Contending that “killing one terrorist does no good if another rises in his place,” a member of the influential 9-11 commission laid out a blueprint for a counter-terrorism strategy when he gave the first of two lectures at Notre Dame.

Lee Hamilton’s March 22 and 23 talks comprised the eleventh annual Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Lectures in Ethics and Public Policy, sponsored by the Kroc Institute. Father Hesburgh, founder of the Kroc Institute, attended both lectures.

America must support political reform, economic development and better schooling around the world if it is to prevent young people from following terrorist leaders such as Osama bin Laden, Hamilton said. He recommended a comprehensive strategy that includes diplomacy, law enforcement, covert actions, foreign aid, economic polices, border security and more. Every American diplomat must place terrorism on every meeting agenda, he said, so countries can discuss cooperative ways to combat the evil.

“Integration is the key,” said the former Indiana congressman. “That is why we recommended an international counter-terrorism center. … Every action we take must buttress the others.”

In his March 23 address, Hamilton discussed how American foreign policy should respond to global crises and realities. He recommended integration of all of the tools of American power: diplomatic, economic, military, political and moral. “American foreign policy is most effective when its interests and its values come together.”

The United States cannot impose its democratic model on other countries, he added, but “we have a role of persuasion that is important.”

Hamilton served as vice-chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, which investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A longtime Indiana congressman, he is president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Top of Page

Home > Publications > Peace Colloquy > Issue 8, Summer 2005 > Hesburgh Lectures: Lee Hamilton on terrorism and foreign policy