U.S.-Saudi Arabia - Zbigniew Brzezinski - Conference

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ITEM OF INTEREST
May 8, 2009

U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium
Conference Transcripts -- Session 1
Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski

Editor's Note:

Last week a major forum addressing the state of and prospects for the relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was convened in Washington by the New America Foundation (NAF) and the Committee for International Trade (CIT) of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Distinguished speakers spent the day providing perspectives and insights on what the relationship should look like, how economics was shaping the national security picture vis a vis the relationship, the challenges for America in the region and how the perspective on these challenges look from the Saudi Arabian point of view.

Today we are pleased to provide the transcripts from the first session, "A Forward Projection of What the Saudi-U.S. Relationship Should Look Like and Needs to Achieve." Among the featured speakers was Doctor Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and Trustee, Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Separate emails will provide each panelist's remarks and the question and answer period transcript. Transcripts for the remaining panels and luncheon remarks will be provided over the next few days. You can find all of the conference materials and related links at a new SUSRIS Special Section. [ "U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium" - Conference Special Section ]

Video MP3

U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium
Conference Transcripts -- Session 1
The Honorable Zbigniew Brzezinski

[Dr. Brzezinski] I have a very simple message. It seems to me that there is an urgent need for an American-Saudi Arabian genuine alliance for peace in the Middle East. We haven't had that.

We have, at times, worked together. We have, certainly, many shared interests. We have historical bonds of friendship. But we have also had disagreements. Some of our activities have been out of joint or out of time, and lately the United States has not engaged itself seriously in the promotion of peace in the Middle East. And I think it's fair to say that while the 2002 Saudi initiative was most historically important, it could have come sooner. But that's the past.

I think we need to work together and we have to draw some fundamental lessons from the experience of the previous century. In the previous century - the twentieth century - Europe twice committed suicide. And it took a lot of effort, including American effort, to help bring Europe to its feet. It committed suicide because it couldn't handle nationalist, ethnic, territorial, and yes, even also religious conflicts, on its own. It succumbed to the easy temptation of trying to resolve conflicts by force. But force tends to produce unpredictable consequences. It tends to escalate. It tends to get out of hand.

And this is why it is so urgent to recognize in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; or the problem with Iran; or the issues involving Afghanistan and Pakistan; or the growing tensions within various countries in the Middle East -- political, social, and religious; external threats. As for example, Saudi Arabia recently expressed concerns about threats emanating from South Yemen. Religious differences, not only between Jews and Christians, or Jews and Muslims, or Muslims and Christians, but also among Muslims, the Sunni and the Shiite -- that none of these issues in the present context in the Middle East can be constructively resolved by conflict.

But if there is not to be conflict, peace has to be institutionalized. It has to be reinforced, and it has to be built with deliberate effort. And as Professor Hagel said, "With a real sense of urgency." Because in fact a number of problems in the Middle East -- Middle East proper and Middle East at large -- are getting out of hand.

The opportunities for a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict are beginning to fade away. If we don't move soon, there will be no peace. But if there is no peace, what will there be?

There will be a resumption of conflict and we had a little preview of it last December in Gaza, and we know what the consequences are. That will require a major American commitment stemming from the very practical realization that the two parties in the conflict cannot resolve it on their own. We know that.

If 30 years of experience is not evidence of that, then I don't know what evidence is. The United States has to be actively engaged as a peace maker, and that means that the United States has to be willing to spell out at least the minimum parameters of peace so that the parties are then propelled toward serious negotiations.

We need to do that. Saudi Arabia needs to help. We can do it from the outside. Saudi Arabia is in the region. Saudi Arabia can influence the Arabians, the Arab countries, and the Arab political movements. Saudi Arabia can mitigate some of the tendencies towards extremism within the population, and particularly within some of its more fundamentalist religious manifestations.

We need this initiative to be comprehensive, large scale, and mutually reinforcing. And if we don't do it together, we and the Arabs around Israel and Palestine, it is not going to happen. And if it doesn't happen, it will become worse.

War is not a solution for the problem posed in the region by Iran. If there is a conflict with Iran either provoked by someone or initiated by us the consequences for the region will be devastating. They will be devastating for us as well. Let's have no illusion about that. There is no solution to the problem of Iran -- in a narrow sense, the nuclear program; in a larger sense, the role of Iran in the region -- that can be achieved by war. Let's not be tempted by it. Let's not have anyone urge us privately to do it, even if not publicly. And let us not have anyone else provoke it.

I think we are conscious about this imperative. We can avoid a conflict which will be self destructive for the region, not to mention the fact that it will probably undermine America's role in the world. And whether one likes it or not, a constructive American role in the world is the only alternative to global chaos from which everyone suffers.

So the stakes are enormous. I could go on and on and talk about Afghanistan, Pakistan, but Senator Hagel has mentioned that and very aptly.

My central message is very simple. If we want to deal with these problems, we have to work in concert. We have to take certain initiatives that we have long delayed in taking. And Saudi Arabia has to provide affirmative, assertive, outspoken leadership and not wait for others to act, but to be a partner.

We need in brief: an American, Saudi Arabian, genuine alliance for peace in the Middle East.

Thank you.

[Visit the SUSRIS Special Section "U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium" for the transcripts from this and other panels and additional resources.]

Session One Video

Courtesy New America Foundation

Video MP3

Speaker Biography:

The Honorable Zbigniew Brzezinski
Trustee & Counselor, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Chair, RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy
Former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter
Co-Author, America and the World: Conversations on the Future of US Foreign Policy

Zbigniew Brzezinski is a CSIS counselor and trustee and co chairs the CSIS Advisory Board. He is also the Robert E. Osgood Professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, in Washington, D.C. He is co chair of the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus and is a former chairman of the American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee. He was a member of the Policy Planning Council of the Department of State from 1966 to 1968; chairman of the Humphrey Foreign Policy Task Force in the 1968 presidential campaign; director of the Trilateral Commission from 1973 to 1976; and principal foreign policy adviser to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential campaign. From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Brzezinski was national security adviser to President Carter. In 1981 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in the normalization of U.S.-China relations and for his contributions to the human rights and national security policies of the United States. Dr. Brzezinski received a B.A. and M.A. from McGill University (1949-1989) and Harvard University (1953-1960). His most recent book is "America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy" (2008).

AGENDA

Panel I: A Forward Projection of What the Saudi-U.S. Relationship Should Look Like and Needs to Achieve

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