Transcripts For CSPAN2 Former Secretary Of State Madeleine A

CSPAN2 Former Secretary Of State Madeleine Albright Discusses Strengthening... July 13, 2024

I do want to interrupt your lunch, so feel free to keep eating, but as promised we are going to have a really good, important discussion that will help to draw on what we heard this morning and build by thinking a little bit about how to reset a strategic frame to support Good Governance. Think about all the things we heard this morning about some of the problems, some of the challenges that need to be addressed in fragile states. Governing institutions need to become more accountable. We have to work on ways to build inclusiveness, tackle the problem of marginalization and exclusion, figure out how to empower youth to take leadership roles. The importance of enabling Civil Society to be an important part of cementing a stronger Space Society relationship. These are all dimensions of governance in one way or another, and this is one of the central challenges of transforming fragile states to be more resilient. So how do we do that from the perspective of the United States . How do reset a strategic frame that helps to put into motion better support foror transformig governance to be goodo governance . We are very fortunate to have three superb leaders from the peace building world and the governance world with us. Two of them are members of the task force on extremism and fragile states, that have developed a set o recommendations on tackling the problems of fragility, the challenges of fragility to be a longterm solution for violent extremism. So we couldnt be more fortunate, and to help us with the discussion, to moderate the discussion, im really delighted to introduce to you mr. Nick schifrin. He is the Foreign Affairs and defense correspondent for the pbs newshour. I couldnt be happier to hand it over to nick to start the conversation. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, and let mey introduce the people you actually are to listen to. You are not here to listen to me. Needs no introduction but i will just briefly welcome secretary madeleine albright, 64th secretary of state, chair of the board of directors of ndi, chair of Albright Stonebridge group and Albright Capital management. Present and ceo of usip mitchell, president of ndi. It seems to me just to give a frame for this, in 18 years we spent a lot of time defeating terrorists, terrorism has increased. We have targeted extremists extremism has grown. We have overthrown governments but governance has not been improved. We have one battles, but certainly not one the piece. How do we create a way to do that . How do we reduce the personal and financial costs, its been 6 trillion, 10,000 americans dead, 50,000 americans would, hundreds of thousands of iraqis and afghans have been killed. How do we protect the country . How do we create a more sustainable and successful strategy . How do we prevent and extremism from taking root . How do we defeat not only todays terrorists but tomorrows terrorists . Nancy lindborg, could you give us a sensese of how we think we can do that . Well, thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us here today for this conversation and nick come he did a a great night out of the problem set. And to take a hard look at the Solutions Congress asked usip to convene a host, a task force, bipartisan, Highlevel Task force in 2018 to create a comprehensive plan for how should we address extremism in fragile states. It was based onfr more than a decade of thinking and lessons that havee identified the fact that its the conditions in fragile states where you have a week or nonresponsive orou illegitimate or all of the above governments, and a broken social bond between people and their government. That gives rise to a host of conditions that can enable extremism to take root, violent extremism. And so how do we tackle it more weffectively . The task force was cochaired by the original cochairs of the 9 11 report, congressman lee hamilton and governorgr tom kan. And they consider this to be Unfinished Business because one of the three recommendations of the 9 11 report was to adopt a policy of prevention. That recommendation was never taken forward. So that became the touchstone of the Task Force Recommendations that we need a policy prevention. They thought about it in p terms of really focusing in on addressing the conditions that give rise to fragility and, therefore, extremism, and by the way, civil war, extreme poverty, forced migration, hostex of bils that we face globally. But to do so in a more donated, comprehensive strategy across our u. S. Government. To just quote senator coons who was one of the many bipartisan cosponsors of the global fragility act who said, the problem is were trying to do with really complicated problems, and dod is blank football, the state department is playing soccer, and usaid folks are playing lacrosse. And nobody is the coach or the quarterback. So of course we are not going to make the progress that we must make to tackle this more effectively. Three main recommendations, a more coordinated strategy, longerterm more iterative approaches that require a different kind of mechanisms, legislatively, and coordinate more effectively with international partners. And to do so as you heard from joe, against principles for longerterm, locally led, iterativee programming. Courtney did strategy to create that strategy is a challenge. A quarter strategy, also think of a longterm, think o longtm coronation from the u. S. With partners in local countries, and make it international, create a fund. We talked about private sectors will. Lets examine those over the next few minister secretary albright, theres no one that i would rather ask this question two. Is this about democracy . Is this about enabling democracy to be more easily get in fragile states . If so, how would we do that . I do think it is about the fact that people everywhere want to be able to make decisions about their own lies. One of the things that i reset is when i was in office was people say, asians are not interested in democracy, or whatever. So i on purpose made my assistant secretary for democracy harold koh, a korean american. But i really do think we are all the same and we do want to be ablele to make decisions. The question is, how is it done . It is more difficult. We are proving it ourselves right here. I think that the question is, how do haveo that perseverance. In just listening to nancy and you initially is, i have been at this a a very long time. I was trying to do when i was in office and then when we came out, what happened was, instance bill coe, former secretary of defense and i, did a task force on the prevention of genocide. It was actually the only task force except for this now that youre talking about, nancy, that had an effect and that president obama named something, created, there was a president ial decision of having and atrocities prevention board in order to be able to get a group of people in the u. S. Government looking ahead, trying to figure out what might l be happening to prevent it. We also, ive been, did some work in order to try to get the International Community involved in it to this g content of responsibility to protect. Any number of different ways and i was very happy to be asked to be on this task force. Because i do think it addresses the major problem, which is that we have just been a long time on it. I have said, by the way im no longer a diplomat, but i said that you dont have to be diplomatic. Exactly. I said americans are the most generous people in the world with the shortest attention span. And i think that part of the issue here is how to give it that strength, both institutionally and morally. That is, its going to take a while, and it does take this new statement whole of government, which is very hard, frankly. It always is hard but seems to be particularly hard at this time. The othero part is to fully understand what are the conditions that create fragility or what are the negative aspects that make sure that fragility continues and what are the positive aspects that have to be taken care of in order to be able tord be supportive of it ad understand that democracy is not a spectator sport. Anywhere else. We have to find the partners in these various countries that want to be a part of this and not have us be patronizing about it or say it has to be only american democracy. We have to recognize that there are other aspects in the way that people are able to make their voices heard in society. Lets zoom in. Theres a lot of secretary gave us, but just zoom in as you experienced in burma. Talk about the conditions on the ground and specifically with secretary albright was saying the condition you saw that creates fragility, some of the solutions to try to take away that fragility and work their partners, or other partners to work with as you saw . You are asking how we sold burma while i was there. [laughter] clearly theres a lot more to go so i had Lessons Learned tha bui can tell you at least how we went about it and the lessons at least as to what we heard in the Previous Panel i think to some degree. First of all the really important idea of context, of understanding intimately, doing your homework and understanding every context is different and defend every one knows its always been a blackandwhite issue. You get now into the nittygritty in th of the countd realize how incredibly complex by their own top 135 different ethnic groups. At least 20 or so are involved in peace. So the context is absolutely essential and doing your homework in that way you do no harm. The most important thing when you get involved is do no harm. To demonstrate that you get it, that is a longterm effort that means you have to work at this and to know theres someone you can count on. But third, the ambassadors are very important, because that is one focal point on the ground that brings it all together. We have a mission of different components, a id and defense and others its up to the ambassador and the operational person on the ground to bring this together. I was very lucky because i had president obama who really cared my john kerry and Hillary Clinton thats also extremely important in washington to put the resources and the time into it. Absent that used to people on the ground to understand the importance of coordinating all these instruments into think in terms not as we heard in the last session but an explicit program on and inclusion by integrating into everything you do. I would be asked tell us about your Democracy Program or your Peace Program. I would say everything we do is a Democracy Program or Peace Program because its how we do it. Not just what we do if we do health or agriculture we bring people together across ethnicities that creates peace from the bottom up. Is it working quex we also do a lot of work on that front. Its painstaking and takes a lot of time and there are those who will try to make it not succeed. But its worth the effort and required for sustained stability and fragile environment. You have worked in so many fragile environments walk us through from the us perspective to know the country to create trust and relationships and have an ambassador and diplomats that are also backed from washington what has your experience been quex what are these places looking for to make them more resilient and less fragile clicks. First of all every country would be different but some of the Core Principles were embedded in the recommendations which have now been part of the global fragility act as you heard from the last panel, we have an unbelievable moment right now those hard earned lessons with Data Research puts that into recommendations a lot are working on it and have translated into the global fragility act that requires the government to have a coordinated Ten Year Strategy to work along those core principle approaches so to answer your question, you said it already we need to have a longterm commitment less focused on resources and sustaining over time to do so in partnership with local actors and Civil Society and local governments where you can. They are in the lead. We heard a beautiful summary at the end of the last panel that if you look at one of the core issues that represents the breakdown between governments and the people you need to hone in on those to engage a citizenry to hold the own government accountable or enable a leadership so along the way where the quick wins as what you go through is longterm quex there isnt the patients for those who are hungry or in dangers of sometimes you need to work on getting emergency food and greater security. But do it in a way that doesnt smother the other elements to emerge so you dont not pursue education or prioritize short term security that is repressiv repressive. That is a mistake that we make. Having all of those elements together in a coordinated strategy. How often have people like me accusing the Us Government of pursuing short term gains at the expense of longterm stability. Those to have solutions only pointing out criticisms. [laughter] so it seems to me what i would call longterm strategy your patience or the notion to develop education like pakistan or afghanistan or sudan but decades. Is it really possible for the Us Government to have a strategy that looks beyond one president ial cycle . I think its difficult because of the campaign and the carrying out of policy is in opposition what the previous people did. So i think what has to happen since we are a democracy and is not a spectator sport , people participate. They are open to pressure from the public. So to think about what our role is for those who are not in the government. And also in a strange way, then the senators are there longer in a cycle. I have been saying for a number of reasons, this is time of article one. I might not have said that when i was in the executive branch. [laughter] but i do think that part of the thing that has to happen , it has to be part of our dna that this will take time to require the group of people from a variety of different parts of our society to keep saying this will take time. And also for a little humility to say it has taken us time. It is difficult. I am worried generally about the four year cycle of Foreign Policy even by the same party because i do think there is a sense we have to do something totally different where i think picking up a project is a good idea. The other part i have to say and it was true when we were in office but to do something people just want to check it off and say now weve done bosnia. Or whatever. And it takes much more time. And we are not a patient people. And nancy this is something we have to work on with the fragility is to actually report certain deadlines that have been met or certain accomplishments so it doesnt sink into the bureaucracy and then set up a reporting system to the american people. But patience is not our best suit. And i do think that something we have to work on. Let me just add that the task force on extremism of fragile states, everyone but one asked to continue on so the task force is continuing and specifically looking at that kind of reporting. It seems we have a problem in the United States thinking longterm but also thinking even shortterm and coordinating between agencies. So talk about that how does the us develop coherence with diplomacy and defense . Is it even possible quick. It is very difficult and madeleine was talking earlier over lunch trying to do this across different agencies is very difficult. I do think if you have a particular challenge there are working groups and people at operational levels who can come together to think this through. We talk about the three ds im not sure we act on them we educate people, we bring them and train them to the Foreign Services and to operate. And if i may add to that there should be the fourth which we talk about which is democracy. We should run through all of this i was with a former colleague of mine a senior strategist who worked in the counterterrorism center. He said he did a study of all counterterrorism work and he came to one conclusion the biggest challenge we face is governance. Not many people get this not even in state you completely get it. May be mark green got it but running across the different divisions there has to be a recognition of how we do this is important in government to the success of environments with any transition. And what is good is the Additional Development world is starting to get this so then it starts to get easier to talk about these things on the government side. But more needs to be done through think tanks and through the institutes and training at the operational levels to get to the bloodstream of the Foreign Policy community to operate day to day and hopefully that transcends into congress. So part of Good Governance is government responding to their people it is the Democracy Movement protest and a Civil Society in general. Talk about the importance of that. How can we in the context of creating this longterm strategy support these people who try to make their governments more accountable and improve governance . Usaid was a Global Leader to establish democracy as a part of Development Agenda almost 30 years ago. The problem is it has never had rich amounts of funding and aid sometimes gets leery of jumping into situations that is political a lot of times its the politics that need to be understood to get democracy and governance right. Civil society and movements of people are some of the ways that the politics gets addressed in more repressed societies and the ability to support that, i have gone in and out of iraq for a decade and a half and one of the best investments we have made is the development of Civil Society. Such that earlier this year you saw people in the streets demonstrating not for their sectarian issues

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