Post Cold War Foreign Policy: Gorbachev Speaks At CFA

By Broadside Staff Writer Jared Trice

Former USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev delivered a keynote address on Tuesday night at the conference, “1989: Looking Back, Looking Forward,” to a sold-out audience gathered in George Mason University’s Center for the Arts.

Gorbachev’s speech focused on the historical implications of the end of the Cold War, and for the remainder of the address, he answered questions from the audience.

With the aide of an English interpreter, Gorbachev’s address conveyed a sense of failed policies toward the end of the Cold War. “The world was facing new, very positive possibilities in the face of global challenges. Today, I must note, that those opportunities were not seized; they were missed,” he said, explaining that there was a consensus held that this “new, more just world order could not be achieved alone.”

Gorbachev often referred to these failed policies and these failed collaborations as the “twenty lost years.”

In addressing these failed policies, Gorbachev often directed much of the blame toward the U.S.’s attempt to disseminate democracy and, referencing the U.S.’s lack of coordination with the United Nations, he rebuked the U.S.’s “monopolized power.”
Gorbachev returned to Mason on Wednesday to participate in a round table discussion alongside William Webster, Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, and Sergey Chumarev, counselor at the Embassy of the Russian Federation.

The round table, prompted by Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, T. Mills Kelly, addressed questions submitted by audience members.

The discussion allowed for the panel members to elaborate on many of the issues proposed in Gorbachev’s Tuesday evening address, ranging from the failure to reform, packaged democracy, caution towards China and nuclear proliferation.

In reference to Chinese suppression of protest at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Webster explained the significance of the new channels of communication. “I no longer see the necessity of people taking to the streets to make their points. They have cell phones, they have BlackBerry’s, they even have YouTube’s and Twitter’s.”

Although the general tone of the keynote and the round table conveyed a sentiment of missed opportunity, Gorbachev, as well as the members of the round table, expressed hope in the coming years. In Tuesday’s address, Gorbachev explained that America can be a leader, but it must also be a partner. After Gorbachev’s March 20 meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Gorbachev continually expressed hope and respect for the new administration.