{"id":114274,"date":"2018-03-30T13:14:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T17:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=114274"},"modified":"2020-08-17T17:00:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T21:00:12","slug":"former-nato-ambassador-global-leadership-more-important-that-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/03\/30\/former-nato-ambassador-global-leadership-more-important-that-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NATO ambassador: Global leadership more important than ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cessence of global politics today,\u201d said career diplomat and Harvard professor Nicholas Burns, is that no country can go it alone. <\/span><\/p>\n

Issues like climate change, public health crises, the threat of chemical and nuclear weapons, and cyber attacks are transnational problems requiring transnational solutions. But while a global mindset is more necessary than ever, the United States\u2019 highest leaders are drawing back from the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re led by the first president since the 1920s who doesn\u2019t believe that the United States has a fundamental responsibility to help the world be knit together, to be the first responders, to cope with the big problems and the small problems,\u201d Burns said to a Bates audience on March 29.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burns, a former ambassador to NATO, former U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, and current professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, outlined the challenges to the U.S.\u2019s global leadership under the Donald Trump administration. <\/span><\/p>\n

In four key areas, he said, Trump has departed from established practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alliances<\/h3>\n

Burns had been the ambassador to NATO for 12 days when 9\/11 happened. As he watched events unfold from NATO headquarters in Brussels, country after country came to him willing to invoke Article 5, the alliance\u2019s commitment to collective defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nicholas Burns, former ambassador to NATO and current Harvard Kennedy School professor,\u00a0 speaks in the Olin Concert Hall. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

To Burns, that day illustrated the value of the NATO alliance \u2014 and how willing the allies were to help the U.S. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt our lowest moment, our most vulnerable moment \u2014 we\u2019d been attacked for the first time strategically since Pearl Harbor \u2014 we had Canada and all these European countries come to us and say, \u2018We\u2019re with you,\u2019\u201d Burns said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey all went into Afghanistan with us, and they\u2019re still there, 17 years later. Almost all of them went into Iraq with us and all did something in Iraq with us, even those who opposed the initial invasion. You can\u2019t buy this kind of friendship, solidarity, support.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, the world has become more interconnected, and threats such as cyber attacks and nuclear weapons cross borders more easily. Alliances are more necessary than ever, Burns argued, but Trump has questioned NATO and cast the European Union as a competitor, rather than a strategic partner. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t buy this kind of friendship, solidarity, support.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s drawing us away from our alliances, and he\u2019s weakening American leadership,\u201d Burns said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trade<\/h3>\n

For the better part of a century, the United States maintained the self confidence to trade relatively freely, leading to agreements like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which, Burns argued, have helped alleviate \u00a0poverty around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump, however, has pulled out of the TPP, threatened to exit from NAFTA, and stalled a free trade agreement with the EU. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is disavowing what made us great economically,\u201d Burns said. \u201cSeventy years of trade with the rest of the world profited not only the American people and our businesses, but people around the world.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Immigration<\/h3>\n

As a \u201cnation of immigrants,\u201d Burns said, the United States took in a large proportion of refugees during 20th-century crises. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trump, however, has signed an executive order halting visas for people from several Muslim-majority countries, and he has suspended all refugee admissions. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 63 million refugees and internally displaced people in the world,\u201d Burns said. \u201cThat\u2019s the largest number of displaced people since 1945, and we basically are AWOL.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Promoting democracy<\/h3>\n

Every president since Franklin Roosevelt, Burns said, has at least paid lip service to the ideals of democracy and personal liberty. (\u201cWe\u2019ve been highly imperfect in execution,\u201d he acknowledged to a student who pointed out the number of authoritarian regimes the United States supported during the Cold War. \u201cIt\u2019s is part of the job to try to honor those principles, to try to do better.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVoting in our democratic society means we run the country, and we get to determine who sits in the Oval Office.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, from embracing authoritarian leaders in the Philippines and Saudi Arabia to equivocating about neo-Nazi and anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va., Trump \u201cisn\u2019t even trying,\u201d Burns said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Historically, \u201call of our leaders have said we need to promote liberty, human freedom, democracy,\u201d he said. \u201cFind one significant statement he\u2019s made about human liberty and human freedom, which is the most American thing that we struggle throughout our history to equal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Burns took several questions from Bates students following his talk. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

But for all its challenges, Burns said, the U.S still has a great deal of political, economic, and military power. <\/span><\/p>\n

And determining how it is used comes down to a basic civics lesson. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, millennials, college students, go out and vote,\u201d Burns urged his audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVoting in our democratic society means we run the country, and we get to determine who sits in the Oval Office.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n