Nobel laureate lectures Yalies

"The United States government is one of the stingiest governments on this planet," Nobel laureate and former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, said before a large audience gathered in the Yale University Art Gallery lecture hall on the evening of Thurs., Jan. 18. The title of the talk was "Values and their place in International Leadership," but the subtext of Arias' remarks was less international in scope, as he focused particularly on the U.S.'s handling of foriegn policy and the qualities of a leader.

COURTESY MICROSOFT ENCARTA Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica.

"Personally, I don't like the U.S. telling everyone else what to do," Arias said. As president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, Arias was relying on his first-hand knowledge of how the U.S. government has tried to coerce its southern neighbors.

"It is humiliating to link any sort of aid with so many conditions," Arias said. "When I was president of Costa Rica, the U.S. threatened to withdraw foreign aid if we didn't act a certain way."

Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for brokering a peace agreement among Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, appeared especially concerned that the U.S. has put "profit before principle" in its arms trade with developing nations.

"This is not what the world expects from you," Arias said. "You must be, among other things, a moral superpower."

Arias pointed out that the U.S. National Missile Defense's realist views—of a hawkish and belligerently aggressive approach to international relations—were antiquated and anathema to world peace. Arias argued for what he termed a "Human Security Agenda" instead of a national security agenda. He promoted a more liberal foreign policy guided by his golden rule and optimistic vision of a harmonious global community. "Today, the enemies that we must fight are poverty, inequality, hunger and disease," he said.

He also warned that the U.S. should be wary of letting hegemony feed a sense of excessive pride. "There is a sentiment that you are becoming too arrogant, the way you always act unilaterally," he said, addressing the American audience directly.

Arias devoted the majority of his speech to discussing the mores of leadership more generally. "When we speak of good leadership, we speak of someone who has merit as an individual and gets the job done," Arias remarked.

With particular emphasis on the values of responsibility, integrity, and solidarity, Arias stressed that the audience "embrace the connection between ourselves and others." He mentioned direct foreign investment, free trade, technology transfers, and expansion of inter-governmental organization as a few of the approaches wealthy nations might pursue in assisting the Third World stabilize and improve its economies. We belong to one human family," Arias reminded the audience.

Arias concluded with a quote from Albert Einstein: "Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives."

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