Henry Kissinger Addresses Yale Students on U.S.-China Relations and American Diplomacy

Former secretary of state Dr. Henry A. Kissinger engaged today in a “Special Conversation on Sino-America Relations” with a group of students from the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and Yale Law School. The event was moderated by Yale Law School Professor Paul Gewirtz, Director of the China Law Center; Yale School of Management Professor James Levinsohn, Director of the Jackson Institute; and Yale University Professor Jonathan Spence, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus. Discussion focused on the future of U.S.-China relations and the significance of Dr. Kissinger’s latest book, On China.

Dr. Kissinger’s visit highlighted the exciting potential of the newly established Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy, made possible by Dr. Kissinger’s recent donation of his papers to Yale and a gift from Charles B. Johnson (Yale College Class of 1954). The foundation of the Johnson Center will be the Kissinger Archives at Yale University: an extraordinary collection of approximately 1 million documents and objects covering Dr. Kissinger’s life as a diplomat, scholar, teacher, and private citizen. As a program of the Jackson Institute, and in collaboration with International Security Studies and the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, the Johnson Center will bring prominent statesmen and academics to campus as Kissinger Senior Fellows and Kissinger Visiting Scholars, as well as host an annual conference on contemporary issues in international affairs.

While on campus, Dr. Kissinger also received an update on the Johnson Center’s progress and met with the Yale Law Foreign Policy Workshop. Initiated by a select group of Yale Law students with backgrounds in international affairs, and overseen by Professor Paul Gewirtz, the Workshop seeks to connect today’s leaders with talented students through substantive work on current issues in American national security and foreign policy.

Read more about Dr. Kissinger’s visit and Yale’s newly established Kissinger Archives and the Johnson Center for the Study of American Democracy.