On Eve of Departure, Burns Assesses Global Outlook
Iran, Kosovo, Russia, China, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Cuba—the discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations with outgoing Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns was as wide-ranging as the foreign policy docket he’s managed over the past three years as the State Department’s number-three man (and many say Condoleezza Rice’s right-hand man).
In one of his final public discussions before officially retiring on Feb. 29, Burns offered his perspective on the global challenges and opportunities that lie ahead to a packed audience that included ambassadors from Brazil, Iraq and Pakistan.
Above all, whatever the issue, Burns stressed that multilateralism must be a central tenant of U.S. foreign policy. [W]e are, by any metric of power—political, economic or military—the leading power in the world. But that doesn’t mean that we can act alone in the world or should want to act alone in the world,” Burns argued—striking a very different tone from what many critics saw as the early days of the Bush administration’s “go-it-alone cowboy” mentality.
 But this emphasis on multilateralism isn’t surprising coming from a Foreign Service officer who’s been widely praised for his pragmatic approach to diplomacy across a bipartisan spectrum (evidenced by his appointments under President Clinton as well as Presidents Bush I and II). Burns’ soft-spoken, humble manner belies the sharp interpersonal skills he’s honed over a 25-year career that’s included postings as ambassador to NATO and a Russia expert to the White House.
So it’s no surprise that moderator Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, and many others were eager to get Burns’s departing opinions on topics ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
But first, the obvious question: With only 10 months left in the Bush administration, why retire now? Is it a sign of failure or exasperation? Burns simply responded that his retirement was long in the works and doesn’t reflect any particular disappointment or desire “to get out.”
“I intended to leave about a year ago. I stayed because we had an exodus after the mid-term elections in 2006 from many of our senior positions. And I am such a great believer in our secretary of state and have so much personal loyalty to her that I didn’t want to leave when so many others were leaving, and so I stayed an extra year,” Burns explained.
“I think every Foreign Service officer who’s held my position as undersecretary has retired in that job, because you really can’t go much further in the State Department. And so I always knew this would be my last job in the Foreign Service,” he added, noting that he doesn’t have concrete plans for what’s next.
But whether it’s academia or the private sector, Burns has left his footprint on political issues that will continue to dominate the headlines well into the new administration. Describing how the focus of U.S. foreign policy has shifted from Europe during the Cold War to the Middle East and Asia today, Burns outlined where the U.S. stands on all these fronts—starting with the one that’s consumed much of his agenda: Iran.
Calling Iran “a drama that plays out well into 2009 and beyond,” Burns said he doesn’t believe conflict is inevitable and that there’s still “plenty of space for diplomacy.” However, he cautioned that “Iran’s in a very tight spot.”
“I can count on one hand the countries that support Iran continuing this nuclear research—Syria, Belarus, Venezuela and Cuba,” Burns said, pointing to the near-unanimous international condemnation of Iran’s nuclear program. “But the world needs to get more serious. If the international community does not want to have a military solution to this problem, and we all want to avoid that, then diplomacy and sanctions need to become more effective. And that means that countries need to give something up,” he argued, citing leading Iranian trading partners China and Russia.
And although he commended Russian cooperation on terrorism, nonproliferation, six-party talks over North Korea and other matters, Burns admitted that the U.S.-Russian relationship has taken some serious hits under President Vladimir Putin.
“We have to keep our cool as Americans, and we have to balance these interests that we have with Russia…. But there’s no secret that we’ve been disappointed by the centralization of power in the Kremlin,” Burns said. “We certainly do not appreciate the fact that Russia has often been unnecessarily aggressive in what they’ve said about Georgia, for instance, about Moldova, about our NATO ally Estonia a year ago during that extraordinary period of cyber attacks on Estonia itself.”
And the latest disagreement has elevated tensions even more as Russia vehemently denounced the U.S. government’s immediate recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia—but on this topic, Burns was adamant and unwavering, calling Russia “isolated” in its opposition to Kosovo’s split.
“You know, we’re the ones who have been in Kosovo for the last nine years—our troops, our money, with Europe. Russia left four years ago. We’re the ones that asked the United Nations to appoint an emissary to figure out the future of Kosovo. And when [former Finnish] President Martti Ahtisaari a year ago this month said the future should be supervised independence, the great majority of countries that live in Europe and are involved in Kosovo said we support that. We then delayed recognition of Kosovo by nearly a year at Russia’s request. We engaged in 130 days of negotiations alongside the Russians, tried to bring the Serbs and Kosovar Albanians together. They didn’t succeed.”
So according to Burns, the U.S. took the next logical step of recognizing Kosovo’s proclamation of independence—a move that he bluntly said Serbs are going to have to accept because “Kosovo is not going to come back.”
“Serbia lost Kosovo between March and June of 1999. They went in and tried to drive 1 million people out of that country,” Burns charged. “The United Nations took Kosovo away from Serbia. And the United Nations has administered Kosovo every day since June 9th of 1999. Serbia was never going to get this province back.”
Burns was equally passionate about the events that have transpired since the announcement, praising Kosovo while blasting Serbia: “What have we seen over the last week, the last eight days? Since we all recognized Kosovo a week ago today, we’ve seen a remarkable leadership in Pristina resist the thousand provocations that they’ve been presented with.
“What else have we seen? We’ve seen the worst kind of vituperative rhetoric from Belgrade reminiscent of a different era in Serbia, I’m sorry to say. We saw a mob attack our embassy in Belgrade last Thursday. We saw the police vanish,” Burns complained. “And frankly, I had to get on the phone and call the prime minister of Serbia and say, turn on CNN and look what’s happening to our embassy, and you have to get security down there. And they finally did.”
But the veteran diplomat was also harsh about his own department’s shortcomings, conceding that the “diplomatic corps is just too small” to handle the complex global challenges today.
“We’re about 6,500 people, 6,500 American diplomats in the world today. Our aid mission is down to about 2,000—a little less than 2,000—professionals, and we’re being asked to do so much to project American interests, commitment, power and to work with countries and organizations,” Burns explained. “We have more musicians in the Pentagon than we have diplomats in the State Department—and that’s true.”
But Burns added that hard power in the form of a strong military is a principal asset—it should just be meshed with diplomatic soft power to further this concept of “smart power” (see also People of World Influence article in the March 2008 issue of The Washington Diplomat).
To that end, Burns noted that Secretary Rice is seeking to add 1,100 diplomats to State’s ranks and another 300 aid officers to USAID, calling Rice’s cooperation with Pentagon chief Robert Gates—as well as increased congressional funding to boost State post-conflict civilian initiatives—“one of the more positive stories that has received very little press coverage in Washington.”
Indeed, true to diplomatic form, Burns accentuated the positive and expressed optimism about a number of other thorny international debates. He said he was hopeful that the stalled U.S.-India nuclear pact, which he was instrumental in negotiating, would move forward before the U.S. Congress recesses for the summer. But he admitted that the agreement—which would give India access to U.S. nuclear technology in return for international inspections of its civilian nuclear plants—hinges on the Indian government at this point.
On India’s neighbor, Pakistan, Burns congratulated the U.S. ally on its recent elections, noting that “the last thing that we should want to do is interfere publicly at a very delicate time when the various political parties are trying to find their way to form a coalition government. But what we should do is say to the people of Pakistan we’re going to keep the American economic aid flowing.”
But such warm sentiments clearly don’t carry over to one neighbor closer to home, as Burns reaffirmed the U.S.’s hard-line stance toward Cuba despite the recent changeover in power from Fidel to brother Raúl Castro.
When asked why the U.S. refuses to engage with Cuba the way it did with Eastern Europe during the Cold War, Burns replied that he didn’t think “we’ve seen from the Castro regime, from the Castro brothers and from the leadership in Cuba, a willingness to turn the page with the United States,” artfully deflecting the issue a bit by focusing on the more positive Latin relationships that the administration has pursued—namely Brazil.
“Brazil and the United States represent about 75 percent of the world’s biofuels market as producers of ethanol—Brazil sugar-based, America corn-based ethanol,” Burn said. “We’ve tried to turn that in a positive direction to be a positive force not only in our hemisphere but globally.”
And indeed, Burns chose energy as the one issue that should be at the top of the next administration’s priority list. It’s amazing, if you sit back and reflect on the array of challenges that our country faces … the common denominator of many of them these days is energy.
“Think about the distorting power where some countries in the world, who we think are playing negative roles in the world,” he said, citing Venezuela and Iran. “Think of the crucial fact that if we’re going to deal with what I think is probably the most pressing international problem of our time, global climate change…. Think of the price of oil, over $100 again today, and the impact that has on our society, our economy, our power base in the world. And so I’m continually amazed at how often on issues where you might not think that energy is a central factor is a central factor.”
But he cautioned that although Bush’s days in the White House are numbered, they are hardly inconsequential. “I think this administration will sprint to the finish, as the Clinton administration did in 2000,” Burns said, paralleling Clinton’s Camp David Summit with Rice’s ongoing efforts to keep the promises of the Annapolis conference afloat. “The world’s not stopping. It’s still spinning on its axis. Events happen every day in which we have to be engaged…. America has national interests that’ll be engaged until noon on January 20th, 2009.”
Former U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns speaks at a news briefing during the 15th OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Ministerial Council in Madrid, Spain, in November 2007.
Photo: OSCE/Mikhail Evstafiev
Women from Alaska to Zambia
Leaders around the world paid tribute to International Women’s Day on Sat., March 8, as thousands of celebrations took place from Alaska to Zambia to honor this year’s theme of “shaping progress” and calling for global equity. And here in Washington, a steady of stream of events drew top officials—male and female—to highlight the advances as well as the challenges facing half the world’s population.
Unfortunately, in many nations, those challenges remain formidable for many women. In fact, one out of every three women in the world is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. One in five will be the victim of rape or attempted rape.
To combat these grim statistics, the United Nations has launched the Campaign to End Violence Against Women (http://endviolence.un.org), a multi-year effort that runs through 2015 (to coincide with the Millennium Development Goals) that aims to secure political will and increased resources to end violence against women and girls, as well as to galvanize world public opinion, engage male leaders and mobilize men and boys.
Calling violence against women “an issue that cannot wait,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban kicked off the campaign in New York on Feb. 25. “No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge. Far too often, the crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators walk free,” he said, recalling his various meetings with the scarred women and girls in war zones around the world that have forever “haunted” him.
“We know that violence against women compounds the enormous social and economic toll on families, communities even whole nations,” the secretary-general said. “And we know that when we work to eradicate violence against women, we empower our greatest resource for development: mothers raising children; lawmakers in parliament, chief executives, negotiators, teachers, doctors, policewomen, peacekeepers and more.”
 To that end, he urged greater investment in promoting gender equality, calling women “the most significant and yet largely untapped potential for development and peace.”
Likewise, Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan spoke in Washington, D.C., about the need for more investment in women’s advancement. Citing her own background, the queen said the Arab world was heading in the right direction (see also Gail Scott’s column about honoring 16 female political activists from the Middle East and North Africa).
“In my travels across the region, from Lebanon to Morocco to Dubai, I see Arab women taking on an ever greater role in society,” Queen Rania said. “Working women are not only better able to support their families, they strengthen productivity and bolster growth for their communities and their countries,” she added, praising initiatives such as the newly launched “Women Can Campaign,” sponsored by the nongovernmental organization Vital Voices to empower women leaders in developing countries and emerging democracies around the world (www.vitalvoices.org).
Also in Washington, first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed a similar message of empowerment. At a reception hosted by USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore, the first lady declared that International Women’s Day was an important reminder to “salute women whose triumphs are written bold on the pages of history.”
“And we call attention to those for whom the pages have yet to be written—women from Afghanistan to Zanzibar, who work to achieve a better life and equal rights for girls around the world. And with our help, I believe that we’ll all ultimately succeed.”
Some of those success stories were showcased at the State Department, where Secretary Rice and Undersecretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, presented eight women with the second annual International Women of Courage Award. The honorees included women from Afghanistan, Fiji, Iraq, Kosovo, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Paraguay, and Somalia, all of whom have transformed their communities from the ground up and were selected from a pool of 95 applicants nominated by U.S. embassies worldwide.
“These eight women of courage may not be as well known as other brave women such as Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest [in Burma], or women like [former Pakistani Prime Minister] Benazir Bhutto, who lost her life working for democracy,” Rice said. “But [like] these iconic leaders, the women who we honor today are an inspiration to women in their own countries and around the world who are working for freedom and positive change.”
Also this week, judges and legal practitioners from around the world gathered at the State Department to develop legal strategies to assist women in prosecuting crimes such as rape, domestic violence, trafficking, prostitution and other atrocities.
Other grassroots leaders working toward gender equality were fêted throughout the first half of March. Here’s a rundown of some of the local highlights:
On March 5, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) held its annual gala at Union Station to toast “champions for change” who have improved the health, well being and economic progress of women and girls through their policies, programs and partnerships.
Queen Rania stopped by VIP reception prior to the awards dinner, which was hosted by Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio and featured a performance by Tony Award-winning playwright, actor and poet Sarah Jones, who staged a one-woman show portraying characters from around the globe.
ICRW recognized Salud y Género (“Health and Gender”), a Mexico-based nongovernmental organization, for its cutting-edge work with men and boys in Latin America to counter assumptions about proper masculine roles, reduce violence against women, and improve men’s support of women’s reproductive health. Also honored was Standard Chartered Bank for its work in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in the areas of HIV/AIDS, micro-financing gender-equity activities and sustainable businesses.
“You feed our optimism that change is possible,” said ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta. “We have learned that to identify the right solutions requires careful listening—listening to what girls and women have to tell us about the constraints they face and the ways that they believe those constraints can be overcome.”
On the political front, the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Women’s Democracy Network held its inaugural Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Award Dinner on March 6 to honor three advocates who have fought against oppression, specifically in Burma: Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobrianksy; Nang Charm Tong of the Shan Women’s Action Network, who was named among “Asia’s heroes of 2005,” by Time magazine; and Nang Yain of the Women’s League of Burma.
The award was named after Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, a Republican who was the first woman to serve as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and “a leading voice for encouraging women to become involved in their community and the world around them,” according to IRI Chairman Sen. John McCain.
From Burma to Britain, officials from the British Embassy in Washington met for an afternoon tea at the Africare House to launch the United Kingdom’s Executive Summary of the White Paper outlining policy recommendations to promote gender equality and empowerment in Africa.
According to Patricia Faraut, founder of the International Congress of Black Women, who attended the Africare tea, International Women’s Day is not merely a symbolic holiday to be marked once a year.
“It’s very important because women nowadays are full of initiatives and talents and obviously there is a need of partnerships, development, training, interactions and communications,” Faraut told the Diplomatic Pouch, noting that one day is not enough and that such cooperation must take place year-round so that women “can speak with one voice around the world.”
Missed out on the March 8 celebrations? Check out the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, which celebrates Women’s History Month throughout March with film screenings, discussions and special exhibits (www.sewallbelmont.org).
Also, on April 13 and 14, a major gathering of top women leaders convenes at the Washington National Cathedral to continue the push for further global investment in women and girls. Titled “Breakthrough: The Women, Faith, and Development Summit to End Global Poverty,” the meeting is co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, former Irish President Mary Robinson and Queen Noor of Jordan, among others, and is expected to draw some 1,500 people. For more information, visit www.wfd-alliance.org.
And in June, the 18th Global Summit of Women takes place in Hanoi, Vietnam, with participants from nearly 100 countries examining how women in Asia are driving the global economy (www.globewomen.org).
For more information and highlights from International Women’s Day, visit www.internationalwomensday.com.
First lady Laura Bush, with USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore at right, speaks at a USAID International Women’s Day event.
Photo: USAID
Front page: Ambassador of Zambia Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika talks at an afternoon tea hosted by Africare to launch the United Kingdom’s Executive Summary of the White Paper outlining policy recommendations to promote gender equality and empowerment in Africa.
Photo: Africare
‘Every Citizen is a Diplomat’
Official diplomats reaching out to the public or famous actors engaging in what has become known as celebrity diplomacy certainly helps raise the profile of a country and its foreign policy goals, but sometimes ordinary citizens can be the most powerful messengers of all.
Hence the notion of citizen diplomacy and the idea that individuals—whether students, teachers, athletes, artists, business people, humanitarians, adventurers or tourists—have the right, even the responsibility, to help shape U.S. foreign relations, “one handshake at a time.”
That’s the motto behind the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, an organization launched in 2006 and headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, that promotes positive and sustainable engagement of Americans in a host of international exchange and educational initiatives through innovative public and private partnerships.
As part of that campaign, the center sponsored the first-ever National Awards for Citizen Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12 to six individuals who espouse the values of strengthening U.S. relations abroad. Nearly 300 foreign policy leaders, government officials and dignitaries from around the world attended the ceremony at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, which was held in conjunction with the 2008 National Summit on Citizen Diplomacy (an event that is co-sponsored by more than 120 U.S. organizations as part of the Coalition for Citizen Diplomacy).
“The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy promotes opportunities for all Americans to be citizen diplomats and affirms the indispensable value of citizen involvement in international relations,” said David H. Roe, board president of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy and president of Central College.
Why is the concept that “every citizen is a diplomat” so important. The center points out that in today’s globalized world, impressions are formed by our everyday, face-to-face contacts with people visiting the United States or Americans traveling abroad. And at a time when international opinion of the United States is at an all-time low, this type of outreach is critical—especially because “the United States spends one-tenth of 1 percent of its budget on foreign affairs and only 1 percent of that on the single most important facet of U.S. foreign policy—citizen diplomacy,” according to the center.
So what can average citizens do to promote this movement? The six honorees offered clear examples of just how much one person can accomplish:
Khris Nedam of Livonia, Mich., is an elementary school teacher who has also taught in France, Turkey and Afghanistan. Using this international background, she and her sixth-grade students founded Kids4AfghanKids, a group that has helped to restore schools and facilities in Afghanistan.
Likewise, Montana native Greg Mortenson, co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace, has raised funds to build 64 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and has helped more than 25,000 children.
Also promoting education in the Arab world is Tarik S. Daoud of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a business leader and active philanthropist who is a founding member of the Arab American Chamber of Commerce and serves on the Arab-American Chaldean Council.
Donna Tabor of Granada, Nicaragua, meanwhile, works with Building New Hope, a nonprofit based in Pittsburgh. Tabor has rallied volunteers and opened her home to street children in Nicaragua—feeding them, teaching them to read, and providing medical care when needed.
Closer to home, Jillian H. Poole of Arlington, Va., mentors with the Fund for Arts and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe, which she founded in 1991. Her achievements have empowered international arts and cultural institutions that had long relied on government patronage to adjust to a free-market economy.
And Anjali Bhatia of New Jersey proves that citizen diplomacy is not just something for older people. At the age of 16—when most teenagers are thinking of a Sweet 16 party or a new car—she founded Discover Worlds, a student-run non-profit organization that promotes relations between the United States and Rwanda. Now all of 19, Bhatia continues to inspire young Americans to make a difference for at-risk students in this African nation rebuilding itself after the horrors of genocide.
For more information on citizen diplomacy efforts, visit www.uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org or call (515) 243.4535.
Pictured frrom left are the recipients of the National Awards for Citizen Diplomacy: Anjali Bhatia, Khris Nedam, Greg Mortenson, Donna Tabor and Tarik S. Daoud. (Not shown is Jillian H. Poole.)
Photo: U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy
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