A New Partnership for the Greater Middle East: Combating Terrorism, Building Peace

Transcript

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR: Since the end of World War II, we have recognized that our national security rests on four strong pillars: our own democratic values and the example of freedom that we hold out to the world; our military strength; our alliances with other countries and our ability to work cooperatively with the rest of the international community; and an enlightened use of both hard and soft power, including diplomacy, aid, and trade, that promotes friendship while protecting us from enemies.

To meet the threat from the Soviet Union, we maintained a strong military and created NATO. But we did more. We also launched the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe and helped create the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization. The aim was to promote international cooperation, to spread the values of democracy and respect for human rights, and to fight poverty. Over time, we developed more institutions and mechanisms: bilateral defense treaties, regional development banks, the Helsinki Process, and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, just to name a few.

Today we in the West face a major challenge. It is the threat of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, failed states and instability that arises in major part from extremist organizations in the Greater Middle East. The terrorist ideology generated there has global reach. The region is the prime source of what I believe is the greatest single threat to modern civilization in the 21st century—that is, the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. We must promote security and stability in this vast but troubled region, where demographics, religious extremism, autocratic governments, isolation, stagnant economic systems, and war have often overwhelmed the talents of its peoples and the wealth of its natural resources.

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