Reaching in, reaching out: Lee H. Hamilton, head of the Woodrow Wilson centre in Washington D.C., has won international acclaim for his work in foreign affairs …

Asked if he wouldn't rather have concentrated wholly on foreign affairs when in Congress, Hamilton responds with an emphatic `No'. He says he devoted about half his time to domestic issues, and loved meeting his constituents. To help a teenager in a family crisis, or a town get a needed fire truck, meant as much to him, perhaps, as winning a House vote.

His reputation nationally and internationally came, however, from his long experience in foreign affairs for which he has received many honours and awards, including, last year, the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He has also been showered with honours for his work on domestic issues and received four honorary degrees.

A defining moment for Hamilton came recently when at the end of an AIDS panel discussion at the Wilson Center he quoted from a Washington Post story that day which raised the question whether, finally, a change in human behaviour must come to control the spread of the disease. There is within him, to be sure, that `sense of moral imperative'.