SECURITY SYSTEMS AND COMPETITION: GLOBAL POLITICS

Authors

  • Daniel Fried Atlantic Council, USA

Abstract

Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity, and hello toVan Krikorian, I don’t see you but I assume you’re there.It is a pleasure to see you all. I was asked to speak about Americanforeign policy in general, but specifically about Russia and then Armenia.That is a more difficult task because the foreign policy of President Trumprequires explanation, especially to audiences that find it new or difficult tounderstand. Candidate Trump and then President Trump ran the foreignpolicy part of his campaign under the slogan “America First.” That sloganis both innocuous on one level. All put their country first on some level.The President of Armenia puts Armenia first, as well he should, andAmerican presidents put America first, as well they should.The question is how do we define our respective national interests?America First is a loaded phrase, of course, because it was used byAmerica’s isolationists in the late 1930s as they argued against Americaninvolvement in Europe. Under the influence of the isolationists, who usedthe slogan “America First,” my country was absent from Europe during the1930s, a period in which Hitler and Stalin created grave and lasting damageto us all. So “America First” it is a loaded phrase.

Author Biography

Daniel Fried, Atlantic Council, USA

Having retired from the Foreign Service in April 2017, Ambassador Fried iscurrently a Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council.In his forty-year Foreign Service career, Ambassador Fried played a key role indesigning and implementing American policy in Europe after the fall of the SovietUnion. As Special Assistant and NSC Senior Director for Presidents Clinton andBush, Ambassador to Poland, and Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (2005-09),Ambassador Fried crafted the policy of NATO enlargement to Central Europeannations and, in parallel, NATO-Russia relations, thus advancing the goal of Europewhole, free, and at peace.In 1977, Ambassador Fried joined the U.S. Foreign Service, serving overseas inLeningrad (Human Rights, Baltic affairs, and Consular Officer), and Belgrade(Political Officer); and in the Office of Soviet Affairs in the State Department.As Polish Desk Officer in the late 1980s, Ambassador Fried was one of the first inWashington to recognize the impending collapse of Communism in Poland, andhelped develop the immediate response of the George H.W. Bush Administration tothese developments. As Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw (1990-93), Fried witnessed Poland’s difficult but ultimately successful free market,democratic transformation, working with successive Polish governments.Ambassador Fried also served as the State Department’s first Special Envoy for theClosure of the Guantanamo (GTMO) Detainee Facility. He established proceduresfor the transfer of individual detainees and negotiated the transfers of 70 detainees to20 countries, with improved security outcomes.Ambassador Fried majored in Soviet Studies and History at Cornell University (BAmagna cum laude 1975) and received an M.A. from Columbia’s Russian Instituteand School of International Affairs in 1977.  

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Published

2017-09-29

How to Cite

Fried, D. . (2017). SECURITY SYSTEMS AND COMPETITION: GLOBAL POLITICS. Analytical Bulletin of Armenian and Regional Studies, 2(11), 273–277. Retrieved from https://analytical-bulletin.cccs.am/index.php/ab/article/view/96

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 11 (2017): Analytical Bulletin

Section

Conference papers