Secretary of State John Kerry delivered his first major policy speech as the nation?s top diplomat, focusing on broad global challenges such as human rights and climate change.
Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he delivers his first foreign policy speech, Wednesday, Feb. 20, in Old Cabel Hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.
Steve Helber/AP
EnlargeThe United States risks losing the business and job opportunities of an expanding global economy, as well as the security that flows from promoting American values abroad, if America?s role in the world falls prey to the budget battle now gripping Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.
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In his first major policy speech as the nation?s top diplomat, Secretary Kerry said the US must resist the same urge to turn inward that tempted it after World War II. Instead, he said, it should lead in the global causes of the 21st century, ranging from economic prosperity and expansion of democracy to the addressing of climate change.
Speaking at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Kerry said he wanted to open a conversation with the American people about the essential role of US diplomacy in the world before setting off next week on his first overseas trip in his new post.
He started his remarks by cautioning that ?our engagement with the rest of the world begins by making some important choices, together, about out national budget.? It is ?imperative,? he said, that the US not cut back on what he characterized as an already minimal investment in diplomacy.
Kerry cited a recent poll that found most Americans assume the US spends about a quarter of the federal budget on international affairs ? while they thought the right level of spending would be about 10 percent of the budget.
?Would that that were true! I?d take 10 percent in a heartbeat,? Kerry said, ?because 10 percent is exactly 10 times greater than what we invest.?
Kerry said he chose the University of Virginia as the venue for this speech because it was founded by Thomas Jefferson, the nation?s first secretary of State and a leader who understood the role that education would play in securing a young nation?s place in the world.
?Let?s remember that the principles of Jefferson?s time ? in a nation that was just getting used to its independence ? still echo in our own time, in a world that?s still getting used to our interdependence,? he said. ?America?s national interest in leading strongly still endures in this world.?
Kerry did not use his speech to offer a laundry list of the pressing crises he plans to address. He made no mention of Syria?s civil war, the Middle East peace process, or the challenge of a rising China, although he did speak of the importance of ?making sure Iran never obtains a [nuclear] weapon that would endanger our allies and our interests.?
Instead, he focused on the broad global challenges that he said actually present ?opportunities? for international cooperation and American leadership. Such challenges include ?a dramatically changing climate,? demographic changes (defined most starkly by countries in North Africa and the Middle East, he said, where about half the population is under 20 years old), human rights, and global stability and security.
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