Diplomacy is America’s first line of defense, according to Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), a panelist who discussed “The United States in a 21st Century World: The High Cost of Low Investment.” Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and the American Academy of Diplomacy sponsored the conference yesterday, which included two panels.

Organizers invited people specifically targeted as members of non-governmental organizations, academic think tanks, diplomats and religious organizations that deal with social issues.

The last of the four panels of the day, “Congress and the Executive: What will it take to get the job done?” was moderated by Lee Hamilton, the Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Giving the “View from the Senate” was Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who serves on four Senate committees, including the Foreign Relations Committee. He was followed by Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who has served eight consecutive terms as a U.S. congressman, and Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) who has served three consecutive terms.

The two discussed a range of topics concerning U.S. representatives interested in foreign policy. Biggert explained that since the terms in the House of Representatives last only two years, members must be constantly campaigning and that trips abroad have “to compete with the town hall meeting, the local plant tour and the fundraising event.”

According to her, trips and interests abroad do not help re-election campaigns unless that congressional district is highly involved in international trade or is involved in issues abroad. When there is an international focus for representatives, it is on fiscal matters or foreign trade, such as funding for American troops in Kosovo, etc., because these matters are what the Congressional votes are on, she said. As a result, members who don’t serve on committees relevant to international relations don’t pay much attention to foreign policy.

Biggert encouraged the organizations that sent delegates to attempt to raise the level of congressional interest in international affairs by trying to attract congressional freshmen.

“The newly elected class of 2000 just arrived in town last night,” she said. Of the 43 new congressmen, 12 have concrete foreign affairs experience – a positive sign, she said.

She encouraged those attending the conference to “get to know the new members,” explain to the representatives what their organization does and to give the new “freshmen” personal briefings. She also hinted that the “quickest way to their hearts and their minds is through their constituents.”

Biggert explained that when she first arrived in Washington, she took advantage of workshops and orientation sessions on international issues. She also talked about some of her experiences with international affairs while in Congress and about her trips abroad.

She said her trips abroad, including visiting refugees in Kosovo and Macedonia/Albania and traveling to Columbia and six other Latin American countries on an anti-drug mission, really brought home foreign affairs issues for her. Biggert also spoke about serving on the WHIP team for permanent normal trade relations with China.

She continually emphasized the importance of U.S. foreign policy, saying, “The U.S. used to be the leader of the free world, but now we’re the leader of the world.”

“I would like to see us focus on opening new markets,” Kolby said. He is afraid that this Congress is “likely to have more gridlock … a passive sense of not trying to accomplish too much,” he said. “[I fear] everybody is going to be trying to jockey for the 2002, 2004 elections.”

Kolby said the State Department needs to be more rapidly responsive to change.

“Hopefully the participants will really go to the Hill and make contact with the freshman class and start a dialogue on the importance of foreign policy,” Biggert said. “They really want the education on foreign policy.”

During the morning session the first panel discussion, titled “The Challenge to Americans: A New World Coming,” was moderated by Phyllis Oakley, an ISD Board Member. The speakers consisted of Stapleton Roy, an assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, Richard Solomon, president of the U.S. Institute for Peace, and Mark Malloch Brown, an administrator for the UN Development Program.

The second panel discussion was moderated by Dean Robert Gallucci of the School of Foreign Service, and was entitled “The National Security Environment: Diplomats on the Front Line.”

The panel speakers included refined four-star Marine Corps Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, former commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, Lt. Gen. James T. Scott, director of the national security program and adjunct professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Princeton Lyman, executive director of the Global Interdependence Initiative at The Aspen Hill Institute.

The first of the afternoon panels was entitled “Needs for the Future: Resources and Reform” and was chaired by Richard Gardner, a professor of law and international organization at Columbia University. Panel members were Frank Carlucci, chairman of the Carlyle Group, Lewis Kaden, a partner at the law firm of Davis, Polk and Wardwell, Yolanda Richardson, senior vice president of Africare, and Craig Johnstone, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The conference lasted from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the ICC Auditorium and began with an introduction by Casimir Yost, the Director of the ISD.

Mary Locke, who was in charge of organizing the conference, said, “I hope this is just a beginning and will stimulate thinking and activity.”