Be more proud to be organizing the symposium. Before we begin the next conversation much has been said about our first president to. Its the view of some others would allow so as we prepare to have a conversation about the global vision, we felt that it would be fun to reflect for a few minutes on bill clinton and his time at georgetown. So, enjoy this little walk down memory lane and we will get right to the conversation afterwards. We were involved. It was an intellectually fascinating time. Then these issues began to emerge in the vietnam war with civil rights. To be a College Student in washington, d. C. At the time left you with the notion that youve got to do something. In the primary new england and Catholic Schools where he applied to georgetown it was the only school that he applied to and he got in. I think everybody was meeting each other and certainly bill clinton because he was an outstanding guy. Beethen all these people woud be laughing and nothing ever changed. A ververy bright and articulated very well known, very active dynamic. Remember your family, your names. When i would hear him talk about something i was convinced that he was going someplace. He is a man of many gifts. The one that was absolutely apparent he was a person who knew what he wanted to do and said what you nominate me and i said sure. You just had a sense that he was a natural. About women and men for others, the Public Service, this is very much bill clinton. After Martin Luther king was assassinated, he took a piece of paper and drew a cross and put it on the side of his car. Always reaching out with that skill that he possessed. I dont think anybody ever expects a friend t to the president of the United States. Once he was elected well we have that reunion at the white house . He invited all of us for our 25th and 30th union while he was president. It has been wonderful to see all of you. Key is as proud of georgeto georgetown. He always felt that georgetown meet him in many ways. I served in his white house for eight years and it was always clear from time to time we would talk about an influence of this place. He could have gone to arkansas he always presented himself. Thats who he is god thats who he was. He felt that is as good as he got. From the days i met him at the university until today. [applause] that gets me every time i hear it. Not everyone may share the same views of the speakers is expected in on everyone respecte organizing group to see the perspectives and ideas by not causing the disruption to the activities. At the conclusion of the event there will be a question and answer session to engage in dialogue. Please be sure to raise your comments in the form of a question and in the interest of time be concise and thats only one question and we also asked while it is heartwarming to see so many people from president clintons class and journalists here during the event it limits from the students into the georgetown community. We are incredibly excited to partner with the law school on this next discussion so we look at how bill clinton viewed the world and what americas role is, what kind of leadership it could take and how that impacted americas foreignpolicy and National Security during the eight years that he was president and beyond. To kick off the discussion and make a proper introduction i would like to invite a sophomore in the school of service from Portland Maine to introduce the panelists. Welcome from everyone. I am a sophomore in the school of sore. Co. Service and it is my pleasure to welcome you all to todays event and introduced the incredibly distinguished guest. I became involved in the institute of public debate coach Public Service at georgetown and have been a part of the politics family ever since. Working with geopolitics has been an incredible way to get involved in some of the best event georgetown has to offer. You certainly dont get opportunities like this and a lot of other schools but now for the guest we are here for. For. Now when albright was secretary of state in the Clinton Administration from 97 to 2001. She was the first woman to hold a position in at the time of the highest ranking woman in the history of the u. S. Government. She received the medal of freedom, the nations highest civilian honor from president obama in 2012. Today she has chaired the group and Albright Capital management. Shes also a professor in the practice of diplomacy in the school of Foreign Service at georgetown and the fivetime bestsellers working on her next book touches on a warning that will be published next spring. The 54th president of mexico during th the Clinton Administration from 94 to 2000. Since leaving public office, serving on various boards and commissions on the environment, policy, and elections and democracy. Currently the director of the center for the study of globalization at Yale University and has received many honors over the years including decorations from the government of 32 countries and franklin d. Roosevelt freedom award. Also published volumes in the past ten years including his most recent africa at a fork in the road. Strobe talbott was the secretary of state and the Clinton Administration from 94 to 2001. Before joining, he worked at Time Magazine for 21 years where he served in an array of posts including the Washington Bureau chief, White House Correspondent and state Department Correspondent at times he was twice awarded for the diplomatic report and after the tenure as the secretary of state he was the founding director for the study of globalization and then served as president of the Brookings Institution from 2002 to 2017. Hes also the author of 12 books. And if the moderator today is the dean of the law school of Foreign Service at all to georgetown. Prior to the position in 2015 comey deserved at the world bank and many senior roles including as the chief institutional economist and director of the center for conflict security Ad Development in the night wil or weekend i had worked for the bank for the development in london and previously taught at Harvard University and columbia and i would like to thank dean hellbent for serving as an academic partner on the panel. Please dont forget to engage with us in social media using the hash tag claim ten 25 and on all social Media Channels on geopolitics. Without further ado please give the panelists a warm welcome. [applause] its wonderful to have you all here. We have a lot to cover, so im going to ge get writing for the question and then we will leave plenty of time for the students and members of the committee to ask questions. Let me start. We know when he took office for president we focus on the agenda to focus on the issues. Can you give us a sense does it come to office for those that work at the start of a fully formed view on americas role in the road. Maybe we can start with madame secretary. He had kept up with things going on and i think we have to think about the 90s has a very different thing where the institutions were changing and therefore the views evolved. But i was the ambassador at the United Nations at the beginning and very clear about the fact he wanted action through the United Nations and he said its hard to believe, but he actually said this that if he were not the president of the United States he would have been happy to be the ambassador to the United Nations and so he recognized the importance of looking at the world through multilateral spectacles. The first time i met bill clinton, it was at the time the 32 road scholars of that year were going to sail over to the united kingdom. I got to know him particularly well when i was there. We shared a house together. His interest in the world was absolutely accelerating to hear him talk about it. I made my first trip to the soviet union once upon a time a large country by that name during a christmas break and when i got back to oxford, he pummeled me with questions. He was full of curiosity. I might just jump ahead to his coming to the presidency. He was very aware that hes a kids chances of being an unknown political figure and still be able to ascend to the white house especially after having to defeat the foreignpolicy presidency have had in a long time, george h. W. Bush that would only happen because they thought it gave a huge advantage that the cold war was over if they wanted to do everything to make sure the cold war was over and that postsoviet russia would be able to succeed. I have a general comment. I met president clinton when hed already been president for two years and at the time i was elected from day number one i had the idea that he did have a mission rich in diplomacy and engagement and respect to others to try to solve problems which i think it is the right way to tk about this. You do diplomacy and International Cooperation not because he wanted to International Philanthropy every president of the world has to be absolutely convinced because it is obvious that we practice that was an instrument that the United States have pledged to create the community so they did have a vision working with the multilateral institutions and using diplomacy was extremely important. I would like to get into some actual examples of him implementing the vision and maybe we can start with the blood cold war. It did create the possibility of the moment in the u. S. Foreignpolicy. I wondere wonder if you can gete of how clinton reacted to that and Software Strategy of the american and hwnd to ensure an effective integration for the Broad International system how he moved to the bipartisan approach to that. He was quite convinced early on that it was important to expand and deepen the International Institutions there was controversy over whether they had done their thing and put code into history with a good record of not getting us into world war iii. President clinton didnt see it that way. Remember there was a horrific war in the balkans just because russia and other states were no longer the evil empire and the fact was no longer the evil empire there was still the rule for nato and one of the things he did from the beginning and matalin can tell you more about this he was absolutely committed to the commission that russia was no longer the evil empire it should be part of a new world order and it would have to have hard power and soft power and its the most capable source of hard power. Theres one other point that he came to talk to a number of us about and that was if we did not enlarge nato, countries like the one madame secretary knows so well from a country that also does not exist in its current and that was czechoslovakia. If those countries that were caught between the Old Soviet Union and nato europe and the European Union and they didnt have a commitment from the United States and nato to help them as they go forward, a lot of bad things would happen and he kept pointing to yugoslavia as kind of a blessing that we had to learn. I think what was very interesting i as he had in fact studied how nato had been after the end of world war ii and a half of europe was against the will or behind the iron curtain and the creation of nato and all the various aspects so he didnt come into this kind of not knowing any of the background. What i think is interesting is that he also appreciated something that a lot of people have not fought us and that is at the end of the cold war, the u. S. Was asked to do something that hadnt been done before. Hell we bring russia into the system what i found interesting at the time is they were in charge of the relationship with russia and i was up in new york, but basically it was building on what president bush had done in terms of the reunification of germany and then looking at what steps had to be taken to respect russia and bring it into the system, so the whole issue of expansion began in a very stepbystep process with something called the partnership for peace where various countries that had been part of nato or later were part of what has been known as the soviet union could begin to see how the system worked and play a role in cooperative action. And i now urge people there have been some memos that have been declassified by the library which describe how president clinton was talking about how to do all of this in a very staged approach and in a way that russia would be respected and become part of something and begin to have russian nato dialogue so i admired first of all the goal of it but also the carefulness with which president clinton directed that we all take steps to do this in some way that was organized and then in fact respected what was going on in russia into these are so worth reading because where president clinton is talking, they recognize recognized each s politics in addition to recognizing the issues they were dealing with. I have just one point because what she said brings back a very vivid memory. The russian hated the idea of bombing serbia, but president yeltsin because of his close tie with president clinton was absolutely essential in getting the serbian genocidal dictator milosevic out of office and thereby actually made it possible for us to bring in and without having to go into the landmark war and that i think was a huge accomplishment and very heroic and it was based on his relationship with president clinton. We are going to talk about him than a little bit how he builds relationships and i would like to go further into that. If we can talk to the position towards latin america and mexico and a critical bipartisan relationship and how he moved to. I think i got to start with the case of my country there were i think president clinton engaged repeatedly with groups of the region that was a Good Relationship with mexico that was important for the interest of the United States. I think the first test was against what he had hinted or sometimes said during his campaign. He became a champion of nafta. You remember nafta was relieved at the beginning of the Clinton Administration. He knew that he would pay hypothetical costs are being proactive in the party and the other major parties with published debate could punish him for that. He went ahead and nafta was approved so that was the first test. The second big test is the fact that in late 1994 becoming president of mexico and my country faced an incredibly difficult financial crisis radically unprecedented and this was only a few days into my administration. I said theres bad news, the country is bankrupt. I will call you but i have powerful reasons. One, i need the support not only of the au and math because we had put in place a very Strong Organization in the reform program, but the situation is so bad that we need to put together more resources. The second reason i called you is because if we do not go through this situation it will not only be a mexican crisis, it will be more systemic and it will affect the rest of latin america and as we saw in 82 with the debt crisis it could be systemic to the entire International Financial system. He was a little bit surprised. I didnt know things were so bad. Then he called me back two days later and said bob and larry said you made it right. Of course. [laughter] again he tried to go one way to congress and worked with the bipartisan leadership and they couldnt get through congress. At the end he did a great act in a facility that existed in the 1930s and the treasury and of course it wasnt popular. The argument used over and over again he had a nice way to explain i told the leaders your neighborneighbors house is buru better hope your neighbor. So very graphic and simple arguments. At the end of the day we got the resources and it was alright. I think tim three years in advance and we always made jokes about this and he said you were charging too high of an interest rate. [laughter] all of your stories are starting to get at clinton as a decisionmaker and negotiator and a deliberate or debate. I wonder if you can give us a moment or a story that gives him insight into how clinton handled it particularly difficult decision. In your memoir you describe it as absolutely impossible for anyone to help talk him. Can you give the sens a sense oe used his personal style to negotiate around difficult issues and engage in as president . He was and is a complete extrovert and really does like people. What he always did his to begin in some way especially in the bilateral negotiations to do something he knew was important was to put himself in their shoes and understand what it is they need it and that was very clear in the way the conversations went. He also knew an awful lot about the country but he also was dogged in kenya when he went into a meeting there were certain things that needed to be accomplished so in between the kind of charm and the opening how are your children, he would press the case very carefully. He was criticized for always being late but he was late because he was interested in what he was doing at the time had a meeting. The meeting. He didnt want it to end so there was this sense that he liked the subject and he learned what it was about. Then what was interesting at camp david he made it a point of sitting down to and made them puput there themselves in the shoes of the other party so that was his way of saying we need to solve this together. He also loved to have u us argue when there was a disagreement and wevand weve got to the cat room or the oval office he wanted