Karen Hughes, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Remarks at the U.S.-Arab Economic Forum
Houston, Texas
June 26, 2006
Well, thank you all. I want to thank Sam for his most gracious introduction. I
hope you will forgive me my cold. I hope you can hear me better than I can hear
myself because my ears are sort of stopped up. I've been doing too much
traveling lately. I want to thank all of the organizers of this forum for your
work to advance U.S.-Arab relations. I want to welcome Your Excellencies and
ladies and gentlemen. I'm so delighted to see all of you and to be a part of
this very important forum.
I'm approaching my one-year anniversary at the State Department in this new
role and I'm still trying to get used to the title of ambassador. You don't
have to worry about it going to my head because I'll hear somebody saying that
in the airport or something and I always -- I don't think it applies to me, so
I'll sort of look around to see which foreign dignitary they might be referring
to. Not too long ago I was getting on a small commuter plane in California. It
was one of those little planes that was so small that, if you'd realized how
small it was when you made the reservation, you probably wouldn't have made the
reservation. And the pilot, who looked way too young to be flying even this
very small airplane, seemed to recognize me and he got very excited. And he
came back and, you know, he couldn't stand up because the plane was so little,
and he came back and he said, "I'm so glad to see you. I never thought I would
have Madeline Albright on my airplane." (Laughter.)
But I can even top that off. I was on a crowded elevator with my husband and my
son and more and more people kept stopping and more and more people got on. At
the very end, the doors opened and two sort of elderly women pushed onto the
elevator and one of them looked at me and then she looked away and then she
looked again and stared. And finally she poked her friend in the ribs and in a
loud stage whisper said, "Condi Rice is on this elevator." (Laughter.)
Now, you all know I am not Condi Rice, but I do bring greetings from our --
America's Secretary of State. She asked me to say hello to all of you and to
encourage you to engage in very constructive dialogue over the next couple of
days, which we all know that you will.
I'm humbled by the challenge that President Bush has assigned me of sharing our
great American story and reaching out to the rest of the world, especially the
Arab world in a spirit of friendship and partnership. This job is both a great
opportunity and a great challenge; a challenge that we share. I recently met
with a couple of Arab ambassadors and they made the point to me that while we
face a big gulf of misunderstanding that this is not -- both of them made the
point to me this is not just America's problem and it's not just the Arab
world's problem. It's a shared problem; a challenge that we have to address and
work on together. And I believe that Arab Americans especially have a very
unique and important role to play as we try to bridge this gulf of
misunderstanding.
As I travel the Arab world, I hear, as I'm sure all of you do, concern,
suspicion, even mistrust of America's motives and some of our policies.
Recently, we also witnessed here in America concern, suspicion and mistrust
directed at the Arab world. The Dubai Port's matter hit a deep nerve of worry
among our population about America's security in our post-9/11 world. Yet as we
work to secure our country, as we work to protect our people, I believe it is
just as much in our vital national security interest that America remain an
open and welcoming country: open to visitors, open to students, open to other
cultures, open to ideas and innovation and open to business opportunities.
(Applause.)
I was in a low-income neighborhood in Turkey visiting a housing project, a
little neighborhood program they had there, and a young man asked a question
that really kind of struck me in the heart. He, through the translator, said,
"Does the Statue of Liberty still face out?" And he meant, does America still
invite -- is America still that open, inviting, welcoming country. And I would
submit that as a nation, a proud nation of immigrants, we must remain open,
welcoming, involved and engaged every day in our world. This moment calls all
of us to work together, to highlight important values that we share: family,
faith, opportunity, social justice, respect for the other.
In truth, whether Arab or American, I think most human beings around the world
want the same things. We want to live a life of good purpose, to be respected
for who we are and what we say and think and what we do, to have a good job
that gives us an opportunity to provide for our families, to have an education,
to -- we all want a better life for our children. Most of us want the freedom
to be able to worship as our conscience dictates. We must build on these common
values, these islands of health and strength, so that the next generation will
inherit a safer stronger and better world, not a more divided and dangerous
world.
The opening theme of this conference poses an intriguing question: What will
U.S.-Arab relations look like in 2020? Well, the people in this room, each one
of you, have a unique opportunity and responsibility to not only forecast what
that world would look like, but also to help shape what that future becomes, to
make it one of the endless possibilities that the theme of this conference
evokes. The year 2020 will arrive sooner than we might think and the 14 years
between now and then will bring some big changes . As one example,
demographically, as you know, the Middle East boasts the fastest-growing
populations. According to regional leaders like King Abdallah, in less than ten
years, fully 50 of the population of the region will be under the age of 18.
Already 70 percent of the population of Saudi Arabia is under 29 years of age
and the population of Yemen is projected to double in just one generation.
Now, those numbers, when you stop and think about them are somewhat
mind-boggling and they present both challenges and very real opportunities for
a better future. Young people can be a source of ideas, of creativity, of
course, both a source of labor and an expanding market for many of the
businesses who are represented here today.
I'm here to talk about the unique responsibility of the leaders in this room,
American leaders and Arab leaders, each of you as an agent of change. You are
the decision-makers and investors who will really shape and write the answer to
what U.S.-Arab relations look like in the year 2020. And the answer to this
question of 2020 presents two competing visions: One grim at two opposite ends
of the spectrum. One is quite grim-- increasing hostility, strife, isolation
and violence, a world of increasing fear and ignorance which would limit
opportunities for all of our peoples. The other vision of 2020 is decidedly
hopeful and involves mutual respect, greater economic and social integration,
partnership and broader opportunities for more and more people. This future
embraces all that our societies have to offer men, women and young power and
empowers all voices to participate. This hopeful vision can become the reality
of the year 2020 if we work together to bring it about and choose a path of
openness: open economies, open minds, open opportunities and open dialogue.
I'll start by discussing open economies. As Tom Friedman bestselling book
famously proclaims, "Today's globalized world is in fact increasingly flat." To
expand opportunities for all our citizens, doing more business together is one
of the most constructive steps that we can take. Here in America we need to do
a better job of highlighting and showcasing to our people the benefits of
foreign investment in general and the positive contributions of Arab companies
in the Arab world in particular.
For example, last year direct investments in the United States from the United
Arab Emirates totaled almost $2 billion, up dramatically from just $519 million
in 2004. These types of investments create American jobs here, what you might
call insourcing. Foreign companies employ 5.3 million American workers inside
the United States and generate over 20 percent of all of our U.S. exports and
there's plenty room for growth. We want our friends in the Middle East to know
that the door to trade with America is opening wider and wider every single
day.
President Bush announced the Middle East Free Trade Initiative in May 2003 as
part of a comprehensive effort to increase our engagement with the Arab world.
Since MEFTA was launched the U.S. has been working on a country-by-country
basis with those who are interested in economic openness and the prosperity it
promises to bring.
Our free trade agreement with Jordan is a good example of a success story.
Jordan's exports to the United States soared from $16 million in 1998 to 1.1
billion in 2004. In Egypt, trade from qualified industrial zone programs has
nearly doubled from 60 million to 115 million last year. That trade adds up to
a profitable relationship in many ways. By opening the door to trade we bring
greater contacts between our people and it helps us step beyond
misunderstanding and move toward a 2020 that is characterized by partnership
and integration.
President Bush knows that global commerce is a crucial part of public diplomacy
and building greater understanding. It's significant that he has nominated one
of the top financial executives in the world, Hank Paulson, the CEO of Goldman
Sachs as the new United States Secretary of the Treasury. Both he and President
Bush know that trade brings jobs and makes for a more prosperous and more
peaceful world.
With rising populations, the Middle East faces especially challenging demands
for job growth. I was told recently that Egypt needs to create 800,000 new jobs
every year just to keep pace with current growth. By expanding trade and
business investments between America and the Arab world, we can ensure that the
young energetic and enthusiastic populations will become a positive asset in
future Arab economies, a source of human capital and innovation that can
provide a competitive edge.
In our own country, the President has recognized that while our economy is
strong and creating jobs we too face challenges; that are math and science
scores, for example, are falling behind those of other nations in the world. To
close this growing gap he has championed an initiative to encourage and foster
American competitiveness globally and it's centered on education, which brings
me to my second point, the importance of open minds as we lay a foundation for
a more hopeful 2020. To build a world where misunderstanding, suspicion and
mistrust become a thing of the past, we need open minds open to truth,
unhindered by lies, unrestrained by ignorance and fear. To achieve this, all
people must have access to education: boys and girls. Education allows children
to see beyond a world of hate and hopelessness to one of possibilities.
Education unleashes the creative contributions of every citizen to improve
their own lives and build the common good.
Here in America, we need to do a better job of educating our young people about
the world, learning more about other countries and cultures, learning languages
such as Arabic so we can better communicate with and understand each other.
With education also comes the ability to decide for yourself and that's what we
want. Because I believe most people with educated open minds will choose
liberty over tyranny, tolerance over extremism, and hope over hate. Open minds
also inspire people to stand for their rights: the right to live in freedom, to
participate in choosing their governments, to live in just societies that are
governed by the rule of law and whose officials are not corrupt. Open minds are
what will ultimately allow us to prevail in the war of ideas.
Our opponents want closed minds. They say their way or no way. Death to anyone
who disagrees with them, no matter what faith or what religion. Together we
must confront the violent extremists and their ideology of tyranny and hate.
They seek to portray the West as in conflict with Islam, because that's the
window into which they recruit. They can only flourish in environments that
foster anger and misunderstanding. Yet their world view is wrong. Islam is a
part of America. As an American government official, I represent almost seven
million American Muslims who live and work and practice their faith freely here
in our country. Together we must undermine the extremists by providing
platforms for debate, by empowering mainstream voices of tolerance and
inclusion, and by demonstrating our respect for Muslim cultures and
contributions to our society and to world society. We can also undermine the
extremists by building a world of greater opportunities.
As the Arab Human Development Report noted in 2002, working to create
opportunities is rooted in the recognition that "From the Atlantic to the Gulf,
people -- women, men and children -- are the real wealth and hope of Arab
countries." This is a powerful declaration with which I wholeheartedly agree --
people are the hope of the future and the hope will only be fully realized when
the potential of all people is fully developed: men and women, boys and girls
alike. All people want to contribute to the success of their families and their
communities and participate in the success of their country. All people, men
and women, must have an open opportunity to do so. This is central to our
vision of a much more positive world in 2020.
We have a lot of work to do to ensure that women have the chance to become
fuller participants in society. Farahnaz Nazir, the founder of the Afghanistan
Women's Association, has a wonderful saying that I heard during some of my
visits to Afghanistan. She said, "Society is like a bird. It has two wings. And
a bird cannot fly if one of those wings is broken." The Arab Human Development
Report suggests that the job availability and education are among the two most
common concerns among Arab youth. And the concern was even greater among young
women, who saw not only their age but also their gender has a hindrance to
success. As we lay the foundations for the world of our children, we must lead
by examples so that the world of 2020 capitalizes on the full potential of our
greatest asset -- all of our people.
This work of openness, opening economies, opening minds and opening
opportunities, this work requires open dialogue. In this age of instant
information with internet, cable news, satellite television it would be
difficult to imagine any one stifling debate. Yet much of what passes for
debate is sometimes just loud voices talking pass each other. So I think it's
very important that we work in forums such as this one to foster genuine
dialogue and encourage it our homes and in our communities and in our
countries.
At the State Department we are moving aggressively to put in place a foundation
for what I call "waging peace"; that encourages dialogue and builds
understanding. We're increasing funding for programs that we know are
effective, like our exchange programs. Exchange programs are the best kind of
public diplomacy, because when you bring people together, the people become
their own diplomats and find common ground together. Even though there are many
competing demands for budget -- for money in our federal budget, from disaster
relief to the war on terror, we increased funding for exchange programs this
year by $70 million. And President Bush has proposed an additional $48 million
for the year 2007. We're also reaching out through new exchange programs to
those who have wide circles of influence: clerics, journalists, women leaders,
teachers, bringing them to the United States so they can get to know us and so
we can learn from them.
Not only that, we've shifted resources to add English language instruction for
9,000 high school students in 39 countries with significant Muslim populations.
I met some of the young people participating in our English language programs
in Morocco and they told me it's changed their lives. I asked a young man,
"Tell me what difference it's made that you've learned English." And he looked
back and he said, "I have a job and my friends don't." That's the kind of
educational diplomacy that will prepare young people for the world of 2020.
We're also improving the way our Foreign Service members communicate in the
countries where they serve. Rather than wait for the go-ahead from the home
office in every case, we're encouraging our ambassadors abroad to be more
available to the local media. We're positioning spokesmen in key regional media
centers like Dubai. We've dramatically increased our presence on Arab media.
State Department personnel -- I had them count and keep track -- they made
almost 300 -- we made almost 300 appearances, I have to say we because I did
some of them, too -- almost 300 appearances on Arab and regional media from
January to April 2006, a good many of those in Arabic.
We're also reaching out to women in new ways. We started the State Department
Fortune Women's Mentorship Partnership, which brings women business leaders
from around the world to the United States to be mentored by women business
leaders here, such as Ann Moore, the CEO of Time, and Anne Mulcahy, the
Chairman and CEO of Xerox. Microsoft and the International Institute for
Education are training a thousand women in the United Emirates in information
technology. And this month, we announced a new U.S.-Middle East partnership for
breast cancer awareness and research, bringing the top medical institutions in
the United States together with the UAE in Saudi Arabia. And we're continuing
conversations to expand this partnership to include Jordan and Morocco. This
will be the first major regional women's health campaign in the Middle East and
America is proud to be a partner in it.
We're also recruiting private sector leaders to work with government to serve
as goodwill ambassadors, individuals from a host of major corporations such as
Pfizer, Citicorp, Xerox, GE, UPS, PepsiCo, John Deere, American Electric Power
and Asset Management worked with us to raise more than $100 million to help the
victims of Pakistan's earthquake and the victims of severe flooding in Central
America. Many of the CEOs personally traveled with me to tour these disaster
sites. They've responded generously with the best of the heart of America and
they tell their employees are very proud and appreciate the opportunity to work
in partnership to help bring about a better world. I invite all the corporate
leaders here today to join us in this effort. You can help those in need and
your own country at the same time.
Secretary Rice calls the challenge before us "transformational diplomacy." As
she describes it, transformational diplomacy is rooted in partnership not
paternalism; in doing things with other people not for them. This is the work
of years and decades, but it is urgent work that also cannot be deferred. The
hour is pressing, but the challenge before us will seem less vast if we face it
together. I challenge all of us, in America and throughout the Arab world, to
choose the path of openness: open economies, open minds, open opportunities and
open dialogue to take the first steps toward bringing about that world of
endless possibilities that this conference envisions.
Thank you all so much for having me and I wish you a great conference. Thank
you very much. (Applause.)
Released on June 29, 2006
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