• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Interview: Rice Defends Regime Change in Iraq, Stresses Diplomacy Elsewhere

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
Interviewer: Robert McMahon, Deputy Editor, CFR.org

December 19, 2008

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says international sanctions against Iran are succeeding in driving away investors from the country, harming the economy, and isolating its leadership. But she continued to express support for setting up a U.S. interests section for improving contacts with the Iranian people. In a wide-ranging interview with CFR.org, Rice put an emphasis on diplomatic efforts to solve nuclear proliferation concerns with Iran and North Korea. Asked about charges that regime change in Iraq had tainted U.S. efforts to help pro-democracy forces in Iran, Rice said: "The United States is not going to be able to change every regime in the world." She said the best role for the U.S. government is to "strengthen civil society, strengthen democracy forces, hold governments accountable publicly when they take harsh measure against those forces." Rice also credited U.S. democracy promotion efforts with spurring fundamental changes in the discourse on democratic reform in the Middle East.

Secretary Rice, the town is abuzz over inauguration planning. At the last inauguration, the president announced a bold program about democracy promotion, especially in the Middle East, and you were very much involved in that. Nowadays, we hear less of it and you've also made some statements like, "The United States is not a NGO and we have to balance our relations with authoritarian countries." Is that a concession perhaps that there's a realpolitik side to the democracy promotion agenda?

The promotion of democracy is something that the United States has to stay true to, because ultimately our values and our interests are inextricably linked. We've learned that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was good for our values and terrific for our interests.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.