  
In a series of four speeches, Senator Feingold
explores how the United States can conduct a post 9-11 national
security policy in our interconnected and interdependent world
that strengthens our long term security and advances the interests,
values, and aspirations of the American people. Feingold argues
that the United States should broaden its efforts to counter
the greatest immediate threat to our national security – al
Qaeda and affiliated extremists – by enhancing public and
private citizen diplomacy, strengthening information gathering,
redirecting a mistaken focus away from Iraq, investing in
civilian aspects of national security, building stronger domestic
security infrastructure, and working consistently to strengthen
the rule of law around the world. The result is a national
security vision that is rooted in historic American principles
and that uses all aspects of American power to advance our
country’s security.
Domestic Infrastructure Gaps Post
9/11
September 26, 2008
Congressional Record
Here at home, we continue to have
critical gaps in our domestic security, in our infrastructure,
in our first responder systems. We still have not deployed
an effective system to prevent the smuggling of radiological
materials through our ports. We have not done everything we
can to secure chemical facilities that could be the source
of materials for domestic car bombs like the ones we have
seen cause so much damage in Baghdad. We have not fully implemented
the command system needed to ensure that first responders
know how to work together across federal, state and local
government ...
Read More
Promoting Democracy, Development
and Diplomacy: U.S. Interests and Values
September 15, 2008
Georgetown University
I want to focus today on the importance of democracy and the
rule of law -- the rules, the procedures and the institutions
that underpin fairness, human dignity and opportunity, here
in our country and throughout the world. These principles
and processes -- and the institutions that safeguard them
-- reflect and protect our core national values, self-image
and aspirations. As such, they should underpin our diplomacy
and our development assistance as we support others in their
search for a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect
them ...
Read More
Confronting Foreign Intelligence
and Information Gaps
June 23, 2008
New American Foundation
Ultimately, the gaps that left us exposed here at home to
the catastrophic attack we experienced on 9/11 remain with
us. They present us with very real risks that are being left
unaddressed, in part, because of our military presence in
Iraq. The longer we remain in Iraq, the longer we will be
unable to devote the human and financial resources these challenges
urgently need ...
Read More and Watch the Video
Reaching Out to the World - Public
and Private Diplomacy for the 21st Century
March 24, 2008
University of Wisconsin, Madison
The extremists who threaten us rally their followers by drawing
an ugly caricature – if not an outright false portrait – of
America. Sadly, they are able to succeed, in part, because
not enough people abroad really know us personally – know
our interests, values and aspirations as Americans.As I have
often reflected on this in the years since 9/11, I have felt
an increasing urgency for us to reach out to the world to
make these interests, values and aspirations evident –with
a human face – because at their root, many of them are the
common interests and aspirations of humanity. Our nation must
be engaged in this common cause ...
Read More |
