THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Hartford, Connecticut) ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release November 4, 1999
As Prepared for Delivery
SAMUEL R. BERGER
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
REMARKS TO THE BILDERBERG STEERING COMMITTEE
November 4, 1999
Strengthening the Bipartisan Center:
An Internationalist Agenda for America
Two weeks ago, I gave a speech in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations about the unique and paradoxical position in which America finds itself today. Some of you may have read a few articles about it in the op-ed pages. Come to think of it, some of you may have written a few of those articles!
In the speech, I pointed out that we are at the height of our power and prosperity. We face no single, overriding threat to our existence. The ideals of democracy and free markets which we embrace are ascendant through much of the world. After 50 years of building alliances for collective defense, common prosperity, and wider freedom, we now have an unparalleled opportunity to shape, with others, a better, safer, more democratic world.
Most Americans are ready to seize that opportunity, though we sometimes differ about how. Yet there are also some who question whether we need to seize it at all. They believe America can and should go it alone -- either by withdrawing from the world and relying primarily on our military strength to protect us from its dangers . . . or by imposing our will on the world, even if it means alienating our closest allies. There are elements of isolationism in that view; for whatever its intent, its effect is to isolate America from its friends and to define America's interests in the narrowest of terms. There are clearly elements of unilateralism in it as well.
I made these arguments in my speech to stimulate a discussion about America's appropriate role in the world. It appears that I've succeeded. This is a discussion Americans need to be having -- before decisions are made that do real harm to our capacity to lead. And I'm pleased to have the opportunity to move that dialogue forward this evening with you.