U.S.-FOREIGN POLICY: Albright Breaks No New Ground

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 1997 (IPS) - After one day of hearings on her main foreign policy views, U.S. Secretary of State-designate Madeleine Albright has given no hint of any major new initiatives Washington may pursue during her tenure.

Testifying during her Senate confirmation hearings, Albright, Washington’s U.N. Ambassador during President Bill Clinton’s first term, suggested that expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) eastwards, fighting the drug war, and relations with China would figure highest among her priorities.

But, when pressed by members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday for specific details on these and other issues, she repeatedly demurred, suggesting instead that she will engage in close consultations with the Congress as Washington’s chief diplomat.

Albright, the first woman ever to be nominated as secretary of state, is expected to be confirmed by the Committee unanimously next week and then by the Senate as a whole. She was welcomed warmly by members on both sides of the aisle, including the Committee chairman, ultra-right North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms.

With a reputation for bluntness and sharp, colourful sound- bites that have earned her favourable press coverage here, Albright has been depicted since her nomination in early December as someone capable of energising and attracting greater public attention to the State Department whose budget has plummeted more than 50 percent in real terms since 1985.

Noting that the Department has cut some 2,000 staff positions and closed more than 30 diplomatic and consular posts abroad, she said Washington needs a “first-class diplomacy” and promised to get “full value for each tax dollar spent” on the international affairs budget.

The one percent of the total federal budget devoted to the State Department, she noted in her prepared testimony, “may well determine 50 percent of the history that is written about the era.”

But, despite several invitations by Democratic senators to elaborate on the need for an increased international budget, Albright did not pursue the issue in any detail.

At one point, she even said she was “open-minded” about right- wing Republican proposals to abolish several semi-autonomous foreign-policy agencies run out of the State Department, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

That proposal was strongly resisted by the retiring Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, who argued that it was not only impractical but would also tend to confirm Washington’s retreat from global commitments.

Similarly, Albright’s remarks about Washington’s responsibility to pay the 1.3 billion dollars it owes the United Nations were surprisingly restrained.

With her success in defeating former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s hopes for a second term and in championing his successor, Kofi Annan, many observers expected her to take every opportunity to call for Washington to make good on its debts this year.

Yet, Albright skipped quickly over the issue in her prepared testimony, noting only that Washington was the world body’s largest debtor. She later argued that the U.S. should pay its debts “because we believe in the rule of law …and that contracts are sacred.” But did not say when she believed those arrears should be paid.

On the U.S. role in the world, Albright said Washington should consider itself neither “a charity (nor) a fire department. …The United States cannot and should not try to solve every problem. But where our interests are clear, our values at stake, and where we can make a difference, we must act and we must lead.”

On Latin America, she reaffirmed the Clinton administration’s commitment to negotiate a Free Trade Area for the Americas (FTAA) by the year 2005 and labelled the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro “an unacceptable regime.”

On Africa, she said Washington should encourage more business investment and urged support for the creation of an all-African Crisis Response Force to deal with regional crises.

In what is brewing as one of the more controversial debates in U.S. foreign policy here, she said NATO should expand to cover the “new democracies” in Central America and Eastern Europe while negotiating a charter with Russia to reassure it that the alliance is not aimed against Moscow.

Given growing trans-Pacific trade, she said, Asia “is practically equal in importance to us (as NATO).” In that region, “clearly the relationship that we must focus on is China.”

She insisted that Washington must pursue a “multi-faceted” relationship with Beijing, adding that she had learned at the United Nations “how to be firm and frank” with the Chinese.

Her presentation Wednesday disappointed some human rights activists who had hoped that she might use her confirmation hearings to signal a more aggressive approach in Clinton’s second term.

But, aside from suggesting that Washington is still “actively considering” imposing new sanctions against the military rulers of Nigeria, Albright broke no new ground.

“This was a very bland and lacklustre performance,” said one prominent rights activist here who asked not to be identified.

Rights activists forces were disturbed about Albright’s remarks on China. She said Washington will not decide whether to co- sponsor a critical resolution, on which it has taken a leading role in past years, at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva until just before it is to be voted on in March.

“It is extremely disappointing that she seems to be dragging her feet on a full-scale campaign at Geneva,” said Mike Jendrzejczyk of Human Rights Watch/Asia here. “This raises some serious questions,” he noted, adding that European countries which co-sponsored the resolution under heavy U.S. pressure last year may now be let off the hook.