n our more interdependent world where global issues help define our common purpose, we will be tested to adapt our approaches and institutions. The persistent and perplexing nature of cross-cutting global issues demonstrates that safety no longer lies in wealth or power alone. Long-term leadership relies on forging cooperation among all nations.
he assertion still made by some that America can isolate itself from the world has become not simply a faulty political strategy; it is absurd. If America is going to progress, we have to be able to act in concert with others, not instead of, but in addition to acting alone. In some circles multilateralism is a "politically incorrect" term. As a word, it's probably not the best: it has too many syllables, it has a little Latin in it, and it ends in i-s-m. But whether we call it burden-sharing, cooperation, teamwork, partnership, or anything else, in the modern world we've got to work with others if we're going to do well ourselves.
n every region of the world we see examples of men and women pushing back the limits of past possibility, rising above historic resentments, insecurities, and limitations. From Central Europe to Central America, from Southeast Asia to South Africa, we see the release of new and positive energies nurtured by freedom and dedicated to the future.
But as the daily headlines remind us, there are perilous crosscurrents at work:
- In Rwanda and the Balkans, we have witnessed atrocities of a magnitude matched only rarely in this century.
- In too many regions, the exploitation of ethnic and cultural divisions is fostering instability, strangling growth, slowing reforms, and forcing innocent families from their homes.
- Transnational criminal enterprises thrive where national governments are complicit or weak.
- The demographic center of gravity is shifting towards what we have traditionally called the less developed world.
- The gap between rich and poor among and within nations continues to grow.
hese facts challenge, but should not daunt us. Our task is to cope with immediate needs while assembling the building blocks required for long-term progress. In this endeavor, there is no sure recipe for success. No model is without flaws. A broad and continuing international discussion aimed at establishing a working consensus and partnership on global issues is required. The [Clinton] administration will continue to contribute its own ideas, and we will continue to listen with care to the ideas of others.
ortunately, the tides of history have given us an incredible opportunity to re-energize the United Nations and to build other structures and arrangements that will make the world safer, freer, and more prosperous for generations to come.
he UN right now is flush with reform proposals. This gathering is intended to contribute to these deliberations about reform -- and it promises to offer some cogent insights that will help guide us in our work, both within the government and in the larger civil society that is increasingly looking for the UN to play a more useful role in meeting the world's needs.
s a way of moving that discussion forward, let me outline tonight some of the steps that we believe can and should be taken at the UN or with UN participation to advance the interlocking goals of peace, prosperity, and democracy in the global era.
irst, we must persist in efforts to make UN peacekeeping a more effective instrument of collective security. Few conflicts are as clear as Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, where the aggression was overt, the stakes included oil and the possibility of a madman equipped with nuclear arms, the military terrain was favorable, the enemy was isolated, the finest armed forces in the world -- ours -- were fully engaged, and the bills were being paid by somebody else. Most threats to stability are not so clear, and are usually even more complex: violence caused not by international aggression but by civil war, fragile cease-fires that do not hold, extremist political movements within strategic states, or ethnic fighting that spills unpredictably across national lines.
here is no simple remedy for such outbreaks, and certainly none that come without cost. The UN is no panacea, but neither is NATO, nor unilateral action, nor inaction. The right prescription for the ills of UN peacekeeping is not to call for the services of Dr. Kevorkian, but rather to administer sound treatment -- to make this tool the best it can be.
or all their limitations, UN peace operations have proven their ability, in the right circumstances, to separate adversaries, maintain cease-fires, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief, enable refugees and displaced persons to return home, demobilize combatants, and create conditions under which political reconciliation may occur and free elections may be held. Contrary to some of the political rhetoric, there is a long list of successful UN operations -- successful in keeping the peace, calming down the participants, and striving toward reconciliation -- including operations in Mozambique, Cyprus, Cambodia, and El Salvador. In many cases UN operations have also helped to nurture new democracies, lower the global tide of refugees, and prevent small wars from growing into larger conflicts which would be far more costly in lives, treasure, and security.
pponents of American participation and leadership in the UN should understand that when we weaken the UN, we weaken ourselves. An effective UN provides an indispensable additional option of pursuing objectives important to us -- objectives which we might otherwise not be able to obtain as easily or at all. This is true not only of peacekeeping but of other UN actions as well, which brings me to a second area where multilateral action is needed: arms control and disarmament. Here again, examples illustrate the importance of having the option of combining American leadership with cooperative international action:
- International agreement on the indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty makes us all more secure.
- A Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty would help to ensure the safety of our world while eliminating some future threats to the environment.
- Emerging agreements on restraining the production and sale of land mines are urgently needed: millions of these mindless weapons threaten innocent civilians, especially children, all over the world.
e are more secure, and our children have the opportunity for a happier future through such international agreements limiting arms development and proliferation.
third area where international cooperation is being strengthened is in broadening and deepening support for democracy, human rights, and justice. These are interlocking goals, and our support for them, both politically and financially, is a vital component of preventive diplomacy.
fourth objective must be to move ahead on sustainable development in all its aspects, the lofty proposition that was the basis of the ambitious foundation set forth at the "Earth Summit" in Rio in 1992. The Earth Summit was designed to and succeeded in integrating economic development, environmental protection, and needed social institutions into a single conceptual framework.
ustainable development fundamentally means that the economies of the world, including our own, should attempt to meet the needs of today's generation without compromising or stealing from future generations. Understood and pursued, the idea of sustainable development can integrate and harmonize powerful economic, environmental, and social forces at work in today's world. It is a concept rooted in recognition of the mutually reinforcing nature of economic and environmental progress.
ormer Secretary-General Hammarskjöld once said that we should "stop thinking of the UN as a weird Picasso abstraction and see it as a drawing [we] made ourselves." In the months ahead, we are going to face some important choices. By "we" I mean all of us‹governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs, the private sector. We must choose how we will organize ourselves now that the Cold War structure is gone. Will we have a set of standards and expectations that will bring us together in shared effort and common hope? Or will we allow ourselves to be divided, with an ever-narrowing vision and a focus always on the short term?
, for one, am looking forward to the coming debate in the U.S. Congress and on the broader world stage. I believe, with Guyanese statesman Sir Shridath Ramphal, that
there is a spirit of human solidarity stirring in the world; that many are ready to show by example that they care about their neighbor and recognize that their neighbor now is everyone on earth; that a younger generation, in particular, demands to be heard in the cause of their inheritance.
et us do all we can to summon that spirit of solidarity forward, and to transform it into a mighty force reaffirming basic principles, re-inventing institutions, rejecting excuses, building consensus, and embracing the future.
