In a valedictory on American foreign policy in the Clinton years, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Wednesday that she will end her tenure with major disappointments, especially the failure to achieve peace in the Middle East.
“We were unable to accomplish what we wanted to” in the Middle East, said Albright, recalling years of effort to bring Palestinians and Israelis together. “I can’t tell you the number of hours that I’ve spent with [Yasser] Arafat and the Palestinians and the Israelis. It is very intensive … diplomacy. I wish we could have done more.”
Despite the frustrations, Albright urged the incoming Bush administration to pursue Mideast peace with equal tenacity.
“My belief is when there is peace, and there will be peace at some point, it will be based on the ideas that we came up with because they are rational ideas,” she said. “We hope that the next administration will put its shoulder to the wheel and see what it can do.”
Albright’s remarks came during a daylong visit to Chicago, which included stops at the Tribune editorial board, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and Lincoln Park High School. Set to leave office at noon Saturday, Albright chose the Midwest as the site for her final scheduled speech as a reflection of her campaign to bring foreign policy issues to Americans outside of Washington.
In addition to the stymied peace process in the Middle East, Albright pointed to other regrets, including the defeat in Congress of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the fact that she will leave office before Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
“Biology works. Someday Castro will be gone,” she said, describing the future of U.S.-Cuba relations. “We have to get prepared for a post-Castro Cuba.”
With 72 hours left in her term, Albright delivered a broad survey of global politics, rooted in a firm defense of Clinton-era policies.
“Not all of our policies have worked. We inherited some bitter pills and will bequeath others,” she told a crowd of 200 convened by the Chicago foreign relations group. “But I’m proud of what we accomplished.”
At a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Albright’s designated successor, retired Gen. Colin Powell, said the new administration will await upcoming Israeli elections before picking up the issue, something Albright also acknowledged may be necessary.
Any progress is expected to build on the failed peace initiatives President Clinton offered in his administration’s waning months. In his final negotiations, Clinton outlined a plan that might form the basis for a final settlement, including granting Palestinians partial sovereignty over their holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City and East Jerusalem, while ceding–if symbolically–millions of Palestinian refugees’ right to return to Israel.
It is widely believed that the ultimate solution may involve many refugees returning to a new Palestinian state, many others going to a third state and Israel accepting a limited number of others for family reunification.
In a nod to past criticism, Albright defended the outgoing administration’s unrelenting drive for Mideast peace.
“Some point to the recent violence and say the administration has tried too hard. That is balderdash,” she said.
“President Clinton has played the role has he was asked to play by both sides and by other regional leaders. And because he stayed in the kitchen and took the heat, the outline of a pact that would meet the basic aspirations and core security needs of both sides is debated.”
As she braces to hand her office to her presumed successor, Albright also gave a nod to strategic differences she has with Powell and the Bush administration.
Where Powell’s namesake political doctrine holds that American military forces should be used only to the fullest extent, and when victory is certain, Albright cited U.S. experience in the Balkans as evidence of the value of “limited force.”
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“Like other tools, it must be available to the president in responding to the real-world problems our nation will confront,” she said. The military is “required to serve our interests and perhaps forestall the need for more extensive military action at a later time.”
President-elect George W. Bush has argued against using American forces for active “nation building.” But Albright emphasized the importance of “promoting democracy” as legitimate foreign policy.
“Our wisest leaders understood that American leadership must be based not on what we are against, but on what we are for,” she said.
Noting another defining theme of her experience, Albright spoke proudly of the Clinton administration’s role in “shaping history” in the Balkans.
After arriving in Washington with war raging in the Balkans, she said, the Clinton administration can leave with assurances that NATO-led efforts have curbed human-rights abuses and brought a delicate peace. More than 10,000 American troops remain deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, Yugoslavia, helping to repatriate Kosovar refugees and build democratic institutions.
Keeping with a Bush pledge to limit the use of American forces in foreign peacekeeping missions, Bush adviser Condoleezza Rice has suggested that Europeans should bear a larger burden of peacekeeping in the Balkans, freeing up American forces for other tasks.
Albright flatly dismissed that strategy.
“That suggestion is simple, straightforward and wrong,” she said. “It would weaken NATO, overextend America, and drive a stake through the heart of the trans-Atlantic community. … It would be folly for us to walk away too soon.”
“America’s presence remains vital,” she continued. “After all, our purpose is not simply to punch a time clock and move on.”
As other Clinton-era achievements, Albright cited the expansion of NATO, the re-establishment of diplomatic ties with Vietnam and the continued development of ties with China.
She returned often, though, to other frustrations, noting that Russia–the management of which was at the top of Clinton’s agenda in 1992–remains a source of unpredictability. She voiced measured confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’ve been asked if he’s a democrat,” she said to the Tribune editorial board. “And I don’t think he’s a democrat. I think not by instinct. He maybe used some democratic methods to achieve what he needs, which is to make Russia strong again.”
Of another lingering problem, Albright noted that the Clinton administration will be leaving the problem of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to George W. Bush–just as Bush’s father bequeathed the issue eight years ago.
“I’m sorry that we’re turning this back over to them,” she quipped. “We worked very hard to keep the sanctions regime in place and I will do everything to support them.”
Looking ahead, Albright also raised an array of less prominent issues that she expects to require attention, including global warming, labor in developing countries and bioengineered crops.
She cited them in a discussion with 30 Lincoln Park High School students considering careers in international relations after college. That meeting followed her appearance with Oprah Winfrey, where she discussed her experiences and her future plans in a program set to air Thursday.
“I’ve had a wonderful time. This is the world’s best job,” she told the talk show host, in a refrain she would repeat at other stops on her final day on the road. “Why? Because representing America is one of the greatest honors of all time.”
Albright plans to stay in Washington. After a vacation, and amid book-deal negotiations, she will become head of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.