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Secretaries Of State Discuss Foreign Policy At Classic Center

by Andre Gallant
04/01/2008

No matter who sits in the Oval Office come 2009, difficult foreign policy decisions await the next President of the United States.

And five former diplomats, meeting in Athens for the 16th Report of the Secretaries of State, offered advice to the next administration.

Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher, Madeline Albright, and Colin Powell held a roundtable forum at the Classic Center on Thursday, March 27, to discuss future foreign policy towards the Middle East, China, Russia and the Western Hemisphere.

The panel began by analyzing the negative foreign image the next President inherits.

“We haven’t listened as well as we should have,” Colin Powell told the sell-out crowd.

Powell, who served as Secretary during President George W. Bush’s first term, said that the negative image is reversible.

He recommended that the next President close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay as a first step in repairing the reputation.

“We’re not saying these people should be turned loose,” Powell said. “They should be brought into the legal system and given access to habeas corpus.”

Warren Christopher said that the economy is just as important as foreign policy when it comes to negative image.

“The weakness of the dollar is a metaphor for me for the weakness of America abroad,” Christopher said.

The panel felt that more diplomacy is needed to deal with the situation in Iraq.

All the “tools in the toolbox” are necessary, Albright said. This includes using the full power of the U.N. and finding commonalities with Iran.

James Baker called for a “new diplomatic offensive” in the Middle East, and Warren Christopher agreed.

“Just because we can do something militarily doesn’t mean we should,” Christopher said.

The level of military involvement is “unsustainable,” and a draw down of troops must occur, Powell said. But Iraqis must work to solve internal political fights between Sunnis and Shiites before any progress can be made.

Secretary Albright spoke on the need to discuss economic development with China in order to help them avoid similar growing pains felt by the U.S., but without telling them what they can and can’t do with their industrial power.

Albright joked about the environmental mess created by the booming Chinese economy saying that Chinese athletes will see success at the upcoming Olympic Games because “everyone else will find it so difficult to breath” the polluted air in Beijing.

China and Russia were Colin Powell’s greatest “enemies” throughout his career, he said. But now, as the only countries capable of posing any military threat to the U.S., neither country seeks conflict because they’re so successful economically.

Moderator Terence Smith, of “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” recognized the historical importance of the 2008 election, noting that the next president will either be a black male, a woman, or a Vietnam POW.

At one point, Smith interrupted Henry Kissinger, reminding the former secretary that “he or she” must be used when discussing the next President.

Albright, an advisor to Sen. Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign, took great pride using the pronoun “herself” when referring to her boss’s potential presidency, leaning directly into her microphone to annunciate the word.

Citing a study that stated that 88 percent of 18 to 24-year-old Americans couldn’t find Afghanistan on a map, Smith asked the panel how we should educate young people for the 21st century.

“We need better maps,” James Baker III said, drawing great laughter from the crowd.

Madeline Albright said that the media holds a great duty to responsibly cover international events.

“I enjoy Jon Stewart,” Albright said, having recently appeared on the fake news show. “But it’s not the way that young people should be getting their news.”

Moderator Terence Smith, a broadcast journalist, agreed.

“Guilty as charged,” he said.

The Dean Rusk Center for International Law and the Southern Center for International Studies co-sponsored the 16th Report of the Secretaries of State, held as the Rusk Center celebrates its 30th anniversary.