America's Place in the World

Transcript: Well there are going to be areas of the world where this is easier done, and there are areas of the world where this is going to be particularly difficult. There are areas of the world where the general thrust of the interest of the population does not conflict with that of the United States, or this current administration or the next. And there are areas of the world where we have fundamental problems. For instance with Europe, the United States . . . or with China, the United States does not have fundamental conflictual relationship. There are policy disagreements, and there is lack of respect for the way in which we see the world and the way in which we’ve conducted ourselves. So you will say behavioral adjustments on the part of the United States should take this thing out by and large. Consulting Europeans; taking their thinking seriously; having a multilateral approach would . . . You know also taking issues that they like, including global warming, climate change, Kyoto agreement are very important to restoring that relationship. When you look at U.S.’s relationship with Russia or the Muslim world, it’s much more complicated. Because it’s just a matter of simple behavioral adjustment, contrary to what people say. If the United States was to change its language toward Russia, or its language toward the Muslim world, it will help, but ________ somewhat more fundamental problems at play. The United States right now has immersed itself in the Muslim world in multiple wars. It has seen conflict essentially, and its military arm of the United States as the most effective way of managing U.S.’s interests in the Middle East. It has set for itself very maximal goals everywhere you look in the Muslim world, wanting absolute democracy here; absolutely friendly government there; whereas our means and our moral authority don’t match our ambitions, and we find ourselves continuously sinking. And there is . . . We face two problems actually in the Muslim world. One is anger at our policies. The other one is now lack of respect for our abilities. And these are two different problems. It’s one thing if people don’t like you, but they really believe that they should fear you, and that you actually know what you’re doing – that you’re not a . . . you’re not mismanaging and you’re not . . . you’re not incapable of getting _________. Whereas in the Muslim world you have a combination now of lack of respect for what we want; lack of respect for what our policy is; but lack of respect for our capabilities and our wisdom; and that’s particularly bad. And the Muslim world now matters more. One is because geographically it is half the world, if you look at it – from Indonesia to Morocco. Secondly is that we ourselves have elevated the Muslim world and its problems – and particularly the problem of terrorism – to being a global problem, and to being a fundamental focus of American foreign policy. I mean look at it. This is probably the first presidential election I know where the Middle East is breaking and making presidencies; is breaking and making coalitions; is breaking and making the domestic politics in America – the rules of the game. And that means that the Middle East matters enormously to us. And it will, but we have fundamental problems in managing our interests in the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Recorded on: 12/3/07

Description: America used to take the lead in creating a latticework of institutions.

Transcript: Well this particular moment, the issues that worry me a lot, concern me a lot, and generate a lot of anxiety to be quite particular about it and bring it right down to the current moment are the ways in which this society – this country – in the last several years has substantially squandered a bank of moral and political capital that it built up in the world at large in the two generations or so following World War II. I do think that on balance, again, there are major exceptions to this statement; but I think on balance, the United States played a beneficial role in the history of the larger world for a couple of generations after World War II. The Vietnam episode is a major exception to that, I believe. But in essence, the United States at the end of World War II took the lead of creating a lattice work of institutions – the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the General Agreement on Terrorists and Trade which morphed into the World Trade Organization at the end of the century, NATO . . . you could go on and on – the net affect of which was to raise standards of living and expand the scope of choice and liberties for people not just in this country, but in the world at large . . . the big sectors in the world. And that was a project I think that this country can be quite proud of. And I think people admired us for our role in that, in helping those kinds of things to happen. We have lost a lot, if not virtually all of that moral and political capital as we’ve become something quite different from the humble nation that we thought we were, that we were promised the current leadership would keep us as. I think it’s going to take a long time for this country to rebuild its reputation of the world at large and to kind of reclaim the kind of moral and political leadership role that it had for the two generations after 1945.

Recorded on: 7/4/07

Description: America has gotten a bad rap recently.

Transcript:

Recorded On: 8/10/07

Description: America has to use its power wisely and decently.

Transcript: The overwhelming challenge in the world today for the United States is how we use this power – unrivaled power, unprecedented power, unmatched power – economically, militarily, technologically, culturally? How we use that power to protect American interests and to make a better world – safer, more prosperous. That is the great challenge for the country now, and I think will be for many, many years to come.

I think we’ve got a lot of work to do. I think we’ve had quite a setback, and we have not used that power as wisely, and prudently and effectively as we should have used it – particularly with regard to the war in Iraq. But this is behind us now, and we are where we are. We can’t change recent events and recent history. So I think we have to apply American power pragmatically, realistically. We have to make sure that we do not set goals for ourselves that we cannot achieve. When President Bush said we’re going to end tyranny in the world, that is idealism beyond reach. When President Kennedy said we must bear any burden, that is beyond reach. It’s an ideal, but the problem is matching resources to achieve your goal. And Americans, I think, have tended to overreach in the world, and to think that our power is so great that we can achieve all kinds of things. I have become impressed with the limitations of American power, and with the necessity of matching our goals with the means to achieve those goals; and to apply for ourselves pragmatic objectives around the world – achievable objectives. And to think that we can suddenly make democracy bloom in Saudi Arabia, and in Egypt, and in Pakistan is a stretch. We can’t do it. But I am also impressed that American ideals are good and solid. But we cannot accomplish them without a lot of help. If you sit down and try to name the most difficult problems that bother you – I don’t know what they might be . . . climate change, drugs, conflicts of all kinds, rising tensions in the world, HIV/AIDS, whatever . . . nuclear proliferation – you have to be impressed, I think, with the fact that you cannot achieve those goals by yourself. We have to have help. As big as we are, as smart as we are, as rich as we are, we need help. And we have to learn to work together. The great genius of American diplomacy came about, at least in my lifetime, after World War II when the idealism of the American people was captured pragmatically, and we rebuilt Europe with the Marshall Plan – Europeans leading the way, of course, but with our help. And we had this flowering of diplomacy. The World Bank, the IMF, what eventually became the WTO – the World Trade Organization – the United Nations. In other words, we advanced American interests, but we did it by cooperating with other countries around the world. We did not say, “This is the way it’s going to be. It’s going to be the American model. We’re going to do it our way. We’re going to impose it upon you.” We rejected that, and we took the generosity of the American public. Just think for a moment. We defeated Japan and Germany. They were the great evil – Adolf Hitler, Tojo – some people will remember that – the Emperor of Japan. After the war, we immediately turned around – immediately – and gave aid to those countries. What a remarkable thing. Think of that. We gave aid to the people we had been fighting for years. Well how do you capture that spirit again? That generosity? That pragmatism? That ability to advance your interests, but also include the interests of others? That’s the great challenge for us.

I think the United States wants to use its power in a way that will understand the cry for dignity in the world today; the cry for progress, for a better life. And the United States ought to try to say to the world, “We’re on your side. We can’t solve all of your problems. We would like to help.” Let me give you a very specific example. We think the madras schools in Pakistan are very bad. They teach hostility of Americans. They don’t teach the basics of education. So we have a program in effect now to help develop alternative educational systems in Pakistan. It’s a small program. It’s not gonna solve all the problems in Pakistan for sure; but the signal is right. “We’re on your side. We want to try to help you.” You see I think people around the world basically want the same things. They want a decent life for themselves. They want to be able to have healthcare and education. They want to be able to marry the person of their choice, and they want to have a decent retirement. All the things that we talk about all the time in America, I think it’s wanted by everybody in the world. So America has to be on the side of decency and on willingness to help; but it also has to recognize that we can’t do it all; that we can only say, “We can be on your side.” I’ll tell you an analogy. Every American politician is approached regularly by somebody who asks him or her to do something that is utterly impossible to do. I don’t know any successful American politician who says to that person, “I can’t help you.” What do you say? You say, “I understand your problem. I’d like to try to be helpful. I’m on your side.” It may be simplistic, but I don’t think it is. That’s what America has to do in the world. “We can’t solve all your problems, but we want for you the same thing we want for ourselves – a decent life – and we want to help.”

Recorded on: 7/5/2007 at The Aspen Ideas Festival

Description: Our prescriptions contradict our own path to success.

Transcript:

Well first do no harm. There is a diet plan that somebody told me about that was being marketed a while ago which was called “Stop the Insanity.” Just stop the insanity. Stop invading other countries. Stop pouring bushel fulls of money on corrupt governments. Stop twisting countries’ arms to adopt the kind of reform that experts in Washington and New York think they ought to adopt, which is really the wrong way to go about implementing any free markets or democracy. It can’t be imposed and coerced on other societies. Other societies have to freely choose their own freedom. It’s a ridiculous thing to think that we, the west, can impose freedom on other people. That contradicts the very idea of freedom. Freedom arises when people freely choose to protect their own freedoms, to seize their own freedoms, to assert their own freedoms. And so a lot of what the west can do is just stop doing the stupid thing we’re doing now. And once we get to that point, then I think there’s some positive things the west can do as far as exchanging intellectual ideas, exchanging technologies, making available technologies, making available our institutions of higher learning to students from all over the world, allowing free trading goods so that African cotton farmers can sell their cotton in our markets, which we’re not letting them into at the moment. That kind of thing, I think, is what mainly the west can do.

Description: People see what we're like through our movies.

Transcript: America is known throughout the world largely by its film and television stars, and sports heroes. I mean you’d like to think that the politicians have that kind of impact, but the truth of the matter is that this is an industry that America has become identified with over a period of many, many, years. One of the reasons why, to be honest with you, is there aren’t very many other places that produce very many movies or television shows. I mean they produce some in other countries, but our industry is still the dominant force in terms of amount of product that’s out there. So people see often what we’re like by reason of the movies. And I recall that whenever Arnold Schwarzenegger used to travel around the world – this was before he became governor of California – he would be swarmed by people throughout the world wherever he’d go largely because of this factor. And so good and bad, America is known often by its entertainment product. And I think it’s more good than bad to be honest with you. And one evidence of that is in the last few years when we’ve been fighting this war in Iraq, and when there’s a lot of negative feelings about American foreign policy in the world, sales of American movies overseas have not been appreciably hurt by any of that. That is this overseas sales of American film track, the domestic sales of American films notwithstanding that a lot of people may not like our foreign policy. So that’s a very good sign that not only do people like our movies, but they still like us, America as a country.

Recorded on: 7/6/07

Description: Our approach has been too selfish and unilateral of late.

Transcript:  I think that can the U.S. recover ever its global leadership?  The last seven years . . .  It’s now 2007.  The last seven years have been devastating for the United State’s position in the world.  And it affects us in business; but it certainly affects us . . . when you go overseas, the disdain people have for the United States trying to be a unilateral force in the world.  It doesn’t work.  We have to go back to realizing that the only way that we can create a safer world, a better world, a more secure world, a more prosperous world is through collaboration.  And to me, I’m very, very upset about our leadership – our political leadership – being so selfish and so unilateralist in their approach.  And I think it’s harmed us greatly.  And I’m hopeful we can get new leaders who will find ways to bond and collaborate with other nations to realize that, you know, everyone has a right . . . certain human rights, and we need to bring those forth around the globe.  And I hope the U.S. can recover some of its position so it can once again become a force for good rather than a force for ill.

Transcript:  7/5/07

Description: A new diplomacy.

Transcript: And the second one, you know, we have to tear down this . . . this really animosity that the jihadists’ movement has against America. There’s people who hate America. And I have found that the best way to treat this severe hatred is build up a counter-force. And that’s through women and children and using medical diplomacy. I’ve traveled all over the world and I’ve been blessed by it. And I’ve had the opportunity in being Secretary of Health to see that there’s one common denominator: Whether you’re a Shiite, Sunni, Kurd, Hamaas, Hezbollah, Jewish member . . . everything revolves around how you’re gonna provide good health – good security, but good health for the family. And this is with women and children. And if you’re really able to tap into that, you’re gonna be able to start a movement across the world that’s gonna be basing themselves on good health conditions and good health for their family. And that’s what I wanna do through global medical diplomacy. And I’ve got a plan laid out, and really to develop that. And I think that is the kind of ideas and positive things that we have to do in this country to show the world that, you know, that we’re not this terrible country that’s trying to invade and be able to in any way change their way of life. We gotta show them that this is America; that we’re good, we’re positive, we’re strong, and we wanna protect you. And we wanna do what is right.

Recorded on: 7/6/07