Chas Freeman, Jr.

is a visiting scholar at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He is the former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs (1993–1994), ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1989–1992), principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs (1986–1989), and chargé d’affaires at Bangkok (1984–1986) and Beijing (1981–1984). He served as vice chair of the Atlantic Council (1996-2008); co-chair of the United States China Policy Foundation (1996–2009); president of the Middle East Policy Council (1997–2009), and chair of the Committee for the Republic (2003-2020). He was the principal American interpreter during President Nixon’s path-breaking 1972 visit to Beijing, the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica article on diplomacy, and the author of America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East; Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige; America’s Misadventures in the Middle East; The Diplomat’s Dictionary; and Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy.  He is a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Law School who studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the 國立臺中教育大學.  A compendium of his speeches is available at chasfreeman.net.