When a journalist asked Ricardo Lagos, the President of Chile, during his recent visit to North Carolina, which basketball team he preferred, Duke or Carolina, he smiled and kindly responded that, "there are difficult questions that simply do not have answers." President Lagos has maintained strong ties with the community in North Carolina since the 1960's.

His experiences in Chile and in the United States are examples of the political ups and down that that country has lived through in the last forty years. As a young man, Ricardo Lagos sought his doctorate in Economics at Duke University, a project he finished in 1966. Afterwards, he returned to Chile, where he became chancellor of the University of Chile from 1969 to 1971. In that era Chile was going through a time of change under the administration of Socialist President Salvador Allende, and Lagos was appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union. On September 11, 1973, Lagos was in Moscow when a violent coup brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Lagos was one of the thousands of Chileans exiled by the Pinochet regime.

Thanks to the generosity of the Carolina community, Ricardo Lagos was invited to the Department of Political Science at UNC-CH, where he was a visiting professor between 1973 and 1975. There, Lagos and his family maintained a close relationship of friendship and academic collaboration with Federico Gil, one of the founders of Latin American Studies at Carolina.

But Ricardo Lagos wanted to go back to Chile to help in the transition to democracy. In 1980, he returned from exile, becoming one of the leaders in the opposition to Pinochet. After democracy was re-established in 1990, Lagos occupied the posts of Minister of Education (1990-93) and Minister of Public Works (1994-98). In the 2000 elections, he won the electoral majority that brought him to the presidency of the Republic of Chile (term 2000-06).

A new and tragic September 11 brought Lagos to the United States again. The 9/11 attacks resulted in the convocation of a special United Nations session to analyze the events. President Lagos attended the meetings to send a message of solidarity with the United States and to signal his commitment to the international system: "Terrorism is a global problem, and global problems require global solutions," he explained.

Nonetheless, President Lagos did not want to miss visiting North Carolina. UNC-CH had indicated a desire to confer upon him an honorary degree when he was elected President of Chile, and Lagos took advantage of the occasion to visit, along with his family, the community that had received him so warmly three decades before. Lagos�s visit let him renew academic ties, friendships, and memories in North Carolina. Early in the morning of November 9, the Lagos family visited the public school in Chapel Hill where the children had studied. Two current Chilean students at the school acted as guides for the Lagos children. Afterwards, President Lagos held an informal talk with UNC-CH and Duke students, a session organized by ILAS, at which he was designated an honorary member of the Institute�s Advisory Board.

Later that afternoon, Chancellor James Moeser conferred the honorary degree upon the Chilean President. In his speech, Chancellor Moeser emphasized the role that President Lagos played in the democratic transition and the virtues of public service that make him worthy of such an honor. Lagos thanked the University for the honor of receiving the degree, and spoke as well of the particular and enduring challenges of September 11.

President Lagos called attention to the role that the international community should play in the prevention of future terrorist acts. At the same time, he advised that the promotion of economic and social development in the developing world is fundamental to prevent the emergence of terrorist ideologies. In this way, he highlighted the importance of the university in the promotion of ideas and solutions for a world in a process of constant change. Lagos recognized the efforts of UNC-CH in opening itself to the world and establishing ties with institutions in distant countries such as Chile for the promotion of the sciences and the exchange of knowledge.

The Chilean president�s visit allowed the Carolina community to recognize the public service given by Ricardo Lagos, who certainly feels like one of the community. Additionally, the Lagos visit allowed us to review a history of two countries united by the tragic events of September 11, 1973, in Chile and September 11, 2001, in the United States. Finally, his visit may be interpreted as one of the most important results of a visionary work of academic collaboration that began more than forty years ago among UNC-CH, Duke, and Chile. The new era of globalization demands today more than ever the collaborative development of the socialsciences and humanities with institutions in other regions of the world. It is good to know that today the efforts of the Carolina and Duke collaboration continue to be promoted in Chile as well as in other Latin American countries.

By Claudio Fuentes (Political Science, UNC-CH); Translated by Valerie Reed (Latin American Studies and Spanish, UNC-CH).