Lucye Rafferty/The Hoya Former Seantor Gary Hart (D-Colo.) addresses a crowd in New North last night about the importance of improving national security.

Former U.S. Senator and 1984 presidential candidate Gary Hart (D-Colo.) spoke to a crowd of about 100 people in New North 204 last night, addressing the need to restore American values to the republic in order to ensure the future security of the country.

“Security must include security of our livelihood and our economic basis family and community,” Hart said, in reference to the security of the nation in the 21st century.

Hart also spoke about the importance of security in the age of terrorism. He said that American security also needed to include “the natural environment, energy and security for oil that we don’t have to go to war for, and for future generations,” in addition to national defense.

Hart also said that Americans are living in a revolutionary period that is quite different from the predictable era of the Cold War. He characterized this era as having four major components of revolution – globalization of commerce, the information revolution, the eroding of nations’ sovereignty and the changing nature of conflict.

Explaining his first point, the senator said that because of growing global commerce, nations are losing the ability to manage their national economy. “The United States has the biggest economy and is in a recession. Greenspan cut interest rates, and nothing has happened,” he said.

He said that we can no longer use traditional levers of stimulating the economy because we no longer autonomously control it and that our economy played a large role in the international community and vice versa.

Hart continued to explain his central thesis, stating that the information revolution was affecting everyone. “There probably isn’t one of us in here who does not have a computer or a cell phone or a palm pilot. These are the icons of the information revolution,” he said. “For nations on the upside of the digital divide or who have things such as raw materials to trade [for them] are benefiting. But the divide is widening between the haves and the have-nots. Yet our foreign policy has not taken account these two revolutions.”

Hart spoke about the erosion of the sovereignty of nations as a result of the globalization of commerce. Hart said that the nature of conflict has changed, mentioning that years ago war was on the field and peace was negotiated afterwards. He said that civilians were not attacked and prisoners were treated humanely, a change from 21st century society because there is “heavy reliance on joint forces, dispersed conflict” and that citizens can be attacked, such as was the case on Sept. 11.

Hart then commented on the notion of the republic, highlighting four main qualities of a republic – civic virtue, popular sovereignty, the need to resist corruption and common ground of national interests.

Hart defined civic virtue as “citizens’ duty and participation” in the government; this, he said, was citizens’ obligation and responsibility. He gave examples of how citizens participate by voting and doing public service.

Explaining his second aspect of the republic, popular sovereignty, Hart said that when republics were first created, “the republic replaced the rule of one with the rule of many; the people were sovereign, not the king.”

“Corruption to the ancients was placing special interests above interests of all,” Hart said, speaking about the need to resist corruption.

The last quality, a sense of common ground of national interests, he said, would keep citizens in control of common interests such as resources, the airwaves and land. “These belong to citizens, not corporations,” Hart said.

Ultimately, “the best way to achieve these qualities of the republic is to restore the values of the republic,” Hart said.

Senator Hart recently co-chaired the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century. The commission made recommendation about national security policy as well as gave pre-Sept. 11 warnings about possible acts of terrorism. Hart also spoke at Georgetown last September about his book, Restoration of the Republic. The College Democrats sponsored the speech.