Foreign Policy - General: 'China's Challenge to American Hegemony' - Wednesday 20th January 2010 (transcript available)
Ambassador Chas W Freeman, Jr
US Ambassador (retired)
Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr served as a member of the United States Foreign Service for thirty years. He was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs 1993-94, earning the highest public service awards of the Department of Defense for his roles in designing a NATO-centred post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm from 1989-92. He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs 1986-89, during the historic US mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok (1984-1986) and Beijing (1981-1984). He was Director for Chinese Affairs at the US Department of State 1979-1981. He was the principal American interpreter during President Nixon's ground-breaking visit to China in 1972. He succeeded Senator George McGovern as President of the Middle East Policy Council in December 1997 and served in that role until February 2009, when he was nominated to chair the US National Intelligence Council, but subsequently withdrew his acceptance in the wake of concerted attacks by political opponents. In April 2009, Ambassador Freeman resumed his present position as Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm that specialises in arranging international private-sector joint ventures, acquisitions, and other business operations for its American and foreign clients. Until February 2009, he also served as Co-Chair of the United States-China Policy Foundation, as Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States, and as a member of the boards of the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Washington World Affairs Council, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. He is currently a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author, inter alia, of The Diplomat's Dictionary and Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy both published by the United States Institute of Peace.
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