Scholars Online
Lincoln Chafee
Watson Institute for International Studies - Brown University
Filmed in November 2007.
Who are you and what do you do? [0:40]
How has the U.S. Senate discussed Iran? [0:44]
How has the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gathered and weighed evidence about Iran? [0:51]
How do Senate hearings work? [0:57]
How does discussion in the Senate affect U.S. foreign policy? [1:10]
Does Iran represent a threat to U.S. security? [0:43]
How can the U.S. government resolve this dispute with Iran? [1:19]
In your view, is the United States doing the right thing to resolve this dispute? [1:50]
How can people communicate with their representatives about this issue? [0:43]
Lincoln Chafee, a former U.S. senator, is a distinguished visiting fellow of the Watson Institute for International Studies. As senator, he served as a member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. During that time, he emerged as a leader on environmental issues and foreign policy, and promoted sensible economic and energy policies. He was Rhode Island’s Republican senator from 1999 until 2006. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Almond appointed Chafee to the U.S. Senate in November 1999 to fill the unexpired Senate term of his late father, John Chafee and in November 2000, Chafee was overwhelmingly elected to the seat.
Before he joined the Senate, Chafee was the mayor of Warwick, RI from 1992 until 1999. He entered politics in 1985 as a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, and a year later he was elected to the first of two successive terms on the Warwick City Council.
At the Watson Institute, Chafee works with the Global Security Program, leads an undergraduate student study group on U.S. foreign policy, and convenes groups of students, faculty, and policymakers to discuss issues in international relations. He is also undertaking a variety of writing projects.
