James A. Baker, III to Speak on U.S. Foreign Policy at Yale

James A. Baker, III will present the annual George Herbert Walker Lecture at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies on Wednesday, Sept. 29, at 4 p.m.

The title of his talk is “Challenges to U.S. Foreign Policy on the Threshold of a New Century.” The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave. A reception will follow.

Baker has served in senior government positions under three United States presidents. He served as the nation’s sixty-first secretary of state, January 1989-August 1992, during the administration of President George Bush. During his tenure at the State Department, Baker traveled to 90 foreign countries as the United States confronted the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post-Cold War era. In 1995, Baker published The Politics of Diplomacy, his reflections on those years of revolution, war and peace.

Baker also served as the secretary of the treasury from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan and was President Reagan’s White House Chief of Staff from 1981 to 1985.

A native of Houston, Baker graduated from Princeton University in 1952. After two years of active duty as a lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, he entered the University of Texas Law School, receiving his J.D. with honors in 1957.

Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and has been the recipient of many other awards for distinguished public service.

Currently Baker is a senior partner in the law firm of Baker & Botts and the senior counselor to The Carlyle Group, a merchant banking firm in Washington, D.C. He is Honorary Chairman of the James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. In 1997, he was appointed the personal envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to mediate direct talks between the parties to the dispute over Western Sahara.

The Yale Center for International and Area Studies is an integral part of campus life and instruction at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Center coordinates Yale’s teaching and research on international affairs and the study of foreign societies and cultures.

The George Herbert Walker, Jr. lecture fund was established in July 1986 by George Herbert Walker III in memory of his father to support lectures in International Studies at YCIAS. George Herbert Walker, Jr. was a distinguished graduate of the Yale Class of 1927, a Fellow of the Yale Corporation, a director of the Yale Alumni Fund, and Yale Medal recipient.

The George Herbert Walker, Jr. lecture fund in International Studies enables the Center to bring to the Yale campus a series of eminent scholars and public figures to speak to the Yale community on topics that extend and complement existing course offerings. Speakers deliver a public address and meet with students and faculty on an informal basis.

Previous Walker lecturers have included former General Brent Scowcroft, former Secretary General to the United Nations Boutrous Boutrous Ghali, and Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright, among others.

For more information about the lecture by James A. Baker, III, please contact Laurie Ackman at (203) 432-3413 or by email at lauress.ackman@yale.edu.