Lincoln D. Chafee takes the lectern after being introduced by Steven Berenback. Yesterday’s lecture at Barrington Congregational Church is an annual tradition named for Berenback’s late wife, Regina.

The Providence Journal Glenn Osmundson

BARRINGTON — Two years out of elective office, Lincoln D. Chafee is teaching at Brown University and keeping an eye on current events — those across the world and those close to home as Rhode Island deals with the worst recession in decades.

Whether that path will lead him to run for governor, the former U.S. senator wasn’t saying yesterday. But in a visit to Barrington Congregational Church, where he spoke about America’s world role in the post-Bush era, the 56-year-old Chafee said again that he is “very, very interested” in running and will decide this spring, based on whether he thinks he can raise the money to run a campaign and whether he has a chance to win.

Asked if he wants the job and the challenges it would bring, he responded emphatically: “I do.”

Even with his designated topic of America after Bush and Cheney, the question about Chafee’s possible candidacy was unavoidable as he delivered the church’s third-annual Lecture for Social Action and Justice, held in honor of Regina F. Berenback, a longtime member who died of pancreatic cancer in 2006.

The speculation drew laughter as Berenback’s husband, Steven Berenback, introduced him to an audience of more than a hundred.

“I want to assure Senator Chafee that except for a few out-of-staters, the rest of us are registered voters in Rhode Island,” said Berenback.

Looking official in a gray suit, white shirt and dotted gold tie, Chafee talked for 17 minutes and answered questions for the next 43, finishing precisely one hour after he started after the Rev. Elizabeth D. Barnum allowed one more question.

Echoing themes in his recent book, Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empower-ed a Reckless President, Chafee said the United States under Bush was greatly successful in alienating both allies and enemies, because it acted with arrogance when its strength should have led it to act with moderation.

Repeatedly, he recalled the world before 9/11, when it seemed that “an age of lasting peace beckoned.”

“The question is,” he said, “can we get it back.”

We can, he said, if the United States stops alienating countries such as Russia and Venezuela and takes a Cold War-like stance in its dealings with countries such as North Korea.

“The new leadership of North Korea is not going to live forever,” he said.

The talk was an opportunity for the Republican-turned-independent to underscore his image as a man who votes his conscience — an image he earned, in part, when he was the only Republican to vote against the Iraq invasion.

Chafee said he almost voted against the invasion of Afghanistan, as well, until his staff came and grabbed him “by the lapel.”

Appointed in 1999 to fill the term of his late father, John H. Chafee, he was elected in 2000 but lost in 2006 to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, despite exit polls that gave him a 62 percent job approval rating.

He later left the Republican Party and accepted a teaching fellowship at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

He said he expects to decide on a gubernatorial run when the fellowship ends in May.

While the yesterday’s topics were serious, Chafee drew laughter several times, giving the appearance that he was finished answering a question, only to continue and talk over the next person at the microphone.

He continued to play up the middle-of-the-road, peacemaker image when the topic turned to Rhode Island.

Asked if he could have three wishes that would help Rhode Island, he said he would like to get beyond the image of corruption created by scandals such as Plunder Dome, in Providence; quiet the automatic not-in-my-backyard reaction that sometimes accompanies development opportunities; and end partisan fighting at the State House that mirrors the situation in Washington.

“We’ve got to get together,” he said.

redgar@projo.com