January 22, 2020
Save the date: Title set for Feb. 4 Landon Lecture by former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
Submitted by Communications and Marketing
For his Landon Lecture at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, in Forum Hall at the K-State Student Union, Juan Manuel Santos, the former two-term president of Colombia and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will present "From Hawk to Dove."
The lecture is free and open to the public and doors will open at 9:30 a.m. K-State students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.
While president of the South American nation, Santos helped bring his country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end. His tenacity and determination to achieve peace and reconciliation in Colombia are why Santos earned the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his lecture, Santos will reflect on his transition from hawk to dove. He will explain how he went from a war maker to a pacifier, a shift difficult to understand but necessary. He will expand on his philosophy: "Sometimes you need to wage war to make peace. I was a hawk because circumstances required it, but I always knew — as I said to the soldiers of our army — that the real victory, the only victory, the ultimate victory… was peace."
During Santos' presidency, Colombia became the region's leader in economic growth, job creation, reduction of poverty and extreme poverty, sustainable development, and the enhancement of information and communications technology. In addition, his administration reduced the country's housing deficit by half and launched the most ambitious infrastructure plan in Colombia's history.
Santos has been twice-named to TIME's "100 Most Influential People" and received the World Economic Forum's Global Statesman Award. He is the author of several books, including "The Third Way," which he wrote with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and "Jaque al Terror" or "Checkmate to Terror," in which he describes how he successfully fought the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC.
One of the most prestigious lecture series offered at a U.S. college or university, the Alfred M. Landon Lecture Series was instituted in 1966 by former Kansas State University President James A. McCain. The series is a tribute to Alfred M. Landon, who served as governor of Kansas from 1933-1937 and delivered the first lecture in the series.