Remarks at the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting

Well, thank you very much, Bruce, for that kind introduction. It's a great pleasure to be here with you this morning. And I've got a state-of-the-art lectern here, which is what I would expect coming over here. The reason it is so large is not that my speech is so large; it's that there are all kinds of computers and screens and other things here that I am so tempted to start touching and pushing. (Laughter.) But I think it would be better that I do not do so.

But it is a great pleasure to be with you this morning, and it's frankly a welcome break from the kinds of days I have been having recently, dealing with some of the difficult issues that we are facing in foreign policy. And I will leave from here and go up to Capitol Hill to testify before the Congress on these issues and other issues. But this is a pleasant break.

And I'm also pleased that in the introduction, Bruce made reference to what I was doing those years that I was out of government, following my retirement from the Army in 1993, because in addition to writing the book and doing other things in private life, I did help found an organization called America's Promise-The Alliance for Youth, and worked closely with the National Academies in generating mentoring programs and programs that would put responsible, caring, loving adults in the lives of young people who do not have that kind of presence in their life. They don't have those kinds of adults in their families, or they have no families. Youngsters that are not in some faraway distant land; I can show you youngsters in desperate need of this kind of care right here, less than a mile from this place. And I was so pleased at the work that all the Academies did in supporting that through your mentoring programs, and especially moving youngsters, as I'll mention in a moment or two, into the areas of math and science, areas that they're a little afraid of, they're a little nervous about. It's a little overwhelming to them, and they need people who will encourage them and push them in that direction.

And I'm pleased that America's Promise is still thriving under a new leadership after I left, because the need is so great, and it is also expanding beyond the United States to other countries where people want to provide young people mentors in their lives, safe places in which to learn and to grow, a healthy start in life, the marketable skills so that they can make a contribution to their own society, their own nation in this 21st-century world. And then the last part of America's Promise that we focused on was making sure that youngsters early in life have an opportunity to serve others, to give back, recognizing that giving back in life is something that you should take not only into the young phases of your life, but a habit that you should continue into adulthood, always giving back. And these things packaged around a youngster puts that youngster on a path to success. And I want to thank all of you present who participate in such programs. They are so vital, so very, very important.

The National Academy of Science is not only a great neighbor to the Department of State across the street; it is also our great partner in foreign policy, and that is why I'm especially pleased to have this opportunity to address your 139th Annual Meeting during Global Science and Technology Week. And of course my appreciation to the full trio of great institutions housed in this building known collectively as the National Academies. The strong partnership between American science and American statecraft is more critical than ever in meeting the challenges of the 21st century, and that our decision-makers and diplomats should work closely with our finest scientists is not a novel idea; it goes back to the earliest days of our republic. Indeed, the concept was personified by our first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, and our first Minister to France, Benjamin Franklin. Both made vital contributions, as you all know, to scientific study in America and to our young nation's success in the world.

To my knowledge, after Thomas Jefferson, the first Secretary of State, there has been only one other Secretary of State with a background in science -- moi. (Laughter and applause.) Now as Bruce noted, I happen to hold a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geology from The City College of New York, and my great contribution to the field of science is that I never entered it. (Laughter.)

The leaders at The City College of New York back in 1954 awarded me a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geology under the condition that I would enter the Army and never come out. (Laughter.) It took me four and a half years to receive this degree in a very strenuous four-year program. (Laughter). The half a year was spent discovering that I wasn't going to be a very good engineer, either. (Laughter.)

And they truly were delighted when I took my C average and left The City College of New York and went into the Army, never to be seen again. But now I am considered one of the greatest sons of City College -- (laughter and applause) -- called upon for all kinds of fundraising activities that so many of you are familiar with in your own academic background. (Laughter.)

But you don't have to have a geology degree or to be Secretary of State to survey the 21st-century terrain and see that science and technology must inform and support our foreign policymaking in this challenging world that we live in. Whether the mission is supporting the President's campaign against terrorism, implementing arms agreements, creating conditions for sustainable development, or stemming the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, the formulation of our foreign policy must proceed from a solid scientific foundation. Like you, I have admired the great hall of this wonderful building. As you would guess, my eye caught the geology panel with its symbols of axe, pick and fossil. For those especially taken by the quotation on the wall from Prometheus Bound, calling on us to hearken to the miseries that beset mankind and to ease them with the flame of knowledge.

And that is just what the National Academy has done since its founding in the mid-19th century, and what it is doing today, helping America hearken to the miseries of our age and helping us take effective action to address them. Since September 11th, all of us have been acutely aware of the dangers from terrorist threats and anthrax scares, cyber-threats and weapons of mass destruction. I want to express to all of you on behalf of President Bush and the American people our gratitude to the National Academies and to the entire American scientific and engineering community our thanks for your counsel, their counsel and support for our homeland defense activities and our worldwide campaign against terrorism.

The Academy Symposium on Countering Terrorism later today is only the latest valuable contribution you have made to the President's anti-terrorist campaign. My thanks to Bill Wulf, the President of the National Academy of Engineering, for organizing a series of workshops for our Counterterrorism Bureau over at the State Department. As focused as we all are on terrorism and other clear and present dangers, we must not let the perils of our age blind us to the great promise that exists in this 21st century. Despite worrying about the Middle East, despite all of our concerns in places like Kosovo and Bosnia, and worrying about other issues that fill our front pages, we can step back at the same time and see that there are opportunities out here to be seized. There is no major war taking place today between the great powers. Communism is dead, fascism is dead, the Cold War is over. Yes, there are tensions in the world, and we watch places like India and Pakistan, but the reality is that no great powers are in conflict today. In fact, the major powers who used to be in such tension with each other are cooperating in ways now that were unimaginable just a few years ago.

A lot of my time is spent on the Middle East, of course, but a lot of time is also spent working with Russia, a new partner, working with President Putin and his colleagues, and my colleague, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Russia, that made a strategic choice to move forward with us in the campaign against terrorism, and beyond that, to cement a strategic relationship with the United States that will lower the number of nuclear weapons that both sides will hold. And Foreign Minister Ivanov will be here later this week to see if we can get a treaty or a legally binding agreement of some kind ready by the time of the President's summit meeting in Moscow at the end of the month.

Working with China, that other great nation, 1.3 billion people coming out, still a Communist nation they call themselves, but understanding that wealth and success really doesn't come out of the barrel of a gun. It comes out of trade, it comes out of liberalization, it comes out of opening up, however slowly you do it, opening up your society to the wonderful forces that are out there related to democratization, liberalization, related to market economics.

Forty percent of Chinese products come to the United States. That's the reality. We press the Chinese on human rights, we press them on proliferation activities, we press them on those issues of concern to us, but at the same time, we cooperate with them and see if there is not a way to move forward, move forward to a better world for all of our peoples.

One of my staff members was telling me this morning that the Assistant US Trade Representative was on a Chinese chat room the other day, and in a two-hour period of time 15,000 people logged on to chat, tried to log on to chat. Another something like 1.4 million Chinese homes hit the site -- in other words, logged on, took a look, didn't enter into it to chat, but logged on -- and they represented some of the 15-56 million Chinese families that now have access to the Internet. This new tool of technology opening a society, that they can just hear the fact that the Assistant Trade Rep of the United States is going to be in a chat room, and 1.4 million people stopped to take a look and see what he had to say, and 15,000 wanted to talk to him.

This evening I will be hosting Vice President Hu of China across the street in the State Department. He is here as a guest of Vice President Cheney. And we will explore all the issues between our two countries.

With these two great powers, Russia and China, we are creating a new stable relationship, not moving away from any of the values that we hold dearly, but at the same time recognizing that these former adversaries can be partners and friends as we move forward.

We are doing the same thing with other great nations such as India and Pakistan, creating a new relationship with these two countries so that we can move forward together and defuse tensions in that very tense part of the world and move forward and benefit both nations and both peoples in those nations.

We now are hopeful that, as a result of President Bush's leadership, we can start to see a change in the Middle East. We saw some progress over the weekend, and hopefully we can build on that progress in the days ahead. This is our most difficult account, but we are committed. We are committed to peace. We are committed to remaining engaged. We are committed to finding a way to improve the security situation there so that the Palestinians and the Israelis can start to build confidence with one another again. We are committed to making sure there is a political process that will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel. We are committed to a process that will allow economic reconstruction, humanitarian efforts to take place to benefit the Palestinian people. We are committed. However difficult it may be, however many the setbacks we encounter along the way, we are committed and will stay committed.

The Bush Administration is determined to work within the international community to ensure that the remarkable opportunities that are there are seized, and it is not just a pause between major power hostility, but that we will harvest the possibilities out there for peace and freedom and moving forward.

We have begun on this process of reconciliation. We have moved forward aggressively, not only with Russia and China and engaging in the Middle East, but in other parts of the world too: our own hemisphere, with the Community of Democracies, with a commitment to a Free Trade Area that will extend to the Arctic Circle, down to Tierra del Fuego; and in Africa, where the challenges are so great we will be engaged; and throughout Asia.

We have seen great progress as a result of our engagement, and in all of these areas of engagement, science and technology has played an important role. Since September 11th, we have cooperated with Russia on the technical aspects of counterterrorism. We continue our swords into ploughshares programs that encourage Russian researchers to channel their know-how in a positive direction and keep that know-how out of dangerous hands.

We are reinvigorating our civil science and technology cooperation with Russia in the areas of basic research, health, environmental protection, and resource conservation. Just last week, a senior delegation led by the President's Science Advisor, John Marburger, went to China to chart a course for collaboration on global science and technology issues. Two weeks ago, my Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, who is here this morning, Paula Dobriansky, traveled to China also to lay the foundation for a new environmental agenda. And Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs John Turner will follow up with a senior-level delegation to China in the next several months.

President Bush's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee last November launched a new era in our bilateral relationship, and a new pillar of that partnership is a global issues forum, of which science and technology cooperation will be a major component. Nothing is of greater interest to Delhi than expanding science and technology cooperation. And in President Bush's recent meeting with President Musharraf of Pakistan, S&T figured prominently on the agenda. Earlier this month, my Science and Technology Adviser Norm Neureiter and Pakistan's Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Attaur Rehman sat together in this very building and outlined a program of cooperation on agriculture, earth sciences, education and health.

No discussion of our science and technology cooperation around the world would be complete without mention of our extensive and intensive collaboration with Europe and Japan. Our staunchest allies are also our closest partners in a vast range of science and technology efforts from biotechnology to fusion energy.

And I know that the National Academy itself is working through its Inter-Academy Council and in other innovative ways to build networks of cooperation across the globe, as the presence here of many of your foreign associates attests. I see great potential for enduring peace and stability in this unprecedented level of international cooperation. But if the conflict between major powers that is something we don't see and is remarkable in and of itself, what we do see on economic and political fronts is even more remarkable, and that is the growing number of market economies and democracies around the world. Country after country has embraced private enterprise, and country after country has embraced democracy because they understand that political and economic freedoms are the foundation for lasting prosperity.

Every day, in my office across the street on the 7th floor, I receive visitors from around the world, visitors from the newly independent states of Eastern Europe, the developing nations of Africa, nations in our own hemisphere that recently have transitioned to democracy. And all of them understand that it is democracy, freeing the talents of their people, freeing the power of the individual in the democratic system, where they have a choice, and a system where they can determine who their leaders will be, freeing them in that way and then giving them economic freedom as well to pursue their dreams, the dreams that all people have for their families and for their children: food on the table, an education, a roof over their head, the promise of a better future for the next generation. Country after country is moving in that direction, and those that don't will find themselves left behind.

At the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development that was held a few weeks ago in Monterrey, Mexico, President Bush and other world leaders shaped a new approach to global development, designed to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of the poor, instead of locking the poor into a cycle of dependence. The Monterrey consensus stresses the importance to sustainable development, of good governance, sound institutions, economic reform, transparency in your system, the end of corruption, responsible leadership, responsible political activity, and above all and certainly, decision-making based on sound science and the building of science and technology capacity of developing countries. This is all essential to that process.

To support the efforts of developing countries committed to the domestic reforms that are necessary for sustained growth, President Bush has announced an increase in the United States economic development assistance over the next three years that will rise to $5 billion a year every year, on top of all other foreign aid that we have been providing, beginning in Fiscal Year '06, 2006. Beyond all of the other levels of funding that we now are getting from the Congress, and I might add that the Congress has been very generous in the two budget cycles that I have been through as Secretary of State, they have given us a real increase in our foreign aid budgets every year. They recognize the importance of that budget. And on top of that now, President Bush has come forward with this Millennium Challenge Account, Millennium Challenge Fund, which will add $5 billion a year on top of the normal amount that we receive.

To get into this account, however, this new account, developing countries must demonstrate a strong commitment to governing wisely, investing in their citizens' education and health care, and promoting economic freedom. And as we move forward in developing the terms of reference for the use of this account, and we set the criteria and we set the standards as to who will be allowed to draw on this $5 billion and make sure that the investment goes to the right purposes, we would very much like to hear your expert views as we develop a set of clear, concrete and objective criteria for measuring progress in these areas.

In our assistance activities, we will continue to bring computer instruction to young professionals in developing nations; we will continue to provide textbooks and training to students in Islamic and African countries, to apply the power of science and technology to increase harvests where hunger is greatest. And we plan to expand our fight against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

You will also see our new approach to development at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa this August and early September. At the summit, we will stress that good governance, including solid science and technology policies, are fundamental to sustainable development. We will also emphasize in Johannesburg that as important as government-to-government cooperation is to development, governments alone cannot do the job. Public-private partnerships will be crucial to find the money needed to help nations address the daunting problems that they face in developing.

One of the public-private initiatives we plan to showcase at the world summit is the Geographic Information for Sustainable Development Project, which makes satellite imagery available to people around the world via laptops, to policy-makers, to users, to scientists so that they can get instant access to satellite photography, and these pictures will help them map watersheds, plan agricultural crop strategies, and trace urbanization trends. Linking that kind of technology to GPS technology gives us all kinds of new avenues to increase productivity and to bring the power of technology to the most distant corner of the world, the darkest corner of the world. Poor regions in Africa are the project's initial areas of study for this satellite imagery availability.

My friends, as Dr. Alberts said so compellingly yesterday, the United States and the world community have before us unprecedented opportunities we must seize, opportunities to help millions of people on every continent escape misery and build a better future for themselves and for their children. These opportunities have been created by globalization, a process that is largely propelled by science and technology. It is fashionable to talk about the dark side of globalization, just as people have always seen a dark side to everything, a dark side even to science.

Like scientific knowledge, globalization in and of itself isn't a force for darkness or a force for light; the issue is how we respond to this powerful force, how we use it to create hope for ordinary men, women and children around the world.

We are convinced that with good governance, solid economic policies, and with the responsible application of science and technical knowledge, globalization will be a positive force for the overwhelming majority of people on this planet.

Yet there is a deadly scourge in the world beyond terrorism that endangers every continent and could rob countries of the promising future that globalization can bring. It is HIV/AIDS. Like the global campaign against terrorism, the world's efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases must be long-term, it must be comprehensive, and it must be relentless.

President Bush, Secretary Thompson and I are totally committed to this effort, and our approach will be an integrated one, encompassing prevention and public education, and it also includes helping to provide treatment for those who are infected, and care for orphans and others who also suffer from the cruel effects of this disease, and also of course finding the cure.

I am very involved in this crusade against infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS because it is not just a scientific matter, it is not just a compassionate matter, it's not just a health matter; as Secretary of State, HIV/AIDS is a foreign policy matter, it is a national security matter. I've visited countries in Africa where the infection rate is as high as 38 percent. These are situations, these are cases where societies are being destroyed, where whole generations are being wiped out, where millions of orphans are being created, where millions of families are being destroyed and will no longer be able to make a contribution to their country or to their society, where hope is being destroyed by this terrible, terrible affliction and other infectious diseases.

I want to thank Ken Shine of the Institute of Medicine for co-sponsoring a productive conference on AIDS at the State Department last November. We have to work very closely with the academies and the institutes that are available to us to make sure that we have the best knowledge, that we are at the leading edge of the state of the art.

The new global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria just announced its first grantees, giving fresh hope to people in need. Dr. Jack Chow in our Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs was one of the prime architects of the fund. The technical review panel included medical, public health and development specialists who assessed all of the grant applications for best practices and clinical effectiveness.

I am pleased that in the one year we have been in office we have been able to generate $500 million, either appropriated or requested, in this budget cycle with Congress for the Global Trust Fund, on top of the hundreds of million -- nay, billions of dollars that are already committed to fight HIV/AIDS, not only through the Trust Fund, but through the research that we do and all of the other programs that we have on a bilateral basis with nations around the world.

Science and statecraft, as I have just illustrated with HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases, can and must work together for a safer, healthier, better world, in many more areas than the ones I just mentioned -- missile defense, climate change, energy, you name it. At the same time, even as science and technology help us tackle these complicated problems, developments in science and technology surely will open up new challenges and opportunities that today we can only dimly imagine.

Indeed, new avenues of scientific research may produce technologies as revolutionary in their security, economic and social implications as information technology has been since the mid-1980s. One area of research alone, nanotechnology, could have enormous implications -- some thrilling, others chilling -- on terrorism, defense, health, development and the world economy.

In the months and years to come, the Department of State will continue to need the help of the National Academies in bringing your collective knowledge, experience and expert judgment to bear as we seek to understand complex issues and to work within the international community to address them.

I ask you to help keep us abreast of breakthroughs like genetically modified foods that can help fulfill the promise of a prosperous, healthy, stable world. Help us also to comprehend, to anticipate, and to guard against the dangers that can befall us should technologies fall into the hands of those who would use them to do harm.

As Dr. Alberts urged you with such passion yesterday, do all that you can to inspire young scientists to devote themselves to tackling the great challenges of feeding, housing, and educating, and meeting the energy, water and health needs of the 9 billion people expected to be on Earth by the year 2050.

Help us to share know-how and promote science education all around the world. I urge your members once again in particular to volunteer as mentors, set up mentoring programs with math, science and technology. Get young people turned on to the challenges and opportunities that math, science and technology provide to them. It is often said that science shapes the future, but it is the rising generation of young people who will shape the future of science.

Last but not least, help us build scientific and technological capacity right here in the State Department and across our foreign affairs community. The National Academies 1999 study remains an excellent guide for integrating science into our foreign policy endeavors. I very much look forward to its sequel, which will broaden the scope of the 1999 study to include the Agency for International Development and other foreign affairs institutions.

I especially want to thank you, Bruce, for the support that you have given to Norm Neureiter in his efforts to bring S&T expertise and tools into the State Department. We still have far too few officers with strong science backgrounds, but thanks to the National Academies and others in the scientific community such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Physics and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a small group of scientific fellows have joined our ranks, and their number will grow.

Scientists, volunteers have graciously put their own research on hold, stopped their own work, their own life, to perform tours of duty in many of the State Department's bureaus, and they are making a real difference. And we look forward to welcoming more scientists on to our State Department team, either as fellows or as career Foreign Service Officers or Civil Service Officers.

Today I have asked the National Academies to do a great deal for American foreign policy. But what I have asked you to do is precisely what you are doing. In keeping with your 139 years of service to our nation, every day Academy members from the scientific, engineering and medical communities are working to advance American interests and values in this very complex 21st-century world.

Before your conference concludes, I hope that each of you will take a few quiet moments to visit Dr. Einstein out in your garden. It's one of my favorite statues and memorials in all of Washington. And one of the quotations inscribed on the wall of his monument reads: "As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance and equality of all citizens before the law prevails."

Ladies and gentlemen, the American people can be proud that the United States is the world's leader in science and technology. That does not mean we have a monopoly on brains or wisdom, or that we don't have much to learn from others. Far from it. But I think that we have been enormously successful because our scientists, engineers and medical experts live and work, as Dr. Einstein hoped, within an open democratic society that values the freest possible flow of ideas, information and people.

As the American scientific community and the United States Government work in partnership to safeguard against those who would turn tools of science into instruments of terror, to guard us against those, we in government also want to work with you to preserve the freedoms that make America and American science so great.

Thank you very much. I'm going to have to get up to the Hill.

(Applause.)