Admiral Talks of Walls and Bridges

Retired Admiral James Stavridis was in his office in the Pentagon and watched as a plane, driven by a terrorist, approached and then crashed into the building, killing 125 people.

It was after that experience on Sept. 11, 2001 that he realized he needed to re-adjust how he thought about dealing with issues of global security, Stavridis said at the Calvin College January Series 2015 on Thursday.

Before then, he thought they were protected by the massive walls of the Pentagon, supposedly one of the safest structures on earth. For that matter, he thought strong walls tended to protect against many threats.

“But evidently not,” said Stavridis, who serves as the dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

“I realized that we cannot create security by building walls. We must do it by building bridges.”

A former Admiral in the U.S. Navy, Stavridis led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009–2013 as Supreme Allied Commander. He also served as Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, with responsibility for all military operations in Latin America from 2006-2009.

He divided his talk into two sections, describing first the challenges facing the world, and then touching on the opportunities.

Among the major challenges, he said, is the terrorist group ISIS.

“They are ambitious and have a concrete set of ideas,” said Stavridis. “They are one of the best-funded terrorist groups ever. They are also superb at advertising and branding. They release high-quality, well-executed videos.”

Also a major threat is North Korea, a rogue state whose leader Kim Jong-un is entirely unpredictable, he said.

Fighting in Ukraine, Syria, and Nigeria and rising tensions in the South China Sea are cause for concern as well.

Stavridis also said the global drug trade, threats posed by such diseases as Ebola, and attacks on cyber security are problems.

“What do we do about all of this?” he asked, changing gears and starting to talk about the opportunities.

One thing is to maintain  a strong and adaptable military, he said.

“But we also need to pay attention and listen more,” said Stavridis. “We need to understand each other, to put ourselves in other people’s shoes in order to build bridges. We need to build intellectual capital. Take time to read, reflect and think.”

Taking time to learn another language, for instance, can be “a way to know other lives as part of how we create security,” he said.

He mentioned how the U.S. has been teaching soldiers in Afghanistan to read. After passing the class, a soldier receives a pen as a sign of becoming literate. “Being able to read is a huge point of pride in the nation,” he said.

Engaging and building cooperation with other nations is key. “We can’t let ourselves get into gridlock and have a sense of isolation,” Stavridis said.

“It would be a very dangerous approach if we should retreat behind our oceans.”

Another way to build cooperation, he said, is to find ways to use social media tools to promote peace and understanding and to share the messages that matter the most.

“There is great opportunity here with social media,” said Stavridis. “If Facebook were a nation, it would be the largest nation in the world.”