Rice: with Karabakh conflict unsettled, conflicting sides going to end up falling behind region
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made remarks at the Peace Corps 2008 Worldwide Country Director Conference.
Touching upon developments in the Caucasus, Dr. Rice said, in part, "The Caucasus, particularly the - not so much Georgia, but Azerbaijan, to a certain extent Armenia, there is important work to be done there to bring that part of the Caucasus closer to standards that we thought they were once meeting. And it has been a disappointment," she said.
"Now, one of the problems has been that because of the situation in Nagorno Karabakh, all kinds of bad policies are tolerated, let me put it that way, or excused by political leaders. And I often say to them that if they don't solve Nagorno Karabakh, they're going to end up falling further and further behind the region because the region is moving on.
"Another time that it felt a bit that way was in 2005, with the Orange Revolution and the Rose Revolution and the Cedar Revolution, and it felt again like the tide was inexorable. And then I know that there's been a sense that perhaps that tide has receded some over the last several years, but I think of it a little bit differently, which is it's more like a stepwise function. Things move up and then they level off for a while.
"And the question is: Can you prevent them from sliding back? Because there will be another step up. When people's expectations are raised that they're going to have a voice, when people's expectations are raised that they're going to have real choices, democratic choices, for leadership, when people get accustomed to circumstances in which their personal freedoms are not abridged, if you can find the support in civil society, if you can find the support in nongovernmental organizations, if the United States stays with that program, I believe you'll see another step up. So that it's not an inexorable trend, but it is one that keeps moving carefully upward. And I think that's how we have to think about what's happened in the territory - much of the territory of the former Soviet Union.
"Even Russia itself - you know, I was in Moscow as a graduate student in 1979. Russia is not the Soviet Union. Let me be very certain for you. I was in the Soviet Union. I knew the Soviet Union. Russia is not the Soviet Union. And Russians have certain expectations about personal freedoms. They have certain expectations about economic freedoms. I think it's going to make a difference in the long run, maybe even the medium term, to what kinds of politics is actually tolerated in Russia.
"So we have to keep building the foundation. We have to keep, through programs like the Peace Corps, helping people's horizons to change and their expectations to change, and what they will and will not accept to change. We're never going to be able - the United States on the outside - to impose democracy. The good news is, I always remind people, you actually don't have to impose democracy; you have to impose tyranny. And so if you get people thinking in a different way about what their expectations, rights, ought to be, I think you will see that over time this great wave of democracy will continue, even in places where right now it may seem somewhat remote."
Touching upon developments in the Caucasus, Dr. Rice said, in part, "The Caucasus, particularly the - not so much Georgia, but Azerbaijan, to a certain extent Armenia, there is important work to be done there to bring that part of the Caucasus closer to standards that we thought they were once meeting. And it has been a disappointment," she said.
"Now, one of the problems has been that because of the situation in Nagorno Karabakh, all kinds of bad policies are tolerated, let me put it that way, or excused by political leaders. And I often say to them that if they don't solve Nagorno Karabakh, they're going to end up falling further and further behind the region because the region is moving on.
"Another time that it felt a bit that way was in 2005, with the Orange Revolution and the Rose Revolution and the Cedar Revolution, and it felt again like the tide was inexorable. And then I know that there's been a sense that perhaps that tide has receded some over the last several years, but I think of it a little bit differently, which is it's more like a stepwise function. Things move up and then they level off for a while.
"And the question is: Can you prevent them from sliding back? Because there will be another step up. When people's expectations are raised that they're going to have a voice, when people's expectations are raised that they're going to have real choices, democratic choices, for leadership, when people get accustomed to circumstances in which their personal freedoms are not abridged, if you can find the support in civil society, if you can find the support in nongovernmental organizations, if the United States stays with that program, I believe you'll see another step up. So that it's not an inexorable trend, but it is one that keeps moving carefully upward. And I think that's how we have to think about what's happened in the territory - much of the territory of the former Soviet Union.
"Even Russia itself - you know, I was in Moscow as a graduate student in 1979. Russia is not the Soviet Union. Let me be very certain for you. I was in the Soviet Union. I knew the Soviet Union. Russia is not the Soviet Union. And Russians have certain expectations about personal freedoms. They have certain expectations about economic freedoms. I think it's going to make a difference in the long run, maybe even the medium term, to what kinds of politics is actually tolerated in Russia.
"So we have to keep building the foundation. We have to keep, through programs like the Peace Corps, helping people's horizons to change and their expectations to change, and what they will and will not accept to change. We're never going to be able - the United States on the outside - to impose democracy. The good news is, I always remind people, you actually don't have to impose democracy; you have to impose tyranny. And so if you get people thinking in a different way about what their expectations, rights, ought to be, I think you will see that over time this great wave of democracy will continue, even in places where right now it may seem somewhat remote."
