2017 |website=U.S.Embassy and Consulates in the United Kingdom|date=November 13, 2016}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *[https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/lukens-lewis-a Lewis A. Lukens (1963–)] Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
{{s-start}} {{s-dip}} {{s-bef|rows=2|before=Marcia Bernicat}} {{s-ttl|title=United States Ambassador to Senegal|years=2011–2014}} {{s-aft|rows=2|after=James Zumwalt}} |- {{s-ttl|title=United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau|years=2011–2014}} |- {{s-bef|before=Matthew Barzun}} {{s-ttl|title=United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom<br>{{small|Acting}}|years=2017}} {{s-aft|after=Woody Johnson}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lukens, Lewis}} Category:1963 births Category:Living people Category:Princeton University alumni Category:21st-century American diplomats Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Guinea-Bissau Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Senegal Category:Ambassadors of the United States to the United Kingdom Category:United States Foreign Service personnel