SAN FRANCISCO -- With surprises abroad and critics at home bedeviling his foreign policy, President Clinton on Friday defended his efforts to cooperate with Mexico in fighting drugs, to engage with China to promote political freedom and to threaten force to bring peace to Kosovo.
Clinton attempted to step back on a day of scattershot developments and locate coherent themes. His critics have long complained his foreign policy reacts to world events more than it anticipates them and abides the abuses of nations more than it prevents or punishes them.Twice in his broad-gauged, 50-minute speech here, the president spoke of the "inexorable logic of globalization." He warned that while increased trade and economic growth might knit nations closer together, without active American leadership they would not guarantee peace, wealth or environmental protection.
"The promise of our future lies in the world," Clinton said. "Therefore, we must work hard with the world -- to defeat the dangers we face together and to build this hopeful moment together, in a generation of peace, prosperity and freedom."
Clinton went on to list a series of regions and issues where he planned to use the country's troops, trade, aid and cooperation to advance his goals.
On Kosovo, the Clinton administration has faced criticism for setting a deadline for peace talks between Serbs and Albanian rebels and then letting it slip. In his speech, Clinton warned Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslavia's president, to exert "restraint, not repression" during the pause in the troubled peace negotiations with the Albanian rebels in the once-autonomous region of Kosovo.