Remarks On George Marshall and the Foundations of Smart Power
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Virginia Military Institute, Cameron Hall
Lexington, VA
April 3, 2012
Thank
you. Thank you very much for welcoming me to VMI, and thanks especially
to all the cadets – to those of you who aspire to serve our country as
members of the military, or as entrepreneurs and engineers; as teachers
and doctors; as development experts and maybe even a few Foreign Service
officers. Each of you represents VMI’s commitment to the common good
and you build on a long tradition of service.
Let me express my
thanks to General Peay, Brigadier General Green, Brigadier General
Schneiter, Colonel Hentz, and all of VMI’s leadership for stewarding one
of our nation’s finest and most historic educational institutions.
I
was telling the leadership team before I came in that I grew up next
door outside of Chicago, Illinois in a suburb to a family that was
headed by a VMI graduate, and so I heard about VMI from a very early
age. And I often thought about my friend and neighbor and his son, who
also went to VMI, someone who I went all through school with, and how
proud they were to say that they had graduated. And for me, that is
understandable because VMI has trained some our country’s most
distinguished leaders. It is, as you know, one of the largest producers
of commissioned officers to the United States military and the only
military college whose graduates have led three of the four services –
the Army, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps twice.
So it is a
great personal honor to be receiving the Distinguished Diplomat Award
from such a fine institution and to follow in the footsteps of those who
have come before, and in particular, to be here on a campus that
nurtured one of the greatest Americans of all time.
Now, I am sure
you’re used to speakers coming here and singing the praises of George
Marshall as both a soldier and a statesman, his integrity and valor, his
selflessness and loyalty, his honesty. But one of my favorite stories
about George Marshall comes from before the time his name was written in
every American history book.
The story goes that when he first
arrived at VMI, no one expected he would achieve very much at all. He
was shy. He was scared. He was awkward and a rather mediocre student.
Many
years later, General Marshall was asked what changed him. And he told a
story about overhearing his older brother, also a VMI cadet, warning
their mother that George was so weak and timid that he would “disgrace
the family name” at VMI. And George Marshall said, “I decided right then
and there that I was going to wipe his eye.” Overhearing that
conversation sparked what he later called an “urgency to succeed.”
Now,
I suspect we can all examine our lives and relate to that feeling
Marshall was talking about – that urge to channel our doubts and
uncertainty into a call to be better and stronger. And on a larger
level, we can apply that lesson to our institutions and our society as
we face this new age of challenges. Marshall’s contributions as
Secretary of State did not come just from that urgency to succeed or
from his courage and integrity. They really came from his vision of
American strength and American leadership – a vision that was both
perfectly suited to his time and far ahead of it.
Now, some of you
may have heard that I like to talk about the Three Ds of foreign policy
– the need to elevate diplomacy and development alongside defense as
pillars of our national security. Well, George Marshall was the original
Three D guy. Just by taking on the job of Secretary of State after a
lifetime of military service and leadership, Marshall sent a message
about the strong links between diplomacy and defense.
Now, of
course, not everyone saw the connection. After World War II, many
Americans wanted to withdraw from the world. They believed that strong
defenses would be enough to keep us safe. But General Marshall knew even
then that the world’s most powerful military was not sufficient to
ensure our security on its own.
And make no mistake about it:
American military strength still underwrites our exceptional leadership
around the world today, as it did then. But here’s what Marshall said in
his farewell speech from the Army: “Along with the great problem of
maintaining the peace, we must solve the problem of the pittance of
food, of clothing and coal and homes. Neither of these problems can be
solved alone. They are directly related to one another.”
Well,
that was a recognition that advancing our own interests depends on
improving the conditions in which other human beings around the world
live. George Marshall believed that to guarantee our own security, we
had to draw on all the tools of our power. And that has never been truer
than today. Once again, our country is facing tight budgets, and there
is a dangerous impulse to withdraw from our responsibilities, because,
some say, we can no longer afford to engage internationally. But now, as
then, we must recognize that strengthening America’s global leadership
is the best investment we can make in our own future.
So that’s
why we are pursuing a foreign policy built on the three Ds, a strategy
that updates Marshall’s vision and applies it to the globalized world of
the 21st century. When Marshall looked at a Europe shattered
by war, he knew that hunger and poverty would ultimately undermine our
own prosperity and opportunity, that desperation and chaos would
ultimately give rise to forces that would threaten us here at home. And
today, we can see the truth of those insights in so many ways. We see
how some of the greatest threats to our security come from a lack of
opportunity, the denial of human rights, a changing climate, strains on
water, food, and energy.
We see how resolving today’s conflicts
depends on fostering economic development, good governance, the rule of
law, alongside our military efforts. And just like George Marshall in
his day, our military leaders have made some of the loudest calls for
elevating diplomacy and development alongside defense. To cite just one
example, when Leon Panetta became Secretary of Defense last year, he
stressed the importance of this integrated approach right off the bat.
He said national security is dependent on a number of factors. It’s
dependent on strong diplomacy, it’s dependent on our ability to reach
out and try to help other countries, it’s dependent on our ability to
try to do what we can to inspire development. So we have worked hand in
hand with our military colleagues to build a foreign policy based on
smart power for the 21st century, a foreign policy that
produces results for global peace, prosperity, and progress, all of
which are profoundly in America’s interests.
Let me briefly
explain how we are putting this vision of smart power into action.
First, we are bringing all the tools of American power to bear in
conflict and post-conflict situations, where the links among defense,
diplomacy, and development are the most obvious. Think Afghanistan,
Iraq, fighting the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and elsewhere in
Africa, protecting civilians while helping support the creation of a new
Libya. Security improvements only last when they are backed by
effective, accountable governments that can deliver results for their
people. And building up those governments and their institutions
requires a strong and active civilian presence.
In Afghanistan,
for example, we are pursuing a three-part approach that we call fight,
talk, build. And this is 3-D security in action. Our military is
maintaining pressure on the Taliban to come to the negotiating table and
enhancing the security capabilities of the Afghan forces. At the same
time, we are opening the door for Afghans to engage in an inclusive
peace process that could separate the Taliban from al-Qaida and end
decades of conflict in Afghanistan. And finally, we are working to lay
an economic foundation for long-term, sustainable development.
These
three prongs of fight, talk, and build are mutually reinforcing and
crucial to strengthening and building on the gains the Afghan people
have made over the past decade, from crucial advancements in women’s
rights to enhanced access to basic medical care and education for girls
and boys. Without a doubt, this has been a particularly difficult period
in our relationship with Afghanistan, and there are enormous challenges
ahead. Even as we move toward the end of our security transition in
2014, the United States will continue working with the Afghan people to
help build a better future. And in the next month, we hope to finalize a
Strategic Partnership Agreement between the United States and
Afghanistan, which makes our long-term commitment clear. We know that we
cannot abandon Afghanistan without paying the price as we have in the
past. So we think it is definitely in our interest to help continue
moving Afghanistan toward self-sufficiency and establishing lasting
security.
In Iraq, we have completed the largest transition from
military to civilian leadership since the Marshall Plan. Civilians are
leading our lasting partnership with a free and democratic Iraq. Now we
are very clear-eyed about the challenges that remain and the work that
lies ahead. But Iraq has taken charge of its own security and has the
chance, if its leaders take it, to stand as an important example of an
emerging democracy in a region experiencing historic transformation.
This
time last year, we stepped up with military and civilian support in
Libya’s hour of need. But the true measure of Libya’s success will not
be in toppling a dictator, but in building a democracy based on the rule
of law and respect for human rights.
And our troops and civilians
are working together in other places as well. Long before the Kony 2012
campaign made the Lord’s Resistance Army a popular topic of discussion,
we had soldiers and civilians on the ground, working to help
communities address this threat. When a devastating earthquake and
tsunami hit Japan last year, our military forces, diplomats, and
development experts pulled together to deliver a massive and immediate
response. And in the Horn of Africa, the United States has provided
almost $1 billion in humanitarian assistance that has saved countless
lives from malnutrition, starvation, and disease. And our sustained
commitment has demonstrated the best of America, helping to undermine
the extremist narrative of terrorist groups like al-Shabaab in Somalia.
So
our military and civilian forces, working alongside one another in many
places, experience immediate conflict and crisis. But we also work
together to try to reduce the number of places where we need to have
that kind of response, because sending American soldiers, sailors,
airmen and Marines into harm’s way is not a decision that any president
makes lightly. So at the State Department, our diplomats work around the
clock to do everything we can to exhaust all other options. So a second
key element of our smart power agenda is using diplomacy to prevent
conflicts and resolve disputes before they become crises that could
demand military intervention.
Let’s look at one prominent example
from the headlines: our ongoing efforts to apply international pressure
on the Iranian regime. Now President Obama has made it clear that he is
determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and that all
options remain on the table. But we believe there is still time and
space for sanctions and diplomacy to work.
So we are preparing for
another round of what’s called the P-5+1 talks – those are the
permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, United
Kingdom, France, Russia, and China, along with Germany and the European
Union – for talks later this month, but not an open-ended session for
both parties to talk around each other without ever coming to any
agreement. We expect to see concrete commitments from Iran that it will
come clean on its nuclear program and live up to its international
obligations.
And in the meantime, we are maintaining a full-court
press against the regime, enforcing the most comprehensive package of
sanctions in history and further isolating Iran from the international
community. This sustained pressure is bringing Iran’s leaders back to
the negotiating table, and we hope that it will result in a plan of
action that will resolve our disagreements peacefully.
Working
hand in hand with our diplomacy efforts, the third D of smart power is
development: investing in the long-term foundations of human security
and stability. Now of course, our development work is rooted in our
values. We think it’s wrong that people die of preventable diseases and
conditions that have no place in the 21st century. But
development is also an essential and equal pillar of our national
security strategy. We want to help countries become more self-sufficient
so they can be stronger partners to help us take on shared challenges.
Broad based economic growth fosters human dignity and helps build more
stable societies.
And not only research, but human experience,
suggests that as many as 40 percent of countries recovering from
conflict revert to violence within a decade. But when they grow their
economies and raise people’s income, the risk of violence drops
substantially. And there is no better way of doing that than introducing
free-market principles, encouraging entrepreneurship, creating
conditions for men and women to see the results of their own labor in
rising incomes and better opportunities for their children.
Now,
when we look at development, we start with the basics. What do we want
in our lives? Because it’s not so different from what others seek. When a
child dies from hunger every six seconds in the world, we want to do
more to make sure mothers and children get enough to eat, especially
during that 1,000 day window from pregnancy to two years old when
malnutrition can permanently undermine a child’s development.
So
our Feed the Future initiative is helping countries develop their own
plans to improve agricultural output. In order for children to get
enough to eat, farmers need enough to sell, and families should not have
to worry where their next meal comes from. So our goal is not just to
intervene in crises, like famines, but to try to help farmers improve
their own yield. We’re looking for that day when countries no longer
require outside aid to nourish their own people. And we also want to
avoid conflicts over food resources, and foster a stronger, more
productive population in our partner nations.
Our Global Health
Initiative treats diseases while improving health systems because we
want countries to take more responsibility for delivering health care to
their own people. So that may mean in some places working to curb
tuberculosis or other neglected tropical diseases, providing life-saving
HIV treatment for 6 million people by the end of next year to lay the
foundation for an AIDS-free generation. By working to really listen to
the desires of other countries and bring them to the table as partners,
we can actually accomplish more with the same resources.
And one
particular principle throughout these programs is our focus on women and
girls. Why? Because experience and, again, piles of evidence show that
if we want to expand economic opportunity and growth, improve national
health and education, promote responsible governance and democracy, we
need to involve women at every step. And here at VMI – (applause) – in
the 15 years since female cadets joined the ranks and the ratline at
VMI, I think you’ve seen how women have made unique contributions to
strengthen and honor this institution. We simply cannot leave half the
population behind anywhere if we’re going to make progress together.
So
using these principles of smart power, we are working with our military
to support security gains and foster long-term stability, to solve
problems and defuse crisis situations, and we are emphasizing
development as a means to prevent conflict from taking root over the
long term. And we recognize that in order to deploy these tools of smart
power at this time, we have to reflect and respond to the dramatic
global changes that are sweeping the world and that have changed the way
we have to do business.
So we’ve taken a hard look at the
structure of the State Department and USAID. We’ve taken a look at our
approach and our basic capabilities. Now, some of you may have heard of
the Quadrennial Defense Review. That’s the Department of Defense’s
effort every four years to align its resources and organization with its
strategies and demands. I saw firsthand how effective the QDR was when I
served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, so we stole that idea
for the State Department. And in December 2010, we released the
first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review – the QDDR.
And
since then, we have worked to break down the silos that too often build
up between offices and agencies, to equip ourselves to deal with the
long-term global trends. For example, when I arrived at the State
Department, I realized that energy security was certainly one of the
defining challenges of our time. So I created a new bureau in the State
Department filled with experts and diplomats who lead our government’s
work to ensure a stable, affordable supply of energy as we transition
over time to a clean energy economy.
We also improved our focus on
the essential elements of building democratic, secure, and just
societies. And our counterterrorism and law enforcement programs are now
housed side by side with those that defend human rights and promote
opportunities for young people. Our new Bureau of Conflict and
Stabilization Operations is working to improve our ability to prevent
violent conflict and respond when crises break out. And we’re
strengthening our leadership and our Civilian Response Corps to make it
more flexible and expeditionary.
Today’s civilian experts are as
likely to wear work boots and cargo pants as business suits and loafers.
They function in some of the most remote and least governed places on
the planet. They work as a unified force – development experts,
agricultural specialists, democracy and human rights advocates – to
advance America’s core interests.
Now, part of doing business
differently means using new tools to engage more people in more places,
and reaching beyond governments to talk directly to people. This is what
we call 21st century statecraft. So our ambassadors are now
blogging, and yes, tweeting. Every embassy has a Facebook page. And
we’re doing more than just talking. We’re listening and hearing from
communities we’ve never been able to reach before.
You saw some of
that in this past year. After Mubarak stepped down and as Egyptians
were beginning to grapple with tough questions about what next, I
participated in a virtual town hall with Egyptian youth. And from my
office in Washington, I took questions online from across Egypt. And
they asked tough questions, and it was a vigorous exchange. Many,
honestly, were critical of the United States and they were not afraid to
say so. But just the act of talking honestly and openly with one
another was revolutionary and gives us the chance to build new
relationships. I’ve done the same with people from Iran, doing online
talks that were immediately translated into Farsi, and hearing from
people inside Iran about the challenges and the hopes and aspirations
that they feel for themselves. So these are all smart power concerns,
central to core national security.
Now, some Americans may
question how rebuilding economies helps us respond to the biggest
threats we face, and whether development aid is diverting money that
would be better spent at home. Well, George Marshall heard these same
concerns. I can remember reading about the Marshall Plan and just
thinking how unlikely it was, after men like my father, who served in
the Navy during World War II, came home, and all they wanted to do was
just build a normal life, get back to business, raise a family, buy a
house. And Marshall knew that, but he didn’t listen to the skeptics. He
held fast to his vision. And he barnstormed around the country, along
with others, to help build the understanding and the alliance that would
build those enemies that just a short time before he and people like my
father had been doing everything they could to defeat, because he
understood that in order for America to have peace and prosperity, we
have to invest in that potential for others.
As Americans look out
on a global landscape of growing complexity with new powers and new
challenges, we have to hold fast to that same vision. Our foreign policy
can’t succeed unless it has the full support of the American people.
And certainly, as we think about all those World War II veterans who
came home and were told, you know what, you’re going to have to keep
paying taxes, and a huge amount of that money is going to rebuild those
very countries that we tried to destroy, well, can you imagine that
argument today? Somebody stands up and says, “We need to tax you more to
rebuild another country somewhere else.” I can imagine what would be
said on talk radio and cable television. And it took a great
citizen-soldier, a VMI cadet, to make the case for smart power then.
Well, I think it will take your generation of citizen-soldiers to make the case for smart power in the 21st
century. Our American values – honor, duty, and sacrifice, freedom,
compassion, humility – are a great source of our global strength and
pride. And we look to each of you as you live these values and continue
in your careers to make your contribution to our country and to help
show the American people why our national security depends on human
security, to prove that once again, American leadership makes us all
safer when we promote dignity and opportunity everywhere.
I’m very
excited about what the future holds. I agree that the world in some
ways was simpler when we had a bipolar world with a clear dividing line
between the United States and freedom, and the Soviet Union and others
and communism. So yes, it’s more complicated. The problems are
multipolar. But America’s strength is still necessary. We cannot solve
all the problems in the world, but there is no big problem that can be
solved without us.
So I thank you for your commitment to
citizenship and to service, to your commitment to building your own
lives and futures, to have that urgency to succeed, not only for
yourselves but for this great nation that we love and cherish.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
