93/01/20 Address at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN
JANUARY 20, 1995
* * * * *
ADDRESS BY
SECRETARY OF STATE WARREN CHRISTOPHER
AT THE JOHN F. KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
January 20, 1995
* * * * *
Thank you for that generous introduction. It is a
pleasure to be back at the Kennedy School.
America stands today at the threshold of a new century and
faces a challenge that recalls the opportunities and dangers
that confronted us at the end of the First and Second World
Wars. Then, as now, two distinct paths lay before us: either
to claim victory and withdraw, or to provide American leadership
to build a more peaceful, free, and prosperous world. After
World War I, our leaders chose the first path and we and the
world paid a terrible price. No one will dispute that after the
Second World War, Harry Truman, George Marshall, Dean Acheson,
Arthur Vandenberg -- and most of all the American people --
wisely chose the other path.
That same farsighted commitment to American leadership and
engagement must guide our foreign policy today. The Soviet
empire is gone. No great power views any other as an immediate
military threat. And the triumph of democracy and free markets
is transforming countries from Europe to Latin America, and from
Asia to Africa. We now have a remarkable opportunity to shape a
world conducive to American interests and consistent with
American values -- a world of open societies and open markets.
In the past year, we helped persuade Ukraine, Kazakhstan
and Belarus to give up nuclear weapons on their territory.
Nuclear warheads and missiles from these states and Russia are
being dismantled. Russian troops are out of the Baltic States
and Germany. We have begun to build a new European security
architecture. We helped to launch regional security dialogues
in Asia. We negotiated a Framework with North Korea that
freezes and will ultimately eliminate its nuclear weapons
program. We reached an agreement with China that will sharply
limit its missile exports. And we stopped Iraqi aggression
against Kuwait dead in its tracks.
We also contributed to historic progress in resolving
conflict, backing democracy, and promoting development in
countries around the world. We fostered agreements between
Israel and the PLO, and the peace treaty between Israel and
Jordan. We restored the democratically elected government in
Haiti -- and we are going to do our part to make sure that
achievement endures. In long troubled regions like Northern
Ireland, South Africa and Cambodia, the United States
contributed to extraordinary advances toward peace and
reconciliation. And at the historic Cairo Conference, we
restored American leadership on the critical issues of
population and development.
Finally, we have taken giant steps to build the open
trading system of the next century, with America at its hub. We
won bipartisan support for the GATT agreement and led the way
for its approval around the world. We helped to forge
commitments to eliminate trade barriers in the Asia-Pacific
region by 2020 and to negotiate free trade in our own hemisphere
by 2005. And we made important progress in widening access to
Japan's markets.
These are significant accomplishments. But we must not
rest on our laurels. Aggression, tyranny and intolerance still
undermine political stability and economic development in vital
regions of the world. Americans face growing threats from the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and
international crime. And a number of problems that once seemed
quite distant, like environmental degradation, unsustainable
population growth, and mass movements of refugees now pose
immediate threats to emerging democracies and to global
prosperity.
In meeting these opportunities and dealing with these
dangers, our foreign policy is driven by several principles.
First, America must continue to engage and to lead. Second, we
must maintain and strengthen our cooperative relationships with
the world's most powerful nations. Third, it is essential that
we adapt and build institutions that will promote economic and
security cooperation. Fourth, we must continue to support
democracy and human rights because it serves our interests and
our ideals.
The imperative of American leadership, the first principle
of our strategy, is a central lesson of this century. It is
sobering to imagine what the world would have been like without
it in the last two years alone. We might now have four nuclear
states in the former Soviet Union instead of one. We might have
a full-throttle nuclear program in North Korea. We might have
no GATT agreement or NAFTA. We might have brutal dictators
still terrorizing Haiti. And we might very well have Iraqi
troops back in Kuwait.
As a global power with global interests, the United States
must not retreat from its leadership role. It is our
responsibility to ensure that the post-Cold War momentum toward
greater freedom and prosperity is not reversed by neglect or by
short-sighted indifference. Only the United States has the
vision and the capacity to consolidate these gains.
As our recent accomplishments suggest, American leadership
requires that we be ready to back our diplomacy with credible
threats of force. And to this end, President Clinton is
determined that the U.S. military will remain the most powerful
and effective fighting force in the world -- as it certainly is
right now.
When our vital interests are at stake, we must be prepared
to act alone. Our willingness to do so is often the key to
effective joint action. The recent debate between the
proponents of unilateral and multilateral action assumes a false
choice. Multilateralism is a means, not an end. Sometimes, by
mobilizing the support of other nations, by leveraging our power
and leading through alliances and institutions, we will achieve
better results at lower cost in human life and national
treasure. That is a sensible bargain I know the American people
support.
Leadership also means focusing international attention on
emerging global problems. That is why we have given new and
enhanced attention to global issues like the environment,
population, and sustainable development. They deserve a
prominent place on our foreign policy agenda, and as long as I
am Secretary of State, they will have it.
Just as our nation must always maintain its military
readiness, so we must be ready to advance our political and
economic interests around the world through diplomacy. That
requires highly trained men and women. It requires modern
communications technology. And it requires adequate resources.
The second tenet of our strategy is the central importance
of constructive relations with the world's most powerful
nations: our Western European allies, Japan, China and Russia.
These nations possess the political, economic, or military
capability to affect -- for good or for ill -- the well-being of
every American. The relatively cooperative relations that these
countries now have with each other is unprecedented in this
century, but it is not irreversible.
Our strategy toward the great powers begins with Western
Europe and Japan. We must revitalize our alliances with this
democratic core. We must also seize the opportunities to build
constructive relations with China and Russia, countries that
were not too long ago our fiercest adversaries. Both are
undergoing momentous, though very different, transformations
that will directly affect American interests.
Our partnership with Japan is the linchpin of our policy
toward Asia, the world's most dynamic region. This
Administration has placed Asia at the core of our long-term
foreign policy approach. Realizing President Clinton's vision
of a stable and prosperous Pacific Community will continue to be
a top priority. Asia figures prominently in many of our central
areas of emphasis for 1995.
It is also imperative that we reinforce our security and
political ties with Japan -- as well as with South Korea and our
other treaty allies in the Pacific. It is equally essential
that the strength of our economic ties with Japan matches the
overall strength of our relationship. During this year that
marks the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II, we
will highlight and heighten our close cooperation on regional
and global issues -- while continuing to press for greater
access to Japanese markets.
Our success in Asia also requires pursuing constructive
relations with China, consistent with our overall interests. We
welcome China's participation in regional security and economic
organizations. We support its accession to the World Trade
Organization on proper terms. And we will work hard to gain its
cooperation with global non-proliferation regimes. In China's
own interest, and consistent with its increasing role in the
world community, it needs to demonstrate greater respect for
human rights and the rule of law. China's recent crackdown on
dissent is disturbing and incompatible with realizing the full
potential of our bilateral relations.
Our relationship with Russia is central to America's
security. It has been a key foreign policy issue for this
Administration. Its importance is reflected in my meetings in
Geneva this week with Andrei Kozyrev, where for more than eight
hours we discussed a broad array of common challenges and
concerns. The United States has an enormous stake in the
outcome of Russia's continuing transformation. A stable,
democratic Russia is vital to a secure Europe, to resolve
regional conflicts, and to fight proliferation. An unstable
Russia that reverts to authoritarianism or slides into chaos
would be a disaster -- an immediate threat to its neighbors and,
with its huge nuclear stockpile, once again a strategic threat
to the United States.
That is why the Clinton Administration has been unwavering
in our support for Russian reform. Despite the setbacks that we
knew Russia might encounter during this historic and difficult
transition, our steady policy of engagement and cooperation has
paid off for every American -- from reducing the nuclear threat
to advancing peace in the Middle East. That is why President
Clinton reaffirmed last week in Cleveland his determination to
maintain our substantial assistance for democratic and economic
reform in Russia.
We are deeply concerned about the conflict in Chechnya.
It is a terrible human tragedy. The way Russia has used
military force there has been excessive and it threatens to have
a corrosive effect on the future of Russian democracy. That is
why I emphasized so strongly to Foreign Minister Kozyrev this
week that the conflict must end and that a process of
reconciliation must begin, taking into account the views of the
people of Chechnya and the need to provide them with
humanitarian assistance. What we do not want to see is a Russia
in a military quagmire that erodes reform and tends to isolate
it in the international community.
The third principle of our strategy is that if the
historic movement toward open societies and open markets is to
endure, we must adapt and revitalize the institutions of global
and regional cooperation. After World War II, the generation of
Truman, Marshall, and Acheson built the great institutions that
gave structure and strength to the common enterprise of western
democracies: promoting peace and economic growth. Our
challenge now is to modernize and to revitalize those great
institutions -- NATO, the UN, the IMF and the World Bank, the
OECD, among others. And we must extend their benefits and
obligations to new democracies and market economies,
particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.
At the President's initiative, our G-7 partners agreed
that in Halifax next July, we will chart a strategy to adapt the
post-war economic institutions to a more integrated post-Cold
War period. We are also helping regional institutions and
structures such as the Organization of American States, ASEAN,
and the Organization of African Unity to promote peace and
democratic development. As we go forward into the next century,
we will find ourselves relying more and more on these regional
institutions.
As a fourth principle, this Administration recognizes the
importance of democracy and human rights as a fundamental part
of our foreign policy. Our commitment is consistent with
American ideals. It also rests on a sober assessment of our
long-term interest in a world where stability is reinforced by
accountability and disputes are mediated by dialogue; a world
where information flows freely and the rule of law protects not
only political rights but the essential elements of free market
economies.
In the new year, in 1995, as we follow these basic
underlying principles, I intend to focus on five key areas that
offer particularly significant opportunities: advancing the
most open global trading system in history; developing a new
European security order; helping achieve a comprehensive peace
in the Middle East; combatting the spread of weapons of mass
destruction; and fighting international crime, narcotics, and
terrorism.
First, we must sustain the momentum we have generated
toward the more open global and regional trade that is so vital
to American exports and good jobs for Americans. A core premise
of our domestic and foreign policies is that our economic
strength at home and abroad are mutually reinforcing. I believe
that history will judge this emphasis to be a distinctive
imprint and a lasting legacy of the Clinton Administration.
We will implement the Uruguay Round and ensure that the
new World Trade Organization upholds vital trade rules and
disciplines. We will work with Japan and our other APEC
partners to develop a blueprint for achieving open trade and
investment in the Asia-Pacific region. We will begin to
implement the Summit of the Americas Action Plan. And we will
also begin to negotiate Chile's accession to NAFTA.
Let me add a word about something on all our minds today:
Mexico, and our effort to address the economic crisis of
confidence in that country. The President has demonstrated
vision and leadership in assembling the package of support
necessary to help Mexico get back on track. The package of loan
guarantees has the backing not only of the Administration, but
the bipartisan Congressional leadership and the Chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board, as well as the international financial
institutions. This package contains tough but fair conditions
to protect U.S. interests and to ensure the guarantees are used
wisely and well.
As the President has said, we should resist the temptation
to load up this package with conditions unrelated to the
economic thrust of our effort. Let me say this to the Congress
and the American people: This package is in the overriding
interest of the United States. It should be acted upon quickly
and favorably.
In our second area of opportunity, we will take concrete
steps to build a new European security architecture. We
understand that deep political, military, economic, and cultural
ties make Europe's security and prosperity essential to ours.
It has been so for at least half a century. Our efforts will
focus on maintaining strong relations with Western Europe,
consolidating the new democracies of Central Europe and the
former Soviet Union, and engaging Russia as a responsible
partner.
NATO remains the anchor of American engagement in Europe
and the linchpin of transatlantic security. NATO has always
been far more than a transitory response to a temporary threat.
It has been a guarantor of European democracy and a force for
European stability. That is why its mission has endured, and
that is why its benefits are so attractive to Europe's new
democracies.
In earlier years, NATO has welcomed new members who shared
its purposes and who could add to its strength. Under American
leadership, the Alliance agreed last December to begin a steady,
deliberate process that will lead to further expansion. We have
already begun to examine with our Allies the process and
objectives of expansion. We intend to share our conclusions
with the members of the Partnership for Peace by the end of this
year.
As we move toward NATO expansion, we will also bolster
other key elements of the new European security architecture: a
vigorous program for the Partnership for Peace, which now
includes 24 nations, a strengthened Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, and a process for enhancing the NATO-
Russia relationship.
The tragic war in Bosnia underscores the importance of
building an effective new architecture for conflict prevention
and resolution in Europe. Together with our partners in the
Contact Group, we are seeking a negotiated solution in Bosnia
because only a negotiated solution has any chance of lasting and
of preventing a wider war. What we must not do is to make the
situation worse by unilaterally lifting the arms embargo. We
have always believed that the embargo is unfair. But going it
alone would lead to the withdrawal of UNPROFOR and an escalation
of violence. It would Americanize the conflict and lead others
to abandon the sanctions on Serbia. It would undermine the
authority of all UN Security Council Resolutions, including
resolutions that impose sanctions on Iraq and Libya.
Our third area of opportunity is advancing peace and
security in the Middle East. We have witnessed a profound
transformation in the landscape of the Arab-Israeli conflict --
one that would simply not have been imaginable just a few years
ago.
Of course, there are still many difficulties. But despite
those difficulties, we must not let this remarkable opportunity
slip away. On the Israeli-Palestinian track, we must continue
to make progress in the implementation of the Declaration of
Principles. I was encouraged by yesterday's meeting between
Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat and by the serious
efforts both sides are making to work out the complex issues in
the next phase, where there will be self-government for the West
Bank. Each side must see the benefits of peace. Israelis must
gain security. Palestinians must achieve genuine control over
the political and economic decisions that affect their lives.
Each must build the trust and confidence of the other --
especially at a time when those opposed to peace seek to destroy
mutual confidence.
The negotiations between Israel and Syria are entering a
very crucial phase. The parties are serious and some progress
has been made in narrowing the gaps. If a breakthrough is to be
achieved in the next few months, critical decisions must be made
and the process must be accelerated. I assure you that
President Clinton and I will do all we can to support these
efforts.
As we promote peace in the Middle East, we must also deal
with the enemies of peace. Iraq's massing of troops at the
Kuwaiti border last October underscored the danger Iraq poses to
regional security and peace. It is my conviction, and that of
all the leaders with whom I have talked in the Middle East, that
Saddam Hussein's regime cannot be trusted. Full compliance with
all relevant UN obligations is the only possible basis on which
to consider any relaxation of sanctions.
Another rogue state, Iran, now leads rejectionist efforts
to kill the chances for peace. It directs and materially
supports the operations of Hizballah, Hamas and others who
commit atrocities in places like Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires. It
sows terror and subversion across the Arab world. Those
industrialized nations that continue to provide concessionary
credits to Iran cannot escape the consequences of their actions:
They make it easier for Iran to use its resources to sponsor
terrorism and undermine the prospects for peace.
Today Iran is engaged in a crash effort to develop nuclear
weapons. We are deeply concerned that some nations are prepared
to cooperate with Iran in the nuclear field. I will not mince
words: These efforts risk the security of the entire Middle
East. The United States places the highest priority on denying
Iran a nuclear weapons capability. We expect the members of the
Security Council, who have special responsibilities in this
area, to join with us.
Our fourth area of emphasis for 1995 is to take specific
steps to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction and
their means of delivery. With the demise of the Soviet Union,
the proliferation of these weapons poses the principal direct
threat to the survival of the United States and our key allies.
Our global and regional strategies for 1995 comprise the most
ambitious nonproliferation agenda in history.
The centerpiece of our global strategy is the indefinite
and unconditional extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT), which is up for renewal this year. The treaty's greatest
achievement is invisible -- weapons not built and material not
diverted. But the impact of the treaty is clear: The nightmare
of a profusion of nuclear weapons states has not come to pass.
I think that history will record that the NPT is one of the most
important treaties of all time.
Our global strategy also includes a moratorium on nuclear
testing as we negotiate a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; a
global ban on the production of fissile materials for building
nuclear weapons; ratification of the Chemical Weapons
Convention; and strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention.
With the agreements President Clinton signed last December
in Budapest, we can now begin to implement the START I nuclear
reduction treaty. Later this month, I will be the
Administration's lead witness in urging the Senate to promptly
ratify START II. Finally, we will continue to support the Nunn-
Lugar program, which has been so important in providing the
funds to help dismantle former Soviet nuclear weapons and which
counters would-be nuclear smugglers by improving security at
vulnerable facilities.
When this Administration took office, North Korea had an
active nuclear program. Left unchallenged, it was poised to
produce hundreds of kilograms of plutonium that could be used in
nuclear weapons. The stage was being set for a crisis that
would imperil security throughout Northeast Asia and undermine
our entire global nonproliferation effort.
Last fall, the United States concluded an Agreed Framework
with North Korea that freezes its nuclear program, provides for
its dismantlement, and puts the whole issue on the road to
resolution. The Framework has the strong support of Japan and
South Korea -- key allies whose security it will protect and who
will finance most of its implementation. Of course, we are
under no illusions about North Korea. Implementation of the
Framework will be based upon verification, not trust. We are
determined to ensure that North Korea fulfills every obligation
at every step of the way.
Those who oppose the Framework with North Korea have a
heavy responsibility to offer an effective alternative that
protects our interests and the interests of our allies in
Northeast Asia. They have not done so.
We also have an aggressive strategy with respect to
conventional arms and missiles. We will seek to broaden the
Missile Technology Control Regime. We will push for a global
agreement to control the export of antipersonnel landmines, one
of the real scourges of the world, and work bilaterally to
remove the millions of mines still in place. We are also
seeking to establish a COCOM successor regime, which will
restrain trade in arms and sensitive technologies to the pariah
states.
Turning to our fifth area of emphasis, international
terrorists, criminals and drug traffickers pose direct threats
to our people and to our nation's interests. They ruin
countless lives, destroy property, and siphon away productive
resources. They sap the strength of industrialized societies
and threaten the survival of emerging democracies.
That is why in 1995 we plan to implement a comprehensive
strategy to combat these threats. The State Department is
working on this plan in close and urgent cooperation with the
Departments of Justice, Treasury, and other law enforcement
agencies. The strategy on international crime and terrorism
will include several vital steps:
ù First, we will insist that other countries fulfill their
obligations either to extradite or prosecute international
fugitives, and ensure that convicted criminals serve tough
sentences;
ù Second, we will work with other governments to develop and
implement tough asset forfeiture and money laundering laws to
attack international criminals in a vulnerable place -- in their
pocketbook. Unfortunately, many countries have very weak laws
as far as asset forfeiture and money laundering goes.
ù Third, we will toughen standards for obtaining U.S. visas
to make it more difficult for international criminals to gain
entry to this country;
ù Fourth, we will propose legislation to combat alien
smuggling and immigration fraud by providing increased penalties
and more effective investigative tools; and,
ù Fifth, the Clinton Administration is planning new steps to
expand the use of U.S. law against terrorists and against
funding for their worldwide activities.
I have discussed five key areas of opportunity for
American foreign policy in 1995. I also want to underscore that
our foreign policy will continue to address a whole range of
issues important to our interests, such as promoting stability
and democracy in Asia, Latin America, and Africa; meeting
humanitarian needs around the world; fighting environmental
degradation and addressing rapid population growth.
As I conclude, let me note that since my first week in
office, I have consulted closely with both parties in Congress
on every important issue on our agenda. We have gained
bipartisan backing for key objectives of our foreign policy,
including our approach on the Middle East peace process, our
landmark trade agreements, such as NAFTA, GATT, and APEC, and
denuclearization in the former Soviet Union.
The recent elections changed the balance of power between
the parties. But they did not change, indeed they enhanced, our
responsibility to cooperate on a bipartisan basis in foreign
affairs. The election was not a license to lose sight of our
nation's global interests or to walk away from our commitments
in the world. Leaders of both parties understand that well.
Bipartisan cooperation has always been grounded in the
conviction that our nation's enduring interests do not vary with
the times. President Harry Truman had it right 40 years ago:
"Circumstances change," he said, "but the great issues remain
the same -- prosperity, welfare, human rights, effective
democracy, and above all, peace."
With the Cold War behind us, the United States has a
chance to build a more secure and integrated world of open
societies and open markets. We are the world's largest military
and economic power. Our nation's founding principles still
inspire people all over the world. We are blessed with great
resources and resolve. We will continue to use them with
wisdom, with strength, and with the backing of the American
people.
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