21st Annual Lynch Lecture: Ambassador Eliasson Urges New Priorities for U.S./E.U. Alliance

ICAR’s 21st Annual Lynch Lecture was held April 9th at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., with the Honorable H. E. Jan Eliasson treating the audience to a provocative and reflective evening—challenging them to envision a new agenda for the alliance between the United States and Europe. While serving as Sweden’s Ambassador to the U.S. in 2005, Eliasson was elected President of the United Nations' 60th General Assembly. In 2006, he was assigned by the U.N. as Special Envoy to Darfur, to deal with spiraling humanitarian and security crises and to facilitate negotiations between rebel groups and the Khartoum government in Sudan. Drawing on four decades of experience in relief services and mediation, including work in Somalia, Mozambique, the Balkans, Burma, Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Eliasson offered a compelling rational for his vision.

Following an introduction by ICAR Ph.D. Candidate Michael Shank. Ambassador Eliasson began with reflections on the current global economic crisis, considering it developmentally. The first stage, he said, grabbed international attention with the financial subprime (“subcrime”) situation. The second stage, which we are currently in, involves economic recession, rising unemployment, and a “reduction of production.” The third stage will be coping with potential economic, social, and political costs. Ambassador Eliasson wondered, with so much energy focused on managing the crisis, if we would be able to learn the important lessons that could lead to necessary change.

Eliasson addressed the long-term relationship between the U.S. and Europe and the challenges that interdependence and globalization inevitably present. He stated that, “the welfare of the other parts of the world is good for us,” and proposed that there is no contradiction between good internationalism and working for one’s own country.

The Ambassador presented three potential global scenarios: developing effective multilaterals; allowing the G20 to develop the rules of the game for the rest of the world, and—his “horror” scenario—of a fortressed world. He insisted that the best scenario is clearly the development of effective multilaterals, because it has the most strength. U.S. and European security and economic cooperation are already strong, with nearly $1.2 billion crossing the pond daily. If those economic forces are combined, a transatlantic agenda could be developed to address global threats, environmental degradation, climate change, and issues of poverty reduction—with the understanding that this would positively impact our own security. To this end, Eliasson challenged us to re-order our priorities saying, “We should do this because it is the right thing to do and out of enlightened self interest.”

As a first priority, the Ambassador wondered, considering the $700 billion earmarked to stimulate our economy, if we could “use $100 billion of that to bring clean water to every human being on this earth.” A second priority, he suggested, was literacy education for girls, pointing out that when women learn to read and write, 98% of them will teach their children to do so (compared to 45-50% of males). In just a generation or two, world literacy issues, along with myriad social problems that hinge on education could be addressed. Another high priority for the U.S./European alliance should be to take on organized crime syndicates and related illegal activities, which Eliasson claims are some of the “most serious dangers in the world today.” The numbers he presented are staggering: $300 billion in drug trade, $150 billion in illegal arms trade, $150 billion in prostitution, and the trafficking of 1.2 million women and children, annually. While the public sector is taxed, none of the syndicates' money is taxed, and governments can offer little incentive to customs and border officials compared to those offered by organized crime.

A fourth priority should be research aimed at solving global health problems. Curing tropical diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, and worm-based illnesses, should be as important as curing our own ills—diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

Finally, Ambassador Eliasson spoke to an essential transatlantic alliance in conflict zones, pointing out that in Afghanistan and Pakistan there needs to be policies on peacekeeping and policies that fight drug trade—strategies for civil society and strategies to limit corruption. There must also be a holistic approach to Iran. He wished that we could work together on the most intractable conflict—Israel/Palestine—but emphasized that U.S. policies must offer decisive action, especially with regard to outside actors.

The Ambassador concluded his formal remarks with a challenge for the US/ European alliance to reorder its agenda in order to improve conditions globally. “What a message to convey.” Use the financial crises to bring new energy and new ways of thinking with “an attitude that is a combination of passion and compassion—passion so that something happens, compassion so the right things happen.”

Following Ambassador Eliasson’s remarks, ICAR students Kim Orsulek, Ross Gearllach, and Kareem Terrell, launched a lively discussion which included questions from the audience.