Ambassador Chas Freeman is a visiting scholar at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and Chairman of Projects International, Inc. He is the author of several well-received books on statecraft and diplomacy, including America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East (Just World Books, 2016), and was the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on “diplomacy.”
He held influential government positions during pivotal historical moments throughout history, including acting as former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-1994; serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during operations desert shield and desert storm; acting as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the historic U.S. mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola. He was former Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in Bangkok (1984-1986) and Beijing (1981-1984). He was also Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981. After his retirement from government, he served concurrently as co-chair of the United States China Policy Foundation, president of the Middle East Policy Council, and vice chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States.
Ambassador Freeman earned a certificate in Latin American studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, certificates in both the national and Taiwan dialects of Chinese from the former Foreign Service Institute field school in Taiwan, B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University, and a J.D. from the Harvard Law School.