American Foreign Policy and Human Dignity, with Condoleezza Rice

“‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ …  That is the core of our Christian belief.”

“I hope that people who are both patriotic and Christian are not being painted with a broad brush.”

(Condoleezza Rice, from this episode)

In this episode, Condoleezza Rice joins Mark Labberton to discuss the state of US foreign and domestic policy in light of Christian moral convictions. Secretary Rice served as the 66th US Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, has been on the faculty of Stanford University since 1981, and is currently the director of the Hoover Institution.

Together they discuss:

The state of US foreign policy and international relations

How to think about American involvement in global politics

The importance of US foreign assistance

American patriotism and Christian devotion

And Condoleezza Rice’s prayers for American leaders right now: discernment, judgment, compassion, and policy that reflects the dignity of all human beings.

About Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy. She is the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition, she is a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel, LLC, an international strategic consulting firm.

From January 2005 to January 2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first black woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2001 to January 2005, the first woman to hold the position.

Rice served as Stanford University’s provost from 1993 to 1999, during which time she was the institution’s chief budget and academic officer. As professor of political science, she has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the university’s highest teaching honors.

From February 1989 through March 1991, Rice served on President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council staff. She served as director, then senior director, of Soviet and East European Affairs, as well as Special Assistant to the President for National Security. In 1986, while an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Rice also served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

For more information, visit her profile at the Hoover Institution.

Show Notes

• The state of US international relations
• “ The beginning of any administration is a bit chaotic”
• “I continue to hope that we will find a way to help Ukraine so that Vladimir Putin doesn't benefit from the aggression that he committed.”
• “The United States will undoubtedly play a different role. … That is the outcome of what's been eighty years of post World War II American engagement. … And so we need to ask, what are our values? What are our interests? And I think we're going to, we're going to see a good, solid American role in foreign policy.”
• Is the world order in the process of receiving a shock treatment?
• “ We really do need to rebuild our defense industrial base.”
• USAID: “ I'm a great believer that foreign assistance is one of the important tools in our toolkit of foreign policy.”
• “ I actually am one who believes that the absorption of USAID into the State Department is the right answer.”
• On US foreign assistance
• “A lot of what we do is purely humanitarian, purely life saving. We should. Just do that. Some of what we do is also strategic. What countries do we help to develop to be less fragile so that they don't become hubs for terrorism? …  And sometimes our assistance is to stabilize places in the world so that we don't face a security problem down the road.”
• Developing infrastructure
• “Am I patriotic? Do I love my country? Am I a nationalist? Absolutely. Am I Christian? Yes. And so I hope that people who are both patriotic and Christian are not being painted with a broad crust.”
• “But if we think about what it means to be Christian, it means to care about every human being, because every human being is created in the image of the Lord, and therefore every human being has worth.”
• “One of the closing comments from President Bush was, ‘To whom much is given, much is expected. …  that is the core of our Christian belief.”
• What is  the state of the Christian influence in American politics and life?
• Emulating the early church in establishing orphanages and hospitals, “and  to be a voice on behalf of those who are dispossessed.”
• Religious Freedom
• “When I was secretary of state, not because I was Christian, but because I was secretary of state, I would take a list of religious objectors with me to countries like China.”
• “The evangelical church has been very involved in human trafficking issues. We actually do have a problem of modern slavery.”
• “The church has a lot of potential to be a really good force in the world.”
• Condoleeza Rice’s most passionate prayers for the nation and the world right now
• “My most passionate prayer is that our leaders would have—and I actually pray this prayer— that they would have judgment and discernment, that they would have compassion, that they would lead from a position of knowing how much America has, and that they would understand that our role in the world derives from our universal belief in human freedom and that it is the only way that human beings have the dignity that they should have as having been created by God.”
• “I think one of the reasons we've had a bit of a backlash against some foreign assistance is that people wonder, ‘Well, are you thinking about Americans in the same way?’”

Production Credits

Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary.