News
George Schultz Speaks at Hoover
by Mark Zavislak
Staff Writer

George Schultz speaks for the resurrection of the "Nation-state System" of foreign policy and gives his take on the war against terrorism

On January 16, members of the Stanford community had the opportunity to hear from former Secretary of State George P. Schultz. He gave a speech entitled "A More Accountable World," and answered related questions at the Stauffer Auditorium at the Hoover Institution. Mr. Schultz served under President Reagan as the sixtieth U.S. Secretary of State, and at the end of his term, January 19, 1989, was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest possible civilian honor. In recent years he co-wrote Economic Policy, Beyond the Headlines (1998), and published his best-selling memoir Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (1993).

Right from the start, Mr. Schultz made it clear that the primary focus of his talk was the resurrection of the idea of the "Nation-state System." The Nation-state System is a policy under which the world would resume the traditional focus of the nation-state as the ultimate political entity. This is especially crucial in dealing with terrorism, in that nations must be responsible for terrorist organizations that dwell within their borders. Mr. Schultz also pointed out how the United Nations Security Council "recognized the inherent right of self-defense" that every sovereign nation reserved.

When considering matters of current public policy, he said, it is crucial to call to mind past dealings with terrorism. Mr. Schultz pointed out that Margaret Thatcher, after a terrorist attempt on her life, identified the terrorist aim as the destruction of democracy. He also reminded the audience that during the Reagan administration, there was a push for our responses to terrorism to go beyond a passive defense; the United States needs to take a preventative role.

As a former Secretary of State, he readily identified with the current Bush administration's strategy in dealing with terrorist attacks, and explained it in three parts. "This is a war"--the administration's first step was to make clear the magnitude of the efforts involved in dealing with terrorist activities. Mr. Schultz also explained that this step was necessary to ensure that "our efforts have been fundamentally legal in nature."

The second step was to broaden the scope of the actions, so that they would not be limited to dealing with individual terrorists alone: "It's not just the terrorists that are our enemies, but any states that harbor them". "Terrorists do not exist in a vacuum," explained Mr. Schultz, and "Any state that harbors them is in the crosshairs." Moreover, he explained, nations must be held responsible for what occurs within their borders. Finally, Mr. Schultz asserted that the Bush Administration is trying to make it clear that "Terrorism as a weapon is out of bounds," regardless of its claimed reasons. There is "no justification" for it in his mind.

Mr. Schultz noted that the one reason the principle of the nation-state "won out" is because it gave people a sense of "identity." But he was quick to point out that his favoring of the nation-state should not be confused with similar incantations. Neither the "nationalism" (colonialism) of the nineteenth century nor the fascism and communism of the twentieth century, says Mr. Schultz, should be confused with the nationalism of which he speaks. The nation-state, according to Mr. Schultz, is the only answer to the question, "Who provides for you the in the capacity of representative government?" He mentioned that political globalization was one of the forces draining the power of the state, implying that this "misguided trend" must be kept under wraps.

Moreover, Mr. Schultz explained that the war in Afghanistan will lead to positive far-reaching effects. "People see what we did in Afghanistan," which will surely act as a powerful deterrent to other possible terrorist organizations. After all, Al-Queda is "the ultimate non-governmental organization." Such an organization was essentially able to take control of a country, and so Mr. Schultz asserted that we "need to deal with the fact that we have countries that are not being governed." Somehow, "we ought to get the underlying building blocks right." For example, Mr. Schultz finds the fact that Libya has a large chemical warfare plant built by Germany and Japan particularly worrisome. He feels that such countries should definitely know better than to indirectly support terrorism on that level.

After he finished the speech, Mr. Schultz provided an opportunity for members of the audience to ask a few questions. In response to a question about Arafat and the PLO, he related a personal anecdote. When Mr. Arafat applied for a visa to attend a United Nations conference in the United States, Mr. Schultz denied it on the grounds that Arafat was a terrorist. Mr. Arafat ended up attending the meeting anyway, because it was moved to Geneva.

Further questions also led Mr. Schultz to discuss Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and even China and Russia. Specifically, he explained that Iraq "just has to be in the crosshairs," and must certainly be watched carefully, while a lot more work must be done in monitoring its actions. In reference to China, Mr. Schultz stated that "we are in the process of having a pretty good relationship with China," and as far as he knows, China has been "totally cooperative" with efforts to manage terrorism.

Finally he touched a bit on Russia, especially how our relations ought "to be conducted with a lot of care" and with a "much more mature approach to it." With the final question about Russia answered, Mr. Schultz concluded his talk, to the applause of the room full of people.

Page last modified on Thursday, 02-Mar-2006 00:14:20 MST.