The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 61 AFSA NEWS 2012 Adair Lecture Features Ambassador Chas. Freeman 52nd AAFSW Art & BookFair The 52nd annual Art & BookFair of the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide will take place from Friday, Oct. 12, through Sunday, Oct. 21. The event will be held in the Diplomatic Exhibit Hall of the Harry S Truman building. The fair will feature books, art, collectibles, stamps and coins from all over the world. All proceeds benefit Foreign Service families and the AAFSW Scholarship Fund. If you would like to volunteer to help at the event, please contact Judy Felt at (703) 370-1414. NEWS BRIEF On Aug. 29, AFSA’s sixth annual Caroline and Ambas- sador Charles Adair Memo- rial Lecture kicked off the fall semester at American University’s School of Inter- national Service. The lecture series is generously endowed by former AFSA President Marshall Adair through a perpetual gift to AFSA’s Fund for American Diplomacy. The program is an important part of our national outreach efforts to elevate the profile of diplomacy and develop- ment. This year’s speaker, Ambassador Chas. W. Freeman Jr., served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires in Beijing, among many other Foreign Service assignments. He was also the principal interpreter during President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Since retiring from the Service, he has advised or served on the boards of many U.S. and for- eign business development associations and foreign policy think-tanks. Amb. Freeman told the packed audience of students and current and former diplomats that while “the U.S. in not in decline, it is certainly in denial.” Shifting alliances, diffusion of wealth and power and America’s growing use of coercion as a diplomatic tool BY TOM SWITZER, AFSA DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS have all reduced our ability to shape trends and events around the world. Amb. Freeman then declared that the “post-Cold War era is long past. The U.S. is now uncertain against whom we should deploy our incomparable military might or to what international purposes we should bend ourselves. Call it what you will, this is an era of enemy deprivation syndrome.” This syndrome has led Wash- ington to conduct a foreign policy “that drives diplo- macy toward a futile effort to persuade allies to join us in building military rather than civilian infrastructure and engaging in a constantly expanding list of wars of choice.” During the remainder of his remarks, the ambassador assessed China and other rising powers; our economic, trade and investment poli- cies; and the role of Western values as a national interest. He closed with a warning: “America’s recent depar- tures from the rule of law are in many ways the greatest menace our freedoms have ever faced. Our country faces no external existential threat comparable to that of the Cold War. Yet we are build- ing a garrison state that is eating away at our liberties in the name of saving them. Peace is the climate in which freedoms grow.” He ended his talk by deploring “the futility of imposing our freedoms on others by force. Freedom cannot be sustained if we ourselves violate its prin- ciples.” Thunderous applause broke out as the audience rose to its feet. During the Q&A session, a diplomat asked whether the Foreign Service can make a difference in improving U.S. effectiveness. Freeman responded by urging FS per- sonnel and U.S. policymakers to re-examine past mistakes and design more effective policies going forward. In Freeman’s view, FSOs can make a difference by employ- ing the maxim, “Optimism is Continued on page 62 Students from American University’s School of International Service join Amb. Chas. Freeman after his speech on Aug. 29. PHOTOBYDONNAAYERST