Remarks at the Offices of the Coordinator for Stabilization and Reconstruction
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
September 15, 2008
AMBASSADOR HERBST: Madame Secretary, distinguished guests, thank you all very much for coming today. This office, the
Offices of the Coordinator for Stabilization and Reconstruction, exists and we have a Civilian Stabilization Initiative
that is now with some momentum and some money because of one person. And that person is standing to the left of me,
Secretary Rice whose vision of transformational diplomacy is a vision of putting diplomats in the field where our
efforts are definitely needed. No further ado, Madame Secretary. (Applause.)
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. But I just have to say that it really wouldn’t have happened without Ambassador
John Herbst. That is absolutely the case. (Applause.) And I want also just to acknowledge that John has been promoted to
Career- Minister, which is the highest rank in our Foreign Service and it is richly deserved, because John is an –
(applause) -- John is an innovator. He is someone of integrity and he’s someone who inspires the people who work with
him. And when you’re going to start a new initiative, that’s exactly what you need in the head of the initiative. John
was, of course, our Ambassador in Ukraine and I asked him personally to come back and take responsibility for trying to
jumpstart this important initiative.
I’d like you to understand that the reason that we wanted to do this is that we fully recognize that diplomacy has
changed. Yes, some of it is still done in rooms like the ones upstairs, and some of it is still done in long meetings in
which one speaks in very, very measured and very careful terms. But some of our most exciting work as diplomats is
really now done in the field. In helping people to transform their lives, because we now know that perhaps in the
post-Cold War era, the greatest threat to international peace and security is really failing states, states that cannot
provide for their people, states that cannot do the simplest of governmental functions, whether it is to secure their
borders or to be able to have law enforcement or systems of governance that both provide for their people and that fight
the scourges of drug-running and arms-running and terrorism.
We know that the stabilization of countries that are coming out of conflict -- countries that are coming out of civil
wars, countries that perhaps just haven’t developed the strong instruments of governance -- that helping to stabilize
those countries will, indeed, make for a much safer world. And the United States has had plenty of experience. We’ve
been involved in 17 stabilization missions over the last 20 years. But frankly, we’ve never really had the right
institution within the United States Government to bring together all of the elements that it requires to help states to
build governing capacity and to deliver for their people Indeed, whether it was in the Balkans or in Afghanistan or most
recently in Iraq, but also in places like Liberia and Southern Sudan, our ability to reach out as diplomats and to
provide civilian expertise has really been fairly meager. And in our wake, what has happened is, very often, the
military, which is organized and very good, will reach in and do those functions. But it’s put a strain on our military,
and if we’re not careful, it will corrode both their mission and ours. And we want the face of America in reconstruction
and stabilization to be a civilian face; to be a diplomatic face.
We also want to draw on the great talents of Americans. To be able to do this, I will never be able to have, and no
Secretary of State will ever be able to have within the Department of State, all of the kinds of expertise that are
needed in stabilization and reconstruction, whether it is city planners or judges or law enforcement officials or people
who can help with tax collect – and to learn how to do tax collection or border security. We’re never going to be able
to have all of those people in the Department of State, but the United States of America has plenty of them.
People – first of all, in other agencies of government, but also more broadly, which is why the Civilian Response Corps
is an exciting idea, think about the prosecutor in Arizona who might want to spend a year serving his country and also
serving others in helping to develop rule of law programs in countries recovering from civil conflict. Think about the
city planner in Denver, who might want to go to a place recovering from conflict or perhaps building a major city for
the first time to go and to help. We want to mobilize the great talent of the American people as well to support these
missions, but we want to do it, not as the United States going into the world, but as the United States as a good
partner for the international community in doing these functions. And so we intend to partner with nongovernmental
institutions. And the reason that we’ve asked you to be here is with other governments as well.
We believe that together, through regional organizations, through bilateral and multilateral efforts, we can pool the
great resources that we can bring to conflict resolution, to – and to stabilization and reconstruction. And so that’s
the idea -- it is taking shape, it is taking form, people are being recruited. But I wanted to let you know that this is
going to be an effort that has to be more than an American effort, because throughout the world, there are new
governments, recovering governments, stabilizing governments that need our help in delivering for their people.
We don’t want there to be ever again the kind of failed state that Afghanistan became, which then became a haven for
terrorism. And one terrible day -- and it’s not too long ago, the seventh anniversary here in September -- that failed
state produced the territory from which evil men planned and plotted the attack on the United States. It’s perhaps the
most dramatic example of why failed states are a problem.
But the most important reason that failed states are a problem is that they are a problem for their people. People who
live in failed states don’t have much of a future. And so we owe it to ourselves morally, as well as in terms of our
interest, to help those states develop. And that’s what our Office of Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization,
our Civilian Response Corps will be intending to do. So thank you very much, John, for the work you’re doing.
(Applause.)
ENDS