Former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James Baker, and Colin Powell met to discuss the role of values and diplomacy in America’s international affairs on April 7 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute, moderated the event.
The gray area that merges America’s humanitarian impulses with its military actions has always been tricky to navigate; case in point being Obama’s damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t dilemma with instigating a no-fly zone over Libya. As a privileged country with the greatest military in the world and an ethos of being the beacon of democracy, to what lengths is it politically obligated to instill its values elsewhere? And, as Albright asks, “Do you do nothing because you can’t do everything?”
Albright deducts the world’s desire for democracy down to one universal truth: “All everyone wants is to be able to make decisions about their own lives.” However she claims there is a distinction to be made between facilitating democracy and imposing democracy. “Our politics have to be moral, but not moralistic,” she said. “We can’t just tell everybody what to do.”
Powell agrees: “Our founding fathers did not expect us to be going around the world imposing our values on everyone. Our values have set off so many movements around the world by their example alone; we can’t just assume we know a country’s situation well enough to show up and instantly know how to improve it.”
It is important to remember that the American public has never before been this completely informed about foreign affairs as they unravel. Albright illustrates: “In WWII—and clear up to the Cold War—people didn’t really know what was going on. Appealing to patriotism was all it took.”
The media, ever the scapegoat, still presents obstacles for dissipating messages of values and diplomacy, in that the stories that lack drama or shock-value tend to not be deemed newsworthy.
The panelists suggested the US media cover political turmoil in other countries with too much detachment and lack of empathy, resulting in audience desensitization to these issues. Baker laments, “The media covers Libya like it’s a football game, and I don’t think that’s necessarily doing anybody any favors.”
So how does the media accurately portray the turmoil, and how will that change public perception of the events? What rules change when trying to discuss an event in terms of humanitarian struggle instead of political
“Americans are the most generous people in the world with the shortest attention span,” added Albright. “Spreading our values and encouraging international diplomacy is like flying an air balloon. You need idealism to get the balloon into the air and you need realism to keep it moving.”
Interestingly enough, the subject of religion was not broached until the last ten minutes of the discussion, and it was done so by Powell—the least likely of the candidates. The exclusive mention of the seemingly glaring topic (given the conversation’s title of Values & Diplomacy) was Powell’s statement: “There is no mention of God in the constitution.”
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Values and Diplomacy
April 18, 2011
Former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James Baker, and Colin Powell met to discuss the role of values and diplomacy in America’s international affairs on April 7 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute, moderated the event.
The gray area that merges America’s humanitarian impulses with its military actions has always been tricky to navigate; case in point being Obama’s damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t dilemma with instigating a no-fly zone over Libya. As a privileged country with the greatest military in the world and an ethos of being the beacon of democracy, to what lengths is it politically obligated to instill its values elsewhere? And, as Albright asks, “Do you do nothing because you can’t do everything?”
Albright deducts the world’s desire for democracy down to one universal truth: “All everyone wants is to be able to make decisions about their own lives.” However she claims there is a distinction to be made between facilitating democracy and imposing democracy. “Our politics have to be moral, but not moralistic,” she said. “We can’t just tell everybody what to do.”
Powell agrees: “Our founding fathers did not expect us to be going around the world imposing our values on everyone. Our values have set off so many movements around the world by their example alone; we can’t just assume we know a country’s situation well enough to show up and instantly know how to improve it.”
It is important to remember that the American public has never before been this completely informed about foreign affairs as they unravel. Albright illustrates: “In WWII—and clear up to the Cold War—people didn’t really know what was going on. Appealing to patriotism was all it took.”
The media, ever the scapegoat, still presents obstacles for dissipating messages of values and diplomacy, in that the stories that lack drama or shock-value tend to not be deemed newsworthy.
The panelists suggested the US media cover political turmoil in other countries with too much detachment and lack of empathy, resulting in audience desensitization to these issues. Baker laments, “The media covers Libya like it’s a football game, and I don’t think that’s necessarily doing anybody any favors.”
So how does the media accurately portray the turmoil, and how will that change public perception of the events? What rules change when trying to discuss an event in terms of humanitarian struggle instead of political
“Americans are the most generous people in the world with the shortest attention span,” added Albright. “Spreading our values and encouraging international diplomacy is like flying an air balloon. You need idealism to get the balloon into the air and you need realism to keep it moving.”
Interestingly enough, the subject of religion was not broached until the last ten minutes of the discussion, and it was done so by Powell—the least likely of the candidates. The exclusive mention of the seemingly glaring topic (given the conversation’s title of Values & Diplomacy) was Powell’s statement: “There is no mention of God in the constitution.”
