Albright Sketches U.S. Vision of More Unified World

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, with the academic pomp of a Harvard graduation as her backdrop, offered a vision Thursday of a post-Cold War global order open to every nation that embraces democracy and free markets.

“No nation in the world need be left out of the system we are constructing,” Albright said, speaking from the same stage on the steps of the Memorial Church that George C. Marshall used as secretary of State to launch the reconstruction of Europe 50 years ago to the day.

In essence, Albright described a new world order of nations made in the image of the United States. Her audience of graduates and alumni, including a contingent from the class of 1947 that heard Marshall’s address, applauded the unabashedly patriotic tone.

“Since George Marshall’s time, the United States has played the leading role within the international system, not as the sole arbiter of right and wrong, for that is a responsibility widely shared, but as pathfinder--the nation able to show the way when others cannot,” Albright said.

In that context, she renewed her demand to have Balkan war criminals brought to justice. Although there is nothing new in a secretary of State endorsing the work of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the prominence Albright gave the issue could set the stage for a showdown between the secretary of State and the Pentagon, which is reluctant to commit U.S. troops to track down those indicted for war crimes.

“We can accept atrocities as inevitable, or we can strive for a higher standard,” she said, urging the nation to “heed the most searing lesson of this century, which is that evil--when unopposed--will spawn more evil.” She received enthusiastic applause.

Albright supplied few details of how the United States would carry out its role in the coming century. But her vision clearly is of restored U.S. global leadership.

“We must take advantage of the historic opportunity that now exists to bring the world together in an international system based on democracy, open markets, law and a commitment to peace,” she said.

Although she acknowledged that “not every nation is yet willing to play its full part in this system,” she noted that the world today has no despot like Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who at the time of the Marshall Plan prevented the countries of Eastern Europe from participating in the U.S.-funded reconstruction effort.

“Today the opportunity to be part of an international system based on democratic principles is available to all,” she said.

Before her speech, Albright received an honorary doctorate of laws, a distinction that she shares with former secretaries of State such as Marshall, Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams. She was one of 11 people, including playwright Arthur Miller, honored this year.

Albright also mixed in some practical politics during her trip, meeting with Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld, President Clinton’s embattled choice to be ambassador to Mexico. A State Department official said Albright urged Weld to pay a call on Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an outspoken opponent of appointing the moderate Republican governor to the post.

Helms disagrees with Weld’s position in favor of using marijuana for medical purposes and does not consider him qualified for the post. The conservative senator has vowed to prevent the nomination from reaching the Senate floor for confirmation. But administration officials think that Albright, who has cultivated a relationship with Helms, can persuade him to soften his opposition.