Speeches

I’d like to thank the Washington International Diplomatic Academy for inviting me to speak about diplomacy as an instrument of statecraft. I envy you the practical training in diplomatic work you are receiving here.

World War II and the Cold War mixed geopolitics inextricably with ideology. For a half century, strategy and values seemed identical. They are again distinct. Operationally, geopolitics has now become a set of regional rather than global issues.

Q: Mr Freeman, good morning, by thanking you for your willingness to answer my questions, I ask you the first question: In 1972, you were part of the US delegation following President Nixon who went to Beijing for the first time.

It's 9/11  Hello, darkness, my old friend.  America has done it once again.  We have waged a failed war in yet another foreign land and dishonorably abandoned those we went there to help. 

I’ve been asked to review Sino-American relations in light of decades of changes in the international order, and to do so in about five minutes.  I wish I could call on the Reduced Shakespeare Company for help.  But here goes!

Fifty-three years ago, as a young foreign service officer, I helped ensure that Taipei rather than Beijing continued to represent China in the United Nations Security Council and elsewhere internationally.  Since then, I have seen relations between China and

Ladies and gentlemen, I congratulate all of you on your participation in Saudi Aramco’s management development seminar.  Your selection marks you as future leaders of your country’s premier institution.  As such, some of you will become important actors on t

I have spent much of the past fifty years trying to help the United States benefit from a sound, mutually advantageous relationship with China.  I wish both countries well, but I confess I remain primarily concerned about my own country and its future.  The sharp deterioration in Sino-American re