The Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy hosted its annual conference, “Remembering Charles Hill, 1936-2021: Statecraft, Grand Strategy, and World Order,” featuring the Honorable Dr. Henry Kissinger on May 6-7, 2021.
This was the ninth annual conference of the Johnson Center, which was 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. (The conference was cancelled in Spring 2020 due to the pandemic).
Attendees at this year’s event—which was held virtually—included current students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy; International Security Studies; Directed Studies and the Humanities; the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs; and the Berkeley College Fellowship.
The opening session included a eulogy of the late professor Charles Hill by Dr. Kissinger as well as remarks by Amb. Carla Hills and John Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale.
Other panel discussions examined Hill’s significant impact through his government service; teaching through International Security Studies, Grand Strategy, and the Humanities at Yale; and mentoring students. Panelists included distinguished diplomats, professors, and Hill’s former students.
As a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Hill represented his nation across three continents and served as a senior advisor to leading figures in modern diplomacy, including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, as well as United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. After retiring from public service, he devoted nearly three decades to teaching at Yale, where he was Diplomat-in-Residence in International Security Studies, Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy, and a fixture in Yale’s Program in Directed Studies.
Recordings of the session are available: