Remarks to Appeal of Conscience Foundation Awards Dinner

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and colleagues, no one on earth is better at making an appeal to one’s conscience than Rabbi Arthur Schneier, so what can I say? I am delighted that he asked me to join you tonight. Arthur is one of a small group of people for whom I would do just about anything. This group includes my wife Diana, of course; my good friend Arthur; and one of this evening’s honorees: Dick Holbrooke, an American patriot and committed internationalist who has always backed his wise words with brave deeds.

Lord Browne: You will be justly praised by others this evening who know you better than I do, so I hope you will forgive me for focusing my own remarks on Dick.

People who have negotiated with Dick have said that spending five minutes in his company is a long time. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have known Dick Holbrooke for 43 years!

Dick and I met in Saigon in 1964. We were roommates with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. I kept the coffee perking; he kept the music playing. Next stop Paris where Dick helped bring me on board as a member of our peace talks delegation. After that, Dick was Assistant Secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, and I was his Deputy for Southeast Asia. Then I succeeded Dick at the UN as U.S. ambassador. Suddenly we’d lived a lifetime together. In the blink of an eye, four decades had passed, and how the world had changed.

The United States has a good relationship with Vietnam now, something that pleases Dick, I know, as much as it pleases me. But Vietnam in the 1960s was a major stress point in the global struggle between two mighty superpowers. That’s where the Cold War and the post-colonial era collided hardest.

Well, we know how the Vietnam War and the Cold War ended, and we know that neither outcome provided decisive solutions to all the world’s problems.

Over the last fifteen years we have been navigating an extended period of flux. Instead of managing bipolar conflict between superpowers and their allies—one side democratic, the other communist—we find ourselves in a new form of bipolarity.

Now the contending elements are preserving the vital and useful aspects of an international system of law-abiding sovereign states, on the one hand, and managing the challenges of transnational threats on the other.

Those transnational threats receive a lot of well-deserved attention—terror, WMD proliferation, and narco-trafficking are great and present dangers. In a moment, I will speak about one of them in some detail—the HIV/AIDS pandemic which Dick helped push to the top of the international agenda.

But first I want to emphasize that preserving the integrity and viability of sovereign nation states remains an absolute necessity. Failed and failing states, and states that are hostage to autocrats, make transnational threats much, much worse for the rest of us. We saw this in Afghanistan; we see this elsewhere around the globe.

Yes, it is true that globalization has greatly increased the relative importance and influence of non-state actors. But it’s not true that this has rendered state actors obsolete or irrelevant in the 21^st century. To the contrary, sovereign states acting in responsible concert with one another are indispensable in preserving the security of their peoples against all the new forms of transnational threat. Each and every state—each and every law-abiding government—counts for a great deal in keeping our citizens safe as they travel, trade, and invest within our interdependent global economic system.

Dick Holbrooke understands the dynamics of this new bipolar agenda as well as anyone. As our Ambassador to the United Nations and ever since, Dick has helped the Security Council and the world understand that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is global in scope, a human tragedy of epic proportions, and a threat to the integrity of the international order.

Today, with so much media attention paid to other critical issues—Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and the Middle East peace process, to cite a few of them—we dare not overlook the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Indeed, to give credit where it’s due, under the current Administration this nation has been the world leader in responding to the threat of HIV/AIDS.

There are 39 million people living with HIV/AIDS. 25 million people have died of AIDS. As President Bush said in December on World AIDS Day, HIV/AIDS extinguishes life, destroys families, erodes societies, and weakens states. In response, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is not only meeting but exceeding his commitment of $15 billion over five years to support treatment for 2 million people, prevention of 7 million new infections, and care for 10 million people.

We are also deeply engaged in waging this struggle at home, of course, where we have invested over $18 billion to save the lives of our fellow citizens, but there is no question that the hardest hit part of the world is Africa

To place the President’s HIV/AIDS efforts in the larger context of our support for development, let me note that we have nearly tripled our official development assistance from approximately $10 billion in 2000 to $28.5 billion in 2005. Africa has been a major beneficiary of this growth. In fact, we now are requesting a 54 percent increase in assistance for Africa over fiscal year 2006. With Congress’ support, we then will have nearly quadrupled our assistance to the people of Africa over the course of the Administration. This is an unprecedented effort, but it is more than justified.

I would like to offer you one stunning statistic from Botswana: According to the UNAIDS report on the Global AIDS pandemic in 2006, the national HIV prevalence rate among adults aged 15 to 49 in Botswana is 24.1 percent.

You heard that right: nearly one in four.

Are we doing enough? How can one say yes? That’s why it’s critically important that we keep a spotlight on what we are doing to bring others more deeply into the effort.

In the case of HIV/AIDS, we need a complete transformation of the development paradigm from donor/recipient to partnership at the international, national, and local levels. This is our goal in Botswana and the other 14 focus countries in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

In the face of this terrible pandemic, we do find signs of hope. Staying focused on Botswana a moment, the government there has been a leader in its response to HIV/AIDS, expanding its antiretroviral treatment program to more than 80 percent of people in need – up from just 15 percent in 2003. In the area of prevention too, Botswana has made tremendous progress. In 2004, only 13 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women received services to prevent transmission to their children. In 2006, Botswana had increased that figure to 91 percent.

Through efforts like these, developing nations are proving that country-wide, high-quality programs can be successfully implemented in resource-limited settings – something that many people thought impossible just a few short years ago. The U.S. Government, through the President’s Emergency Plan, has been privileged to partner with developing countries around the world in these lifesaving efforts.

I can’t think of a better time or place than here tonight to highlight the continuing challenge of the greatest immediate health crisis afflicting humankind. As Dick Holbrooke has made clear through his tireless efforts, HIV/AIDS is unique in its scope and devastation. It has the ability to cause the collapse of public administration in afflicted states. If we permitted that to occur, with whom would we be able to work in assisting either the victims or the survivors? And what forms of lawlessness and disorder would likely fill the void left behind by governments that have been erased by disease?

Mr. Blankfein, Rabbi Schneier, I appreciate the opportunity to be with you this evening. There are too few organizations where the challenges of morality and public policy are simultaneously brought to the fore. It’s always an honor to join you in advancing the Appeal of Conscience Foundation’s work.

Thank you very much.