The Foreign Service Journal, October 2011

OC T OB E R 2 0 1 1 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 59 American Foreign Service Association • October 2011 AFSA NEWS Ambassador Nick Burns Gives Adair Lecture: Future Challenges for U.S. Diplomacy BY ASGEIR SIGFUSSON, AFSA MARKETING AND OUTREACH MANAGER O nAug. 31, the fifthannualCaroline and Ambassador Charles Adair Memorial Lecture, sponsored by AFSA, kicked off the fall semester at American University’s School of International Service. The lecture series is generously endowed by former AFSA President Marshall Adair through a per- petual gift to AFSA’s Fund for American Diplomacy. The program is an important part of our national outreach efforts to ele- vate the profile of diplomacy and develop- ment. This year’s distinguished speaker, Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, spoke on the topic of “Future Challenges to U.S. Diplomacy” before a standing-room-only audience of students and academics at the KaySpiritual LifeCenter on theA.U. cam- pus. Amb. Burns servedasunder secretaryof State for political affairs from2005 to2008, ambassador toNATO from2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Greece from 1997 to 2001. He is currently the Sultan of Oman Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. Foreign Policy Issues Amb. Burns’ presentation took on some of themost important foreignpolicy issuesfacingWashingtontoday. Onthesub- jectofChina,hesuggestedthatthetwocoun- triesweretoointertwinedforaseriousbreak tooccur. (Whenquestionedby a graduate student from Beijing, he discounted the ideaofaU.S.-Chinaarmed conflict.) Amb. Burns noted that a subtle power shift from West to East seems to be under way, with the Indian subconti- nent andEastAsia rising in importance. He also ref- erencedthe riseof the so-calledBRICcoun- tries—Brazil, Russia, India and China— as newwrinkles in U.S. foreign policy. The ambassador singled out North Korea and Iranas themost dangerous state actors on the international stage. Calling NorthKorean leader KimJong-Il a “gang- ster and a thug,” he highlighted the radi- calism and unpredictability of the two nations, andwarnedthat theirgovernments couldcause intractable foreignpolicyprob- lems for years to come. While discussing recent events in the MiddleEast,Amb.Burnsdiscardedtheterm “Arab Spring” in favor of “Arab Awaken- ing.”He views the latter termas abetterdescrip- tion for what he hopes isageneration-longevo- lution away from cor- rupt, dictatorial govern- ments. Other Topics Other issues raised included cyberwar, human trafficking, global warming, the effectsoftheglobalrecessiononinternational relations and the emergence of non-state actors. Amb. Burns called Libya a relative success that could serve as a possible model for future interventions. He closed by calling for a return to using diplomacy, rather thanresorting tothemilitary, tosolve internationalproblems. Alively,wide-rang- ing question-and-answer period followed. “These lectures are intended to expose Continued on page 69 Amb. R. Nicholas Burns responds to a student’s question at American University on Aug. 31. DONNA AYERST