R. Nicholas Burns, the former highest-ranking career diplomat at the State Department, began the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies' annual conference yesterday afternoon, delivering the first keynote address to an overflowing Cabot Auditorium.
The focus of this year's conference, which wraps up today, is "Foreign Policy Challenges for the New Administration: Iran and the Middle East." It features sessions on war and diplomacy, nuclear issues and American policy options in the region.
"When one thinks about this topic, it is like pulling on a loose thread of a knitted fabric — everything seems to keep coming unraveled," University President Lawrence Bacow said in his opening remarks.
Burns, one of several high-profile figures to speak at the conference, emphasized in his presentation the importance of the economy in how the United States conducts its foreign policy.
"This is the most singular challenge: The economy is a fundamental pillar of our national strength and a fundamental pillar of international strength and determines whether we can be successful," he said.
After a 27-year public career in foreign relations, and as the former head of negotiations on Iran, India and Kosovo, Burns said he recognizes the plethora of tasks confronting the administration of President Barack Obama.
"I can't remember a time like this one," he said. "It all seems to me like a bad dream."
He called for joint action to tackle global economic problems and other challenges ranging from food shortages to terrorism and climate change.
"We can't act alone and can't isolate ourselves as we have done too often in the past," Burns said. "Isolation and unilateralism are sure prescriptions for failure. We need to lead, but with a new attitude, and think less as a global titan and more as a leader of a group of interwoven tightly minded countries."
To facilitate this multilateralism, Burns pointed to relationships with China and India as the two most important for the United States in the next century.
"We want to avoid a future superpower battle and avoid war and conflict" with China, he said, "and build a promise of democratic partnership with India."
Burns addressed the view that the United States is losing its status as a superpower in the world in the midst of economic crisis.
"Those who predict the imminent fall of the U.S. are wrong," he said. "We will be the dominant power in the world for decades to come."
With regard to international problems, Burns emphasized the importance of the United States leading by example in reaffirming social justice and alleviating poverty in South America. The United States should not only focus on troublesome areas like the Middle East, he said, but concentrate on all parts of the world in order to develop long-term relationships and solutions.
Burns did stress, however, that within the next five years, the Middle East will pose the most vital challenges.
"It is unequivocal. The Middle East is violent, unsettled, unstable and unmoored," he said.
In addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Burns told the audience that now is an extremely difficult time to push for a peace agreement. He cited divisions between Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas, and the power struggle resulting from the recent Israeli elections.
In spite of this, Burns said that the United States cannot sit on the sidelines.
"In 61 years, the Israeli people have not known a single day of peace, and the Palestinian people have not known a single day of justice," he said.
Moving to the topic of Iran, Burns discussed the disadvantageous results of 30 years of silence and a dearth of diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran.
"It is the only country in the world which we know absolutely nothing about their motivations and intentions," he said.
Direct communication will not serve as a gift to the Iranian government, but rather as a way of testing it, Burns said.
"My question is, will the Iranians show up if Obama invites them to Geneva?" he said. "Will they appoint a delegation that can speak with authority and clarity?"
Multilateralism and the backing of an aggregation of nations are key to capitalizing on negotiations with Iran, Burns added.
"We need countries put together in a loose coalition to say [to Iran], ‘We respect you. We'll deal with you and negotiate, and we'll meet you and provide positive economic incentives, but we don't want you to have nuclear power,'" he said.
If this fails, Burns said, a possible policy debate might occur in deciding how to address the nuclear threat. Policymakers would differ over whether to use military force to slow the progress of nuclear development or to keep Iran's nuclear power in check, he explained, similar to the containment of Soviet and Chinese communism in the 20th century.
To balance the relationship between hard and soft power, Burns said, more diplomats are needed, with the State Department playing a larger role and providing a greater presence in order to build equilibrium between military and ambassadorial power.
"We are too weak on the diplomatic side," he said. "We have more lawyers in the Pentagon than we do diplomats."
The conference continues today with four panels and a second keynote address delivered at 1:15 p.m. by General (Ret.) John Abizaid, the former commander of the U.S. Central Command. All sessions take place in Cabot Auditorium.
The conference is cosponsored by the Office of the Provost, the WEDGE Foundation, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the International Relations program, the International Security Studies program at the Fletcher School and the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.
