Class News

Chas Freeman ’64 discusses “The World in Turmoil — What’s Next?”

On June 18, 2026, Chas Freeman ’64 was the featured speaker at a Yale ’64 Zoom event moderated by classmate Ward Wickwire ’64 and attended by an audience of 83 classmates and friends. The title of Ralph’s talk was “The World in Turmoil — What’s Next?”

Chas is a highly-regarded diplomat and statesman who has been instrumental in helping to craft foreign policy for the United States over much of the past 55 years. Among other assignments, he was principal interpreter during Nixon’s groundbreaking trip to China, ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. After retiring from government, he served as co-chair of the United States China Policy Foundation and as president of the Middle East Policy Council. He currently is chairman of Projects International, a business development firm. Chas’s seminal book, Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy, was published in 1997 but is still core reading for foreign service officers.

Below is the 95-minute video recording of Chas’s presentation, introduced by Don Van Doren, the Chair of our Yale ’64 Class Authors series of talks.