CNN Newsroom: Global View

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ CNN Newsroom: Global View / CNN Newsroom: Global View.iso / txt / sdd / sdd0492.001 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-05-02 | 23KB | 482 lines

<text> <title> Securing a Democratic Peace </title> <article> <hdr> US Department of State Dispatch, April 13, 1992 Securing a Democratic Peace </hdr> <body> Secretary Baker Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Washington, DC, April 9, 1992 In the middle of the last century, Alexis de Tocqueville prophesied that America and Russia were destined to hold in each of their hands half the world. Throughout this century, de Tocqueville's words have been invoked time and time again as a prophesy of the superpower rivalry that has dominated and divided world politics since World War II. Today, we meet to discuss an issue--the democratic revolutions in Russia and Eurasia--that will weigh heavily on America's future peace and prosperity well into the next century. With our hopes for the 21st century firmly in mind, I come here today to advance our work toward one overriding goal: to overcome history's rivalry and to build instead a democratic peace with the peoples of Russia and Eurasia, an enduring peace that can help unite the world well into the next century. With you today, I want to explain our vision of a democratic peace that can lift forever the old Iron Curtain and unite the lands of Russia and Eurasia--and of Central and Eastern Europe--with the democratic community of nations. I also want to explain what's at stake in this historic transformation, how we're going about supporting democracy and free markets in Russia and Eurasia, and what we need the Congress to do. Before I go any further, let me give you our bottom line: The President and I ask the Congress to pass the FREEDOM [Freedom for Russia and Emerging Eurasian Democracies and Open Markets] Support Act by the time President Yeltsin arrives here in June. With passage of the act, we will be poised to use the June summit as a springboard to Russian-American partnership and broader support for democracy across Russia and Eurasia. Without the FREEDOM Support Act, not only will Russian-American relations suffer but so, too, will our relations with Ukraine and Armenia; Kazakhstan and Byelarus; and our position in the world more generally. A Democratic Peace Let me begin with our vision for the future--a vision and approach that the President will present this afternoon when he speaks before the American Society of Newspaper Editors. As you'll see, the President's vision is a straightforward and compelling one--a view of America's relations with Russia and Eurasia that we believe all Americans can support. Until very recently, de Tocqueville's prophesy has for the most part been borne out by events. America and czarist Russia were never close partners, and, with the Bolshevik accession to power in 1917, the new Soviet Union and the United States very quickly became rivals. With the exception of World War II and the last years under President Gorbachev, we remained rivals and competitors with the Soviet Union. While some would argue that the Cold War was primarily a geopolitical rivalry driven by competing interests, the real fuel for the fire of confrontation came from a more fundamental source: a marked and irreconcilable conflict over basic values. At its core, the Cold War was a titanic struggle between freedom and totalitarianism. Our solution to this uneasy and uncomfortable state of affairs was containment. While containment was a successful policy, it was never a truly satisfying one for it was, at heart, a policy with a negative goal: to deter the Stalinists from going any further while avoiding nuclear war at the same time. Consequently, the peace of the Cold War was not a genuine peace at all but really a series of episodic accommodations punctuated by frequent super-power crises. Peace was simply the avoidance of war, not the reconciliation of peoples. And the avoidance of war was achieved only through confrontation, tension, and the haunting shadow and threat of nuclear holocaust. Today, we face a wholly different and novel situation--a chance to build a genuine peace based on common, democratic values. Today, we live in a world where freely elected leaders govern in Moscow and Kiev; Yerevan and Bishkek; Chisinau and Alma-Ata. Our aspirations--the desire to choose one's own destiny in political and economic freedom--are their aspirations. Our foundations--the rights of the individual, the rule of law, free elections--are becoming their foundations. Today, we have the opportunity to break radically with the past. We can shift our eyes far beyond the negative goal of containment because now a positive purpose beckons: to support political and economic freedom and to build a democratic peace with Russia and Eurasia. A democratic peace would be a genuine peace, not just the absence of war. Starting from what the President calls the twin pillars of political and economic freedom, the ground would be sown for cooperation and common work, not conflict and military competition. With such a foundation for our relations, the peace we would share with Russia, Ukraine, and the other new states would be a peace founded on shared values--the enduring peace we share with Great Britain and France. It would be the peace we share with old adversaries, like Germany, Italy, and Japan, who now share our democratic values. No one envisions a war now with these countries, and the reason is simple: Following World War II, we supported political and economic freedom in these nations and by doing so, as one analyst has put it, built a zone of peace. Now, by reaching out to the Russians and Kazkahs, Uzbeks and Azeris, we can extend this zone of peace. By cultivating common values now, we can avoid dangerous conflicts for generations to come. That's a purpose worthy of the American people. And that's a purpose we believe all Americans will be willing to support. What's At Stake Here's why. A democratic government in Russia will no longer pose a clear and present threat to the United States. Real democracies do not go to war with one another. Arms control dealt with the symptom--nuclear weapons--while democracy's success in Russia will deal with the cause: totalitarianism. Democracy in Russia will bolster democracy's chances in Byelarus and Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. That will be all to the good, not only for our allies in Western Europe but for the prospects of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Middle East and South Asia as well. In this way, we hope the community of democratic nations will soon stretch across the Eurasian landmass from Japan to Europe, as today it extends from Europe across the Western Hemisphere to Japan. This would make more effective our collective work to meet growing new challenges: proliferation, terrorism, drugs, environmental degradation. Such a state of affairs is not only in America's strategic interest but in the interest of every American. For decades now, we've spent trillions of dollars to defend against the communist threat. By investing in a democratic peace now, we can leave a wealthy inheritance to our children and grandchildren--an inheritance of enduring peace, an inheritance of enduring opportunities to make of America a better country. The growth of democracy and free markets in Russia and Eurasia can be a new source of trade and investment for American businesses and companies. These lands are rich in natural resources and educated, talented peoples. They want us to trade with them and invest in their ventures and their futures. This is something that is in our mutual benefit. While helping them build a free market society, we can improve our competitiveness and utilize our resources to meet the needs of these new markets. This will strengthen our economy as we support their efforts to