We must employ every means available to rally the world and defeat the devil\u27s marriage between technology and terror

Albright, Madeleine

Register, Charlie

English

Furman University

Furman MagazineVolume 45Issue 1 Spring 2002 Article 74-1-2002The Tools of DiplomacyMadeleine AlbrightCharlie RegisterFurman UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazineThis Article is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in FurmanMagazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information,please contact scholarexchange@furman.edu.Recommended CitationAlbright, Madeleine and Register, Charlie (2002) "The Tools of Diplomacy," Furman Magazine: Vol. 45 : Iss. 1 , Article 7.Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol45/iss1/7T H E T 0 0 L S o FDiplomacy By Madeleine Albright I t is such an honor to participate in this conference and to be associated with the Richard W. Riley Institute of Government, Politics and Public Leader­ship. It has a very bright future and I know it is a great asset for Furman, for South Carolina and for the country. One purpose of the institute is to encourage public discussion of issues that affect our security, prosperity and freedom. And today, no issue affects us more than the war on terror. When I joined the State Department, I said that I had all my partisan instincts surgically removed. I have to admit that a few months after I left office, I could feel those instincts starting to grow back. On September 12, I returned to the surgeon. Because Americans must be united. We were attacked as one country on that wretched morning half a year ago. And as one country, we must respond. The ten·mists' goal is to make America retreat from the world, abandon our allies, forget our commitments and cease to lead. But the terrorists are learning that the nation whose patriots proclaimed, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," and whose soldiers plunged into Hell on Omaha Beach, will not be intimidated. And a people whose firefighters and police faced death to save others will never be shut down. The Bush administration deserves our support, and that of law-abiding people everywhere, in opposing al-Qaida and other groups that willfully murder innocent people in pursuit of political goals. It deserves our support in defeating the Tali ban, who ran a sort of bed and breakfast for terrorists and brutally repressed their own people. And it deserves credit for acknowledg­ing that we are only at the beginning of what will be a long and perhaps permanent struggle against the forces of destruction. In the months ahead, we must employ every means available, every tool of politics and policy, to rally the world and defeat the devil 's marriage between technology and terror. The front line remains in Afghanistan, where fighting continues and the interim WE MUST EMPLOY EVERY MEANS AVAILABLE TO RALLY THE WORLD AND DEFEAT THE DEV IL'S MARRIAGE BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND TERROR. government is beset by a sea of troubles. Cabinet ministers are fighting, warlords are clashing, the Taliban is regrouping, Osama bin Laden is still missing, and the international peacekeeping force is woefully inadequate. This creates a fundamental diplomatic challenge. We must persuade Afghanistan's neighbors - including Iran - to cooperate in holding the country together instead of squabbling and ripping the country apart. We must persuade the international community to support an interim security force that is big enough and well-equipped enough to make the warlords go out and get real jobs. We must insist that, when the future of Afghanistan is debated, Afghan women should not just be clearing the dishes off the table. They must be at the table, with a substantive role in making the decisions that will shape their l ives and affect the security of us all in years to come. This may be the only way to get those with power in Afghanistan to focus on education, jobs and health, instead of power, guns and drugs. Finally, we must work with the interim government to create national institutions that are strong enough and effective enough to make Afghanistan a permanent terrorist­free zone. In other words, we have to stay and finish the job. Secretary of State Powell has made it clear he supports this, but others ridicule the task by calling it nation-building. They say that American troops have more important things to do, and that helping Afghans build a secure future is something our allies should take care of for us. Having won a few battles, these voices seem to suggest that winning the peace is the international equivalent of women's work - which is, I would reply, precisely why it is so important. We cannot convince the world that Afghanistan matters if we treat Afghanistan as a short-term crisis and not a long-term commitment. In all we do, in and outside Afghanistan, we must stay focused, and keep the world's focus, on responding to the most dangerous threats. Right now, the most dangerous threat remains the terrorists that have targeted America. In confronting them, we must back diplomacy with force, and force with diplomacy. We must do the hard work required to ensure that our all iances in Europe and Asia are united in policy and purpose. That's what it means to use diplomatic tools. We must strive with friends and schol­ars on every continent to isolate and defeat the apostles of hate. This means reforming education in places such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia so that children are no longer brainwashed into becoming suicide bomb­ers, and terrorists are denied the ideological swamplands in which they breed. We must also be vigilant at home. Like most Americans, I was startled to learn recently that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had issued student visas to two of the pilots who murdered Americans on September II. It is hard to believe that this kind of miscommuni­cation could occur in the United States in the 21st century. There is a lesson in this that we must heed. Information, properly used, can protect and empower us. Information that does not get to the right place at the right time can kill us. When I was at the State Department, we worked hard to promote the sharing of information between other governments and our own, and within the various branches of the U.S. government. This is actually a lot harder than you might think. Agencies protect their own turf. And foreign countries have their own interests to protect. But after September 1 1, there can be no higher priority than ensuring that we obtain as much information as we can through every means we can devise, and that all the relevant data we have are centrally processed to apprehend terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks. The question of information is important in another sense, because the battle against terror is, at bottom, a struggle of ideas, a conflict we cannot win simply by smashing caves and splitting rocks. President Bush has pledged that we must pay "whatever it costs to defend our country." In this year 's budget, he has proposed a dramatic increase in military spending. He has also recently shifted course and expressed support for more assistance to less developed nations. I agree that we must move ahead on all fronts. Adversaries will be less likely to threaten us if they know we are prepared to respond effectively and with undaunted courage. And our enemies will find less sympathy abroad if America is known for its commitment to improving education and fighting poverty and disease. Today, we rank dead last among industrialized countries in the percentage of our wealth that we devote to helping poor nations succeed and grow. In these perilous times, we cannot afford to allow the wrong perceptions to take hold. We have to do a better job of telling our story. And we have the best possible story to tel l .  During World War II  and the Cold War, great American presidents, with bipartisan support from Congress, outlined bold initiatives to complement our security goals. We must be bold in developing and financing a new generation of initiatives that will help deliver on the promise of democracy and win the battle of ideas. After the events of the past six months, we should all understand the danger of defining our interests too narrowly. Notwithstanding the current bestseller, we don't l ive in the world of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson anymore. The two oceans neither protect us nor confine us. America in the 2 1 st century has an interest in all of Europe - and in Asia, Latin America and Africa. And today, I am convinced our people will support a foreign policy that is clearer than clear, not only about what we are against, but also about what we are for. We are for working with others to build a freer, more humane and more broadly prosperous world, in which terrorists will  cease to attract followers and there will be no havens for hate. When I was a child, Nazi troops marched into my hometown of Prague. My family fled to London when that city was being bombed nearly every night. After the war, we returned home to a country that was soon to be taken over by Communists. I learned early in life that there is great evil in this world. But I also learned early about a country across the sea where freedom was cherished and freedom's allies were helped and defended. At the age of 1 1, I sailed like millions before me past the Statue of Liberty into New York Harbor, with no other desire in my heart than to grow up to be an American. Since then, more than half a century has passed. But over the years, I have never forgotten the fundamental lesson taught to me by my parents. And that is to honor and value freedom, and never to take for granted the blessings that come with living in the United States. In that time, I have seen this message reinforced not only in the l ives of immi­grants and refugees, but also those of millions abroad who have been liberated by American soldiers, uplifted by American assistance and inspired by American ideals. On September 11, our nation was dealt a terrible blow. We will never forget those who were lost. We are still unsettled and on edge. But we draw strength from the knowl­edge of what terror can and cannot do. Terror can turn life to death, and laughter to tears, and shared hopes to sorrowful memories. It can crash a plane and bring down towers that scraped the sky. But it cannot alter the essential goodness of the American people, diminish our loyalty to one another, or shake our respect for the importance and dignity of every individual. There is evil in this world and we have no choice but to acknowledge that. But we can choose never to lose sight of the good. We face the possibility of further attacks. But if we are united, there is no chance we will ever give in, give up or back down. The American journey is an upward journey. Together, our nation defeated Hitler, outlasted Stalin and helped make the democratic tide a rising tide on every continent. Today we look forward, not with trepidation but with determination, to see that our adversaries fail in their pur­pose of destruction- and that we prevail in our purpose of building a freer, more just and peaceful future for us and for all people. 

The Tools of Diplomacy

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The Tools of Diplomacy

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