Bugs, Drugs and Thugs: Dealing with Transnational Threats

Thank you for that introduction. Pamela and Gale, I commend both of you for everything that you are doing for women. Although she is not here tonight, I would also like to say a word about my friend, Catherine Kelleher, now president emerita of WIIS. As the founder of Women in International Security, Catherine deserves a great deal of credit for improving both the stature and the role of women in national defense and foreign policy. Since 1987, WIIS has been an important and effective venue for networking, and it has had a significant impact. Thanks go to Catherine, the WIIS leadership, and its members not only for your dedication, but also for your creative efforts.

Coincidentally, we are gathered here tonight on the 55th anniversary of the day the West Berlin blockade was lifted. The peaceful resolution of that 11-month standoff serves as a reminder that seemingly intractable crises can be resolved with steady determination, perseverance and the courage of conviction. This is true of the challenges we face today. It is true of problems that call for what is often referred to as the “hard power” of America. It is also true of issues where our most effective tools are at the other end of the continuum of power -- in other words, where our “soft power” can be used.

But our decision to use soft power does not mean the issues themselves are soft. On the contrary, global challenges can and do directly affect our national security. These problems can weaken governance and destroy rule of law, while simultaneously wrecking economies and opening the door to instability and other problems associated with failed and failing states.

A National Intelligence Council report released by the Central Intelligence Agency in December 2000 highlights these dangers. The report, titled “Global Trends 2015,” notes that “states with ineffective and incompetent governance not only will fail to benefit from globalization, but in some instances will spawn conflicts at home and abroad, ensuring an even wider gap between regional winners and losers than exists today.” Tonight I would like to describe three areas in which the United States is engaged in dealing with this prescient assessment, outbreaks of disease, trafficking in human beings, and the illegal narcotics trade.

The security implications of infectious diseases -- or “bugs” -- have become apparent. In the past few years, we have seen how diseases that are new to humans, like SARS and avian flu, can spread rapidly around a world that is getting smaller and smaller. These diseases cause both direct harm to the health and well-being of those infected and ancillary damage to societies and economies. SARS, for example, immediately impacted tourism in East Asia and parts of Canada, and other negative economic effects occurred as a result of quarantines and disruptions to ordinary daily life. Had the disease escalated to pandemic proportions, its overall impact could have been massive, with major implications for affected countries’ economic security and even their basic stability. This is certainly true of the nations that have been hit hardest by HIV/AIDS. In some African and Caribbean countries, HIV has stricken so many -- including the police and military -- that societies and states have been significantly damaged.

The National Intelligence Council report acknowledged these risks. It stated that “New and reemerging infectious diseases will pose a rising global health threat and will complicate U.S. and global security over the next 20 years. These diseases will endanger U.S. citizens at home and abroad, threaten U.S. armed forces deployed overseas, and exacerbate social and political instability in key countries and regions in which the United States has significant interests.”

This is an issue in which we are very much engaged. We are hard at work with other countries and international organizations to improve the world’s ability to detect and contain outbreaks of disease when they occur. In fact, when I meet with representatives from other nations and people not intimately familiar with the State Department, they are often surprised to learn we have robust health and science offices. We also have a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and Science. This is a first for the Department.

When SARS emerged, officials from the State Department led an inter-agency working group that coordinated the activities of other parts of the Federal Government, like the Department of Health and Human Services. We were also the primary conduit to foreign governments and international bodies like the World Health Organization. The SARS outbreak provided numerous lessons learned and also demonstrated to the world the need for better collective efforts in dealing with dangerous diseases. This trial by fire meant that by the time avian flu confronted the world health community, we were better prepared and able to react promptly.

We have since taken a number of practical steps to improve our ability to understand and manage health crises. Working with other agencies, we are developing a variety of mechanisms, such as a means to trace arriving international travelers who have been exposed to SARS. The knowledge we gain from this effort will be of great use in grappling with other disease outbreaks.

Another daunting global challenge is the crime of trafficking in persons. Trafficking typically occurs when victims are induced by fraud or coercion to leave their homes for other destinations domestically or abroad where they are often forced into labor or prostitution under slave-like conditions. The problem often begins in unstable states, but also arises in countries recovering from recent conflicts and associated displacement of individuals, or those struggling with a lack of economic opportunity. Traffickers lure their victims -- mostly young women and children -- with promises of better jobs and better lives, but instead subject them to some of the worst abuse imaginable.

Crimes like trafficking in persons can contribute to a vicious cycle of collapsing order and increasing criminality that destabilizes states and even regions. Money earned by human traffickers is used to bribe corrupt officials, finance violent thugs and criminals, and line the pockets of lawbreakers who care for nothing other than their own greed. This is no small problem. Official estimates of trafficking victims range from 700,000 to 900,000 and unofficial estimates go as high as four million. Some put the revenue of this illegal trade at fully $7 billion per year. It could grow to exceed the illegal trade in drugs within a decade; and the networks created by human traffickers can easily be utilized for other illegal purposes. Trafficking also commonly involves document fraud, such as fabricating passports, visa,s and identity documents, as well as money laundering. And the forced prostitution that is frequently related to trafficking in persons can expedite the spread of HIV, tuberculosis, and other diseases. It is difficult to fathom the amount of human misery associated with the trade in humans -- but it is considerable, as is the threat to states in which these criminals are operating.

America has responded to this challenge at home, and we are actively fighting trafficking in persons abroad. In 2000, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which seeks to ensure just and effective punishment of traffickers and provide for protection of trafficking victims. Those found guilty of trafficking crimes face significantly increased jail time -- up to 20 years in prison from the previous maximum of 10 years for many infractions, and up to life imprisonment in certain circumstances. The Secretary of State chairs a Cabinet-level inter-agency task force that ensures coordination among the Federal Government’s anti-trafficking activities. President Bush demonstrated his commitment when he issued a National Security Presidential Directive on trafficking in persons -- the first ever of its kind. This directive instructs federal agencies to strengthen their joint efforts and coordination to fight vigorously against trafficking in persons. This is critical because it focuses the manifold tools and assets of the federal government, as well as its ability to work with local governments, on the problem.

The President also made special mention of trafficking in persons in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last September. At that time, he committed $50 million to combating trafficking and helping its victims. The State Department’s new Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons is administering these funds and, each year, leads the production of a report on trafficking around the world. The report addresses prevention, protection of victims, and prosecution and conviction of those criminals. Countries that ignore the problem face the prospect of being ineligible for certain types of American aid. We believe it is important to get this heinous crime under control and on the path to extinction before it further degrades and corrupts governments and grows as a piggybank for violent thugs.

Drug trafficking is the well-known cousin of trafficking-in-persons and its consequences for states and societies have long been evident. As with trafficking in persons, this illicit trade sets in motion a vicious cycle of corruption and violence that can ultimately weaken states and give rise to elements that threaten our security and also that of our allies and friends. Drugs ruin lives -- and not only the lives of drug users and their families. Drugs also destroy the lives of people around the world who want nothing but to be left in peace, like in Colombia and Mexico. These people have also borne the brunt of the hardship that results from corruption-induced economic stagnation.

But we are taking action -- and our action is producing results. In Colombia and other major drug source nations, we are working with local authorities to eradicate crops of coca and opium poppies. Colombia has cut coca cultivation by one-third in the last 2 years, and by 20% in the last year alone. Opium poppy cultivation was also slashed by one-third over the same period. This is very significant. Meanwhile, we are working with Colombia’s president, Alvaro Uribe, and his government to implement programs that encourage alternatives to planting coca and opium poppies.

Where drug lords have engaged in armed conflict, the U.S. is providing expertise and assistance to the police and security forces of friendly governments to restore order and end the fighting. We want to arrest drug traffickers, we want to seize contraband, and we want to improve the overall security environment. Our close coordination with law enforcement authorities around the world has really paid off. In January, Panamanian police nabbed Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya, the leader of one of Colombia’s biggest drug cartels, and just last month, Mexican agents collared Otto Herrera, Central America’s most wanted drug trafficker. We have collaborated successfully with many governments.

In Afghanistan, opium poppy cultivation threatens to impede progress on reconstruction. We cannot allow drug traffickers to undermine and prevent the development of democratic, non-corrupt institutions in that nation and others. Nor will we stand by and allow drug trafficking to generate literally billions of dollars in hard cash for extremist and criminal groups, including terrorists. There, as in Colombia, we are eradicating drug crops and encouraging the cultivation of other products. We are working closely with the British, who are in the lead.

Let me describe a couple of our initiatives to deal with these challenges. One is called the “Culture of Lawfulness.” Supported by the State Department, this program involves teaching school-age children about civic culture, promoting good citizenship, and explaining the insidious effects of corruption. A central element of the curriculum is to teach why rule of law enhances quality of life, and therefore encourages citizens to make and carry out law-abiding decisions. The program is tailored to reflect local customs and utilizes books and other material such as The Lord of the Flies to show impressionable schoolchildren how society breaks down when rule of law breaks down. This effort is unique in that different actors are brought together and participate. Police are involved, as are judges, prosecutors, private sector and community leaders, and other key elements of a well-functioning civil society. This approach has been multifaceted and inclusive.

The Culture of Lawfulness effort, run by the National Strategy Information Center, is based on a study of Hong Kong and Palermo, Italy, which made strides in changing their cultures in the 1980s. This initiative has been launched in cities in Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, Georgia, and other countries. In the Colombian cities of Medellin and Bogota, it has played an important role in a dramatic decrease in crime and violence. In fact, Colombia’s homicide rate has been cut in half in the last 10 years. There is a sense of optimism. A recent Transparency International survey found that more than 60% of Colombians believe corruption will continue to decline in their country.

The Community of Democracies is another important initiative to address governance problems. The Community includes democracies that seek to strengthen representative government, to share experiences, to help one another, and to coordinate policies in areas of common interest. It is a network of participating democratic states, not a centralized bureaucracy. The Community had meetings in Warsaw in 2000 and in Seoul in 2002; the next meeting will be in Santiago in 2005. A number of practical efforts to promote democracy have been launched under its auspices.

A recent example is East Timor. The Foreign Minister of East Timor asked for help from the Community in strengthening his government’s new institutions. This week a multinational delegation from democracies like Italy, Portugal, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cape Verde, Israel, Chile, and other countries is in East Timor. The group includes judges, parliamentarians, election officials, police, and others to provide their know-how and help that young democracy develop its civil institutions.

This form of pragmatic collaboration among free countries with democratic governments that care deeply for the rights and welfare of their people can be applied in a number of different areas. The net result is to strengthen democratic governance, which can avert or combat the vicious cycle created by drug and human traffickers, and other destabilizing factors like disease outbreaks.

In a recent opinion article in the Wall Street Journal, former Secretary of State George Shultz assessed the global threats we face and prescribed a noteworthy solution. He said “I see our great task as restoring the vitality of the state system within the framework of a world of opportunity, and with aspirations for a world of states that recognize accountability for human freedom and dignity.” His vision is one that supports the objectives of the Community of Democracies.

What is important is that we have grasped the importance of transnational issues, and with others, we seek to resolve these global problems. Our ability to meet these challenges will bear heavily on international security and prosperity. In a world that is more interconnected than ever, and that seems to get smaller with each passing day, there is a diminishing margin of error in how we react to threats.

Secretary Powell pays close attention to transnational challenges and has been instrumental in ensuring that resources are available to fight these problems. He views many of these and other problems often thought of in the context of soft power as part of the broader struggle in which we are now engaged. This February at Princeton, he said “We never give up, never stop looking for opportunities to push forward, so that we, the free peoples of the 21st century, will define our age, not the terrorists and proliferators who assail us. To do that we must build a better future even as we deal with the security challenges before us. That is how we’ll overcome those challenges, because it’s not enough to fight against a negative, like terrorism. We must focus on what inspires us, on what brings the good people of the world together. We’ve got to fight for the positive -- for liberty, for freedom, for democracy.” The nuts and bolts of that fight are, in part, the global issues I have discussed tonight. Our tasks are to recognize how critical these issues are, to see their direct correlation to our security and overall well-being, and to continue to work for their resolution.