Quick Facts
Capricorn
Biography
Lewis Alan Lukens is a retired American diplomat. He was fired from his last assignment as Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in London after making a complimentary reference to former President Obama in a pair of speeches.
Early life
Lukens was born on December 25, 1963 in Paris, France. His father, Alan Wood Lukens, was United States Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to the Republic of the Congo.
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.
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. He retired in January 2019.
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. Lukens testified under oath in a legal case related to the Hillary Clinton email controversy.
From 2011 to 2014, Lukens was U.S. Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau,.
From August 2016 to January 2019, Lukens served as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in London. 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.
In February 2018, Lukens unsuccessfully advised U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Robert Wood Johnson IV, to not follow through on President Trump's request to see if the British government could help steer the British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain.
In a pair of speeches to English universities in October 2018, Lukens used an anecdote about President Obama’s 2013 visit to Senegal to illustrate how allies can handle disagreements.Because of the complementary reference to President Obama, Ambassador Johnson ended Lukens' tenure as Deputy Chief of Mission seven months before he was scheduled to leave for his next assignment, effectively ending his diplomatic career.