U.S. foreign policy effective

The Daily Bruin sat down with former Secretary of State Warren
Christopher when he came to campus to speak about foreign policy on
Wednesday.

Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;

Daily Bruin: In terms of current foreign policy, what do you
think the Bush administration is doing well?

Warren Christopher: We’re really at a tipping point in
Iraq at the present time. The question is, will this insurgency
succeed and turn the country into chaos ““ perhaps civil war
““ on the one hand, or on the other hand, will Iraq and the
U.S. forces get control of the insurgency? And I think the United
States has a very strong interest in ensuring that the government
does prevail. Today’s events are certainly very sobering
““ that is, 50 people being killed in Arbil, in the northern
part of Iraq, and 200 killed within the last week.

We’re in a very serious situation and the United States
needs to do everything it can to try to shore up the income in the
new government. However one felt about going into war, we are where
we are, and so I think the United States is doing the correct
thing, trying to shore up the new government. And whether we can
ever help them rationalize the disputes between the Sunnis, the
Shiites and the Kurds remains to be seen.

I think Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice is doing a fine
job of trying to produce some more flexibility in U.S. positions. I
commend her for working with the Europeans with respect to the
Iranian situation. We ought to be devoting more attention than we
have been to North Korea, which is a very dangerous situation there
““ so that shows the risks of preoccupation with Iraq.

DB: More specifically, how well do you think Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice has done so far, and how do you think she
should proceed from here?

WC: Well, I think she’s off to a splendid start. As I say,
I think she’s produced some flexibility in the
president’s points of view because of her closeness to him.
For example, her suggesting that the Darfur matter be referred to
the International Criminal Court is a step we would not have taken
earlier, so I think she’s having a positive influence on
American foreign policy.

This is very early in her tenure, but I think she’s off to
an excellent start, and we ought to encourage all the flexibility
we can in American policy so we can try to get ourselves in better
condition with our allies.

DB: What do you think the future holds in terms of U.S.
relations with China?

WC: The United States has been on a solid course with China,
trying to maintain China’s friendship. It’s very
positive to see China beginning to talk with at least the
opposition party in Taiwan. The United States, of course, will
never have a fully meaningful relationship with China as long as
its form of government is so different from ours, but that’s
one place where I think the United States’ commercial
interests have caused us to develop a better relationship with
them. And we particularly need the cooperation of China in dealing
with North Korea.

DB: What do you think the role of the United States should
be in furthering the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?

WC: The United States needs to play a more active role in
encouraging that peace process. I was glad to see the United States
did appoint an additional envoy to that peace process. The United
States needs to be supporting a peaceful and effective withdrawal
of the Israeli forces from Gaza. That’s step number one, and
we need to see that that goes as well as it can. The new envoy is
James Wolfensohn, the former head of the World Bank, and he has a
lot of capacity to bring to bear there.

Interview conducted by Jeff Schenck, Daily Bruin senior
staff.