In March, the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy hosted a two-day conference on “Europe at a Crossroads: The Future of Europe and Its Role in the International System” featuring former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger. 

This was the third such conference of the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy, made possible by Dr. Kissinger’s donation of his papers to Yale and a generous gift from Charles B. Johnson ’54 and Nicholas F. Brady ’52. As a program of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and in collaboration with International Security Studies and the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, the Johnson Center brings prominent statesmen and academics to campus as Kissinger Senior Fellows and Kissinger Visiting Scholars, and also hosts an annual conference. 

The conference opened on Friday, March 28, in the new Lei Zhang Auditorium of Evans Hall with welcoming remarks by President Salovey. Yale Professors John Gaddis and Adam Tooze then moderated a wide-ranging interview with Dr. Kissinger that focused on Europe, Russia, the crisis in Ukraine, and American foreign policy. Dr. Kissinger also fielded questions from the audience consisting of Yale students, faculty and staff on topics of values, morality and realpolitik.

The second day of the conference, March 29, included three panels featuring a number of other distinguished practitioners and scholars. Panels focused on the prospects for a common European and North American security policy; Europe and the crisis in Ukraine; and the Eurozone crisis. Speakers included Yale Kissinger Senior Fellow Ambassador Marc Grossman; Ambassador Carla Hills; Washington Post columnist David Ignatius; Admiral James Stavridis (ret.), Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; Yale Jackson Senior Fellow Thomas Graham; Jeffrey Mankoff of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; President Emeritus Richard Levin; Global Chief Economist of Citigroup Willem Buiter; CEO of Rockefeller and Co. Reuben Jeffery III; and Yale Professor Adam Tooze.