Japan has a new
cabinet this week. One thing you might observe, looking at the members' profiles, is that many of its high officials have studied abroad. Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi went to the
LSE. The environmental minister went to the
University of Cairo, the financial services minister went to
Cal State, the public safety minister studied in
France and
China, the recently departed foreign minister went to
Yale, and even the Crown Princess has a degree from
Harvard.
Of course, a lot of this is because you can't give a speech at the United Nations or sit in on trade negotiations if you only speak Japanese. Still, one of my friends and I started wondering: how many American politicians have studied overseas? Here are some names I've dredged up (and feel free to /msg me if you can name more):
- Senior Bush advisor Elliott Abrams has a master's degree from the LSE.
- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) spent some time in Leon, Mexico as an exchange student in high school. This was where he met his future wife, Columba Bush.
- Former President Bill Clinton (D) was a Rhodes Scholar and spent a year at the University of Oxford.
- Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) was born in Cuba, graduated from the American School in Madrid, and later spent some time at Cambridge University.
- Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) was a Rhodes Scholar, like Clinton, and got to spend a year at Oxford.
- Although Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) never studied abroad, one of his potential replacements, former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez (R), spent his youth in Cuba, and the other, Betty Castor (D), taught in Uganda for several years (which might count if you're willing to stretch things a bit).
- Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) lived in Europe for most of his youth, and attended a boarding school in Switzerland for some time while his family was stationed in Germany and Norway; he also spent quite a bit of time at his family's home in France.
- Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) was a Rhodes Scholar and attended Oxford's Pembroke College.
- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) spent three years at International Christian University in Tokyo while working on his degree in Japanese at Harvard.
- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)... well, needless to say, he isn't from around here.
Thanks to: Noung