Former Secretaries of State Discuss Future U.S. President’s Foreign Policy with Iran
CNN reported this past Tuesday that five former secretaries of state sat down to discuss how they would advise the future president of the United States on foreign policy with various countries, focusing on that with Iran. Powell, Kissinger, Albright, Christopher and Baker had various opinions on the issue. Kissinger feels it would be both in the U.S.’s best interest and the best interest of creating a stable Middle East to negotiate with Iran, providing that it be at the secretary of state level. Christopher, Kissinger and Baker all agreed on the importance of making sure these negotiations were authentic and official. Albright raised the concern of alienating the Iranians by not understanding their culture, and that the lack of understanding most Americans seem to have about Iranian society, viewing it as “monolithic,” could potentially raise serious problems in such negotiations. Personally, I think Albright made a very good point when she said that “the more that we go around vilifying them, we create — put [President Ahmadinejad] in a stronger position. And so not only should we do these steps that the others have been talking about, but we have to make sure that we’re not undercutting what we want to do by creating a bigger problem than we have.” The media has played a detrimental role in America, often presenting many nations in the Middle East as a monolithic evil trying to destroy the American way of life. Albright’s comments make it clear that this situation is delicate, and viewing Iran as a monolithic enemy is not going to do anybody any good.
Kayla Cahoon
September 20th, 2008 at 12:28 am
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