Gene Lyons, acting head of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, has been at Dartmouth for 40 years and said his love for students makes it impossible for him to consider leaving.
Lyons said even when the College has found a permanent director, he will remain a senior fellow and continue his research at the College.
"I am going to stay here until you take me out," he said.
Lyons entered the College as a government professor in 1957, and although he retired two years ago to pursue research in areas such as global governance, his work at the Dickey Center keeps him in close contact with students.
"Dartmouth is a marvelous place to live, and it is wonderful students that keep me here," he said.
One of Lyons' biggest contributions to the College was his help in creating the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding in February, 1982.
Lyons said the Dickey Center was created to foster concern for and raise consciousness about international issues and bring them to the Dartmouth campus, in order to honor the work of the College's 12th president, John Sloan Dickey.
The Dickey Center is composed primarily of three parts, he explained.
The first part is the actual institutions, which are further subdivided into three institutes, the U.N. Institute, the Canadian Affairs Institute and the Arctic Studies Institute.
The second component of the Dickey Center is concerned with providing internships to students and publishing a journal of international affairs titled "World Outlook." The journal is written and edited by students and published bi-annually.
The third component works to support faculty research and sponsor conferences, such as the recent symposium comparing the Russian and American court systems.
Lyons, who became acting director of the Dickey Center in September, 1995, after former Director Martin Sherwin left the College to teach at Tufts University, said the international goals of the center coincide closely with the focus of his other work at Dartmouth.
As a professor, Lyons said he taught the introductory international politics course, a course on international organizations and a comparative politics seminar.
He said he enjoyed teaching the introductory course the most because he "had the chance to work with young, fresh students."
The dynamic nature of the courses also appealed to Lyons.
For example, the end of the Cold War created exciting changes in the courses, he said. "We had to ask ourselves whether the basic ideas we used to think and talk about international politics were still valid."
Lyons has edited several books on international politics, such as "Beyond West Fathia?" He said he edited the book, published last year, in conjunction with Government Professor Michael Mastanduno, who is also deputy director of the Dickey Center.
He also edited and contributed to a book called "The United Nations System: the Policies of Member States," which was published by the U.N. press in order to commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1995.
In conjunction with his work with the Dickey Center, Lyons is involved with research of his own.
He said his primary interest is in global governance, which involves the study of rules and institutions that enhance cooperation among different countries.
Much of the focus is on economic interdependence, the use of military force as a viable instrument of power and the concept of military coalitions with other countries, he said.
Lyons said the problem of rules and institutions regarding security issues, such as the use of weapons of mass destruction, cooperation of governments in areas of instability and the problems of preventing terrorist attacks, is the most fascinating.
Oran Young, director of the Dickey Endowment Arctic Studies Institute, said Lyons is a good collaborator.
"He's a terrific, energetic, efficient and organized man. He's all the things you'd want in a colleague," Young said.
Young and Lyons worked together to create the Academic Council of United Nations Systems, which enables representatives from different colleges and universities to meet and discuss U.N. issues.
