Posted on 12/17/2006 7:49:38 AM PST by Hat-Trick
Chuck Hagel: Global framework must recognize 21st-century realities
BY CHUCK HAGEL
The writer, of Omaha, is Nebraska's senior U.S. senator.
In a 1953 speech delivered in Denver, President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented a new nuclear frame of reference for the world. He knew if the world was to survive in a nuclear age, it would require new thinking relevant to the world's new nuclear realities. Nuclear power had become part of mankind.
Eisenhower laid out in the Denver speech his thoughts on how nuclear power could be used for something productive and positive to be shared by all people rather than the atom being used for the most destructive purposes. Hence, the Atoms for Peace program was born.
Eisenhower also knew that an international regime of responsible control and conduct needed to be formed in order to address the advent of more nations becoming nuclear powers. Three years later, the International Atomic Energy Agency was born. It was presented to the then-young United Nations by 12 countries, including the Soviet Union.
Eisenhower and all who were associated with this effort were unsure of its future and what impact their vision and work might have on the world. Eventually, this vision helped to produce the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which today has been signed by 188 states.
We know today - in spite of mistakes, problems and failures - that the United Nations, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency have been of indispensable international importance.
Today, we once again are living through one of those historic transformational times that normally come along twice a century. As President Eisenhower and other American and world leaders knew after World War II, if the world is not only to survive but also prosper with hope for all people, then a new international frame of reference is required for understanding and addressing the world's problems.
Fifty years after the formation of the IAEA and other multilateral institutions, the world faces a glaring need for a requisite 21st-century frame of reference.
An interconnected global community of 6.5 billion people supported by a global economy requires a clear understanding of the common challenges, threats and opportunities that face all mankind. This understanding demands a wider lens and a more integrated set of policies for the United States than ever before.
The human condition will drive much of the instability and danger in this new century. Addressing despair, hunger, poverty and injustice will be a centerpiece for a new global policy. When people are without dignity, not much else matters.
Global challenges like the environment, pandemic health issues and energy also will factor into a new 21st-century policy paradigm. The more defined threats like proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and religious extremism will not be successfully met only through the use of America's unequaled military power. It also will require enhanced and strengthened multilateral relationships and institutions, closer intelligence-sharing with allies, expanded trade and effective exchange and education programs.
All of the great challenges of the 21st century will require U.S. leadership that is trusted and respected, not feared, throughout the world. Inspirational leadership, moral authority and confidence in America's noble purpose, not imposed power, will be essential if the world is to live together peacefully with hope for all of mankind.
An expansion of American influence must include a strengthening of the world's multilateral organizations like the United Nations.
Last week, I introduced Kofi Annan for his final speech as U.N. secretary-general. The secretary-general selected the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Mo., for his final speech because he wanted to honor the wisdom and leadership of the American president who presided over the founding of the United Nations.
President Truman understood that the United Nations would enhance, not diminish, America's influence through consensus and common purpose. Despite all of its problems, the United Nations has been a force multiplier for the United States.
In stark contrast to inaccurate and overheated press reports of the secretary-general's speech, American generosity and the indispensability of America's world leadership were themes that the secretary-general talked about. (For a text of the secretary-general's speech, please visit Un. For a text of my introduction of the secretary-general, please visit Hagel.)
Sixty-five years ago this month, America was propelled into World War II. Since that day, America has helped lead the world in monumental ways.
By working with allies and multilateral institutions and harnessing the creative and vital energies of a free and vibrant people, America has accomplished historic, even breathtaking, achievements for mankind. They have come because, most of the time, we accurately - but not always perfectly - framed the challenges and opportunities in the world through a realistic, hopeful and visionary lens.
We have at times failed, but we have learned from those failures. And they have almost always been failures of judgment, not intent.
So we stand today at another defining time in history - facing complicated and new challenges and opportunities. They must be engaged with the same clarity of purpose and sense of reality that produced our post-World War II frame of reference. This effort will require a new American 21st-century frame of reference.
History instructs, and leadership inspires. But judgment prevails. Now is the moment for all three.
I'm ready to puke. All of this text and not one single word about American sovereignty. Not one single word about how one of these "21st century realities" is a large, well-armed collection of Islamofascists who desire to see all infidels wiped from the aforementioned "globe". Not one single word about the "21st-century reality" of Iran, Syria, and Hamas coming to power, and what they might do with a nuclear weapon.
Globalist, thy name is Hagel. I'm glad we won't have to hear this as his inauguration speech, largely because I believe the American people recognize that Hagel does not possess the "realistic, hopeful, and visionary" lens he speaks of.
Someday the people of NE should realize that they've been had and throw him out. I remember when he was first elected, as I was living there. He just appeared from the beltway and ran for Senate. He represents some cabal more than he repreents NE.
A hallmark of a Liberal is that they conjure up well-intentioned programs (ie, the Great Society) without reference to whether they worked. Thomas Sowell aptly described this as using self-congratulation as the basis for social policy. Self-congratulation is even worse as the basis for foreign policy (ie, Jimmy Carter).
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