14 April 1998
SECSTATE WARNS BIGGEST THREATS TO U.S. "KNOW NO BOUNDARIES"
(Praises United Nations as "good for the United States") (450) By Jane A. Morse USIA Diplomatic Correspondent Washington -- Secretary of State Albright says the biggest threats to the United States today are those that "know no boundaries.". In an April 14 speech at Howard University, Albright noted that nuclear, chemical and biological weapons "are weapons that know no boundaries, and they are a huge threat to us." Other threats of the 21st Century will be those that know no boundaries, she said. These include illegal narcotics, refugees, and disease. Albright emphasized the importance of working in concert with other countries to address such threats through organizations such as the United Nations. Americans, she said, "need to be proud of being part of the biggest multicultural society in the world and proud of our sovereignty, but at the same time prepared to understand that we gain as a nation when we participate in organizations that actually multiply our power and our sovereignty by allowing us to deal with what are the problems of these 21st Century threats." The United Nations, she said, is a critical tool for the United States in dealing with 21st Century threats. She acknowledged that there are Americans who see the United Nations as "some kind of alien organization" and "a corruption of American sovereignty." That thinking, she said, is "just dead wrong. "We invented the United Nations," the Secretary said. "The United Nations was born in the United States and created by American presidents Roosevelt and Truman, and by Eleanor Roosevelt. We are the United Nations. And for us to see it as an alien organization is contrary to our national interest." The United States, she said, can do "a great deal of business through the United Nations." The United Nations "is good for the United States," Albright argued, and through its specialized agencies as well as its central focus, "it helps Americans in every way." She urged that the US Congress allocate the nearly $1 billion ($1,000 million) to pay US arrears to the United Nations. Albright noted that in the post-Cold War period there is the "opportunity to create a variety of structures that will take us into the next half century." To this end, the State Department is compiling lists of all the various ad hoc organizations around the world that have appeared in response to a specific problems. These organizations, she predicted, will become the underpinnings of an international group which will foster a prosperous partnership for its members. "We think that is a way that the rest of the world can prosper with us, and we want partners in it," she said.
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