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Tom Ridge Joins Mission of U.S. Center for Global Engagement
Foreign Policy Elites Urge Presidential Candidates to Offer New Visions of U.S. Global Leadership
July 25, 2007 - The Honorable Tom Ridge was one of four foreign policy experts who helped launch “Impact ‘08: Building a Better, Safer World,” a national initiative by the Center for U.S. Global Engagement.
The initiative seeks to elevate support for foreign assistance in the 2008 presidential campaign. Secretary Ridge, General Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) and Impact ’08 co-chairs Secretaries Madeleine Albright and Frank Carlucci called on “all of the 2008 Presidential candidates to elevate and strengthen our non-military tools of global engagement to build a better, safer, more prosperous America and world.”
The bipartisan group also released a statement with other top-level former Administration, Congressional, foreign policy and military leaders to urge the 2008 presidential candidates to define new visions for U.S. foreign policy and national security that will prioritize greater investments in international development and diplomacy. The statement included the signatures of the event’s four foreign policy experts but also notables, including former Secretary of State James Baker, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, former Secretary George P. Shultz and more.
“America’s security and prosperity are tied to the security and prosperity of every other nation in the world,” said Secretary Ridge. “How we engage the world in a promising but challenging 21st century should be among the highest priorities set by every candidate in the 2008 presidential campaign.”
Said Secretary Albright: “The next President will have to make important decisions about how to redefine America’s role in the world and how to restore America’s moral leadership and global respect. Impact ’08 wants to ensure that the next President is committed to greater investment in development and diplomacy to build a better, safer world. We hope the Presidential candidates and their advisers are listening.”
Said Secretary Carlucci: “We are only as safe as the world we live in. 9/11 and events since have demonstrated that we cannot rely on our military might alone to keep America safe. Increasingly, foreign assistance and diplomacy are essential levers to exercise American influence and create a win- win situation for us and for other countries.”
The Impact ’08 campaign seeks to draw the attention of the candidates and their advisers to the long track record of development assistance, global health and diplomatic efforts in bolstering our nation’s security and moral values. Over the past four decades, U.S. assistance has helped millions of people feed their families; nearly eradicated river blindness and polio; helped Bosnia, Mozambique and El Salvador rebound from civil war; and put hundreds of thousands of HIV/AIDS patients in Africa on life-saving anti-retroviral treatments.
Through Impact ’08, the Center for U.S. Global Engagement will be organizing foreign policy forums in a number of the early primary and key election states, engaging with candidates and their advisers through meetings, town halls and other events to encourage greater debate on, and support for, issues of global health, development, and diplomacy. On the Center’s new website www.usglobalengagement.org, Impact ’08 will be tracking the presidential candidates’ statements and positions on foreign policy and foreign assistance.
The Center for U.S. Global Engagement is the educational arm of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, unites business, foreign policy, humanitarian, faith-based, community and military leaders around the country to broaden public understanding of America’s interests in building a better, safer world.