Alan Keyes is a genuine Reagan Republican who served in the U.S. State Department during the Reagan years. He was ultimately appointed by President Reagan as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations.

In that role, Dr. Keyes oversaw the development and implementation of U.S. policy regarding international organizations. He also served on the National Security Council staff.

As an Assistant Secretary of State, Dr. Keyes managed the work of diplomats in Washington and in several U.S. missions in New York and overseas — diplomats who worked on issues ranging from peace, security, and counter-terrorism, to democracy and human rights.

As part of his responsibilities over the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Dr. Keyes also managed U.S. policy relating to issues before the UN Security Council.

Prior to becoming Assistant Secretary, he was appointed by Ronald Reagan as Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council — representing the sovereign interests of the United States in the UN General Assembly.

Before that, Dr. Keyes spent two years as a member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff — following service as a desk officer in the Department's Office of South African Affairs and as vice-consul at the United States Consulate General in Bombay, India (where he met his wife Jocelyn).

Previous to joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1978, he pursued graduate studies in government at Harvard University, receiving a Ph.D. in 1979 after writing his dissertation on constitutional theory.

Keyes on statesmanship...

Statesmanship is not just a matter of coping with the political challenges of the moment, or doing well at getting elected, or even meeting immediate problems the right way. You must approach them according to an understanding — according to a set of principles — that reflects a sense of the permanent destiny of the nation.

Obviously, that was something characteristic of a lot of the folks who were part of the founding generation. Of those people, obviously Washington stands out as someone who was of great character. And there we speak of something that doesn't have to do with policy only, but has to do with the kind of person he was, and the way in which he embodied the virtues that are required for leadership in a free society.

Also, I would point to Reagan as somebody I greatly admire. Now, that might have something to do with the fact that, in my lifetime, I think he was the president who has been most impressive, and who had, in my opinion, the greatest sense of instinctive grasp and commitment regarding the challenges that statesmanship faces in our time — particularly when he was dealing with the communist challenge, and understanding the extent to which it had to be dealt with as a moral reality, not just as a question of geopolitical strategy.

And that, I think, reflected a sense that this country isn't just about our power in the world, but it has also to be about the extent to which we are able to realize the values and ideas that America is supposed to represent, not just for ourselves but for humanity, in the broadest sense of the term.

(From a C-SPAN interview, September 9, 1999)