U.S. Must Be World Player, Clinton Says

Arguing that it is in the United States’ interest to be an aggressive global player, President Clinton declared Friday that the nation must not shrink into self-absorption as it basks in an “extraordinary” moment of peace and prosperity.

“We must remember that the real challenge of foreign policy is to deal with problems before they harm our national interests,” Clinton told an audience of foreign policy experts and other citizens at a downtown hotel here. He later flew to Los Angeles for a fund-raiser Friday night.

In an hourlong speech, the president explained why, in an increasingly interconnected world, the United States should prod countries around the globe toward greater security, freedom and economic stability.

“Everything from the strength of our economy to the safety of our cities to the health of our people depends on events not only within our border but half a world away,” Clinton said.

Described by White House aides as the equivalent of the State of the Union address for foreign policy, the president’s speech was his first comprehensive explanation of his vision for U.S. international involvement in more than a year. Rather than charting a new course, however, Clinton defended his past policies and repeated his priorities.

Clinton’s address comes at a time when his prospects for progress in domestic policy are complicated because of tense post-impeachment relations between the White House and the GOP-controlled Congress. And, after six years on the world stage, the president’s stature abroad has not diminished, providing him more fertile ground for his policy ambitions outside the country than at home.

A shift in focus would be striking given that Clinton entered the presidency intent on domestic challenges and relatively uninterested in international affairs.

In his speech, Clinton argued that U.S. involvement in fighting threats ranging from global warming to terrorism is more vital than ever, even in what he described as an “extraordinary moment in the state of the world.”

“For the first time since before the rise of fascism early in this century, there is no overriding threat to our survival or our freedom. Perhaps for the first time in history, the world’s leading nations are not engaged in a struggle with each other for security or territory,” Clinton said.

“Because of these developments and the dramatic increase in our own prosperity and confidence in this, the longest peacetime expansion in our history, the United States has the opportunity and, I would argue, the solemn responsibility to shape a more peaceful, prosperous, democratic world in the 21st century.”

The president was also trying to rally public support behind his positions in preparations for coming battles with Congress over foreign policy issues--from sending peacekeeping troops to the separatist Serbian province of Kosovo to paying back dues to the United Nations.

Clinton pinpointed the threats to the United States that still lurk around the world.

When Pakistan and India joined the club of nuclear powers last year by exploding devices of their own, it reminded policymakers that the next big war could still be a nuclear one, Clinton said.

With the United States’ southern neighbor, Mexico, struggling with a burgeoning drug-trafficking problem and the U.S. demand for narcotics strong, the United States must engage actively with Mexico to fight a common problem, he said.

And as U.S. military personnel are poised for deployment to Kosovo, Clinton defended his policy of sending American peacekeepers to countries that may be unknown to most Americans.

“The question we must ask is: What are the consequences to our security of letting conflicts fester and spread?” Clinton said.

If warfare continues in Kosovo, the United States stands to lose ground on the progress it has made in nearby Bosnia-Herzegovina thanks to the involvement of U.S. troops in a 3-year-old multinational peacekeeping effort. Unrest in Kosovo--a predominantly ethnic Albanian province of Serbia, the dominant republic of what remains of Yugoslavia--potentially threatens neighboring countries.

The United States is leading a Western effort to pressure the warring sides in Kosovo into a peace accord. Under the proposed agreement, U.S. troops would be sent to the province to monitor the peace. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has threatened to bomb Serbia if it fails to comply.

“Kosovo is not an easy problem, but if we don’t stop the conflict now, it clearly will spread,” Clinton said. “And then we will not be able to stop it, except at far greater cost and risk.”

Other issues that need U.S. leadership, he said, include Russia’s difficult economic and political transition; the Middle East peace process; and the Asian financial crisis, which has sent countries such as Indonesia into tailspins.

The president hoped to convince the American people that these issues are not just foreign policy questions but “questions that increasingly will affect the daily lives of the American people,” National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger said in a briefing after the speech.

On the same day the State Department reported a sharp downturn in human rights practices in China, Clinton had some reassuring words for the Asian power. He stressed that he remains committed to a policy of engagement with Beijing.

“Of course, we have our differences, and we must press them. But we can do that, and expand our cooperation, through principled and purposeful engagement with China, its government and its people,” Clinton said.