Former Secretary of State Speaks

Madeleine Albright pushes international peace, global politics

Sophie MattsonTHE SANTA CLARAMay 7, 2015

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]nce deemed the highest-ranking woman in history of the federal government, former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright shared her opinions about foreign affairs issues, ranging from the United State’s relations with Iran to the conflict in Ukraine, while on campus Tuesday.

Having a highly decorated career in international affairs, Albright was the 20th ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997 under Bill Clinton, and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2012.

She is currently an international relations professor at Georgetown University. During her tenure as a Cabinet member, Albright fought to protect human rights and democracy around the world.

“I was picketed over sanctions in the Persian Gulf,” Albright said. “People threw stones at me in the Balkans. The Serb press referred to me as elderly but dangerous. When our campaign to end ethnic cleansing in Kosovo went badly, everyone was calling it ‘Madeleine’s War,’ and not in a flattering way. This was about the time I began telling friends that the reason I looked fatter was that I had grown a thicker skin.”

During her talk, Albright stressed the importance of U.S. involvement in foreign affairs, especially during matters of humanitarian conflicts and ethnic cleansing.

She described how her own family was forced to flee a crumbling Czechoslovakia in 1941. Portions of the country were annexed to Hitler in the 1938 Munich Agreement, but an increase in foreign involvement could have prevented disaster.

“Obviously, there is great distance between the war-torn streets of Aleppo and the tree-lined neighborhoods of Santa Clara,” Albright said. “It is easy for an American leader to say we shouldn’t care about people in distant places with unpronounceable names, but it would be a tragic mistake, and I know firsthand because of what happened in the land of my birth.”

Albright acknowledged that after more than 30 years of continuous warfare, the longest period in America’s history, the American people are tired and want the nation to retreat from international affairs. She cited a Pew Research Center report in which 50 percent of Americans surveyed said that other countries get along the best they can on their own, without American intervention.

However, isolation from international affairs can lead to extremely damaging consequences, Albright said.

“When the twin towers fell on 9/11, America learned once again that we cannot wall ourselves off from the ailments of far-off corners of the globe, because problems do eventually come home to America,” Albright said.

According to Albright, the interdependence from globalization means that conflict and crisis are impossible to contain. She cited the example of the upheaval in Ukraine, which has “metastasized into a significant geopolitical crisis.”

Now, the Ukrainian economy, Russia’s relationship with the west, the European energy sector and transatlantic security are at risk.

However, interdependence between nations can also foster international peace, especially when two nations depend on each other for their own economic success.

“We are interdependent as ever before, and this can be stabilizing because it increases the cost of conflict,” Albright said. “We see this in the U.S.-China relationship, when our tendency towards rivalries is constrained by the fact that each of our countries has an enormous stake in the other’s success.”

In order to encourage democracy, elections are necessary, but not sufficient, to put society on the path to peace and prosperity, Albright said. For fledgling democracies to survive, other countries should provide them with basic services allowing them to fight corruption, invest in their citizens and build infrastructure, including educational institutions, according to Albright.

“In countries such as Nigeria, which recently held successful presidential elections, they still have to gain confidence that if they work hard,” Albright said. “They will be able to improve their lives and live free from violence and harassment.”

In light of negotiations between Iran and United States about Iran’s capability to enrich uranium, Albright said that the recent election of President Hassan Rouhani has the potential to bring “great possibilities” for the relations between the two nations.

Albright said that Iran has the right to have nuclear technology because they signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, an international treaty to aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. The main question is how to get Iran to be responsible about their use of nuclear technology, she concluded.

Contact Sophie Mattson at smattson @scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.