Secretary Antony J. Blinken 
国务卿布林肯关于为美国人民制定的对外政策发表讲话摘译
美国国务院
华盛顿哥伦比亚特区（Washington, D.C.）
2021年3月3日
“为美国人民制定的对外政策”
国务卿安东尼·布林肯讲话稿
摘译
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拜登总统（President Biden）在邀我任职的时候，已确定我认识到我的工作是切实为你们谋利益——使你们的生活更安全，为你们和你们的家人创造机会，并应对正日益影响你们未来的各种全球性危机。
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今天晚些时候，拜登总统将介绍涉及我们国家安全和对外政策的“临时战略指导” 计划。这份计划为我们各国家安全机构指出了初步的方向，使有关机构能够立即着手工作，同时我们可以在今后几个月继续制定更深入的国家安全战略。这份临时指导计划阐述了拜登政府洞察的全球格局，解析我们对外政策的首要事务——以及我们将如何重振美国的实力，迎接各种挑战，抓住我们时代的机遇。
为此，我作为国务卿发表的第一个重要讲话，将向你们逐一讲述美国的外交如何执行总统的战略。
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我们通过提出以下几个简单的问题确定拜登政府对外政策的首要事务。我们的对外政策对美国工人及其家庭将意味着什么？为了增强我们国内的实力，我们在世界各地需要做些什么？为了增强我们在全世界的力量，我们需要在国内做些什么？
对这些问题的回答不同于2017年或2009年。的确，我们很多为拜登政府工作的人员还曾自豪地为奥巴马总统（President Obama）工作，其中也包括拜登总统。我们为恢复美国在全世界的领导地位做了大量杰出的工作，实现了来之不易的外交突破，例如达成了制止伊朗生产核武器的协议，并促使全世界共同应对气候变化等。我们的对外政策适应了当时的形势，任何好的对外政策都应该如此。但时代不同了，我们的战略和方法也不同以往。我们不能简单地因循以往停下的脚步，假设过去4年并不存在。我们正以崭新的眼光看待世界。
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……美国的领导作用和参与至关重要。现在我们正听见我们的朋友们这样说。他们对我们的回归感到高兴。不论我们的意愿如何，世界都无法自行统筹。在美国收缩之际，经常会出现两者必居其一的情况：或者另一个国家试图取代我们，但并非以促进我方利益和价值的方式。或者出现同样恶劣的局面，没有任何一方挺身而出——于是我们会看到混乱及其制造的所有的危险。不论出现哪一种情况都对美国不利。
另一个永恒的原则是，我们须要各国进行合作，现在比以往任何时候都更重要。对于所有影响你们生活的全球性挑战，任何国家都无法单独应对——甚至美国这样强大的国家也是如此。任何壁垒，不论有多高，也不论有多强，都无法阻挡改造我们这个世界的变革。
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拜登总统决心通过外交发挥领导作用，因为这是应对当前挑战的最佳途径。与此同时，我们将保证我们继续拥有全世界最强大的武装部队。我们作为外交人员有效地发挥作用的能力在很大程度上取决于我们的军事实力。
此外，我们在从事每一项工作的时候，不仅需要在短期问题上取得进展，而且还需要正本清源，为我们长期的实力奠定基础。总统曾表示，不仅要重整旗鼓，而且要再创佳绩。
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首先，我们将遏制COVID-19冠状病毒疫情，加强全球卫生安全。
这场疫情定义了我们的生活，至今已一年有余。为了抗击疫情，我们需要世界各地的政府、科学家、工商业和社区同心协力。在全世界大多数人都获得免疫之前，我们没有人能够得到充分的安全，因为只要病毒正在复制，就有可能发生变异，生成新的毒株重新回到美国。为此，我们必须与伙伴密切合作，持续推进全球接种疫苗的努力。
与此同时，我们必须保证我们吸取了必要的教训，为全球卫生安全提供必要的投入——包括预测、防范和遏制疫情的工具，以及全球坚定地承诺分享准确和及时的信息——使类似的危机永不再重演。
第二，我们将扭转经济危机，打造更稳定和包容性的全球经济。
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我们需要采取正确的国内政策，如总统现在正在大力推动的纾困方案，同时努力处理好全球经济，使之真正有益于美国人民。我这不是仅指更高的国内生产总值或股票市场升值；对许多美国家庭来说，这些数值没有多少意义。我指的是良好的工作，良好的收入，并且为美国工人和他们的家庭降低家用费用。
我们这样做基于过去的严重教训。我们有些人过去主张自由贸易协议，因为我们相信美国人会广泛分享经济成果，那些协议将会以我们所希望的方式打造世界经济。我们有良好的理由那样认为。但是，我们没有足够地努力了解什么人将受到不利的影响以及需要用什么办法抵消他们的苦衷，也没有以足够的努力贯彻已经成文的协议或帮助更多工人和小企业获得充分的好处。
我们现在的方式将与之不同。我们将为美国人的每一份工作，为所有美国工人的权利、保护措施和利益而奋斗。我们将运用一切手段制止其他国家窃取我们的知识产权或为获得不公平的优势而操纵其货币。我们将打击腐败，腐败有损于我们。我们的贸易政策需要非常清楚地回答，它将如何发展美国中产阶层、创造新的和更好的就业以及给所有美国人——而不仅仅是已经在享受经济效益的人——带来好处。
第三，我们将重振民主，因为它面临威胁。
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我们和其他所有民主社会越是能够向世界展示我们能够兑现承诺——不仅对我们的人民，而且对彼此，我们就越是能够驳倒专制国家热衷散布的谎言——说他们的方式能够更好满足人民的根本需要和希望。要由我们来证明他们的谬误。
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我们将运用我们榜样的力量。我们将鼓励其他国家开展关键的改革，取消不良法规，打击腐败，停止不公的做法。我们将奖励民主行为方式。
但是，我们将不会通过代价高昂的军事干预或试图用武力推翻专制政权来促进民主。我们过去尝试过这些做法。无论我们有多么好的用意，都不曾见效。它们给“促进民主”带来不好的名声，让美国人民失去信心。我们采用不同的做法。
第四，我们将努力建立一个有人性和有效率的移民制度。
强有力的边界是我们国家安全的根本，法律是我们民主的基石。
但是，我们也需要一种外交的——并且完全合情理的——解决办法，因为事实是，年复一年，其他国家的人要冒一切风险来这里。我们需要解决驱使这么多人背井离乡的根本原因。因此，我们将与其他国家密切合作——尤其是我们在中美洲的邻国——以便帮助这些国家提供更好的人身安全和经济机会，从而使人们不感到移民是给孩子带来更好生活的唯一出路。
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我们国家特征的最重要素质之一是，我们是移民国家。我们之所以更加强大是因为有那些勤劳的人来这里上学、创业和丰富了我们的社区。过去几年里我们背离了自己的这一点。我们必须重新回归到它。
第五，我们将重振联盟和伙伴关系
我们的联盟是军方所称的“力量增效手段”。联盟是我们特有的资源。我们与联盟一起取得的成就远比如果没有它大得多。因此，我们现在正在大力推动与我们的友邦和盟国恢复联系——并且重新发展多年前建立的伙伴关系，以使这些关系适应今天和明天的挑战。
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我们将明确表示，真正的伙伴关系意味着共同承担——每个国家都尽自己的力量，而不单是我们自己。
第六，我们将解决气候危机并驱动一场绿色能源革命。
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气候危机正在危及我们所有人，给我们造成逐月增高的代价，而且我们无法独自解决它。美国制造的碳污染占全世界的15%——那是很高的，而且我们急需降低这个数字。但即使我们能将其降至零，我们仍不能解决这个危机，因为全世界其他地区正在制造另外的85%。这界定了一种我们必须共同努力——作为一个国家共同体——来解决的问题。
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我们在这样做的同时，还必须让美国处于在日益增长的可再生能源的全球市场中繁荣发展并发挥引领作用的地位。风能和太阳能是当今世界上最廉价的电力来源。它们不再是未来产业——未来就在当下。而且其他国家已走在我们前面。我们必须扭转局面并为美国人民创造数百万个可再生产业的高薪工作。
第七，我们将确保我们在技术上的引领地位。
一场全球技术革命已经展开。全世界的主要强国正在竞相开发并部署新技术，例如人工智能和量子计算，这些新技术能打造我们的生活的方方面面，从我们在哪里获得能源，直到我们如何从事我们的工作，乃至如何打一场战争。
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但我们知道新技术并不能自动让人受益——而且那些利用它们的人并不总是以良好意图为动机的。我们必须确保新技术能保护你们的隐私，让世界更加安全、更加健康，并让民主体更加坚韧。
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与此同时，我们必须增强我们的技术防卫和威慑。我们只需看看SolarWinds事件——去年美国政府网络遭受重大攻击的事件——就知道我们的对手多么顽固地想要使用技术手段来给我们造成破坏。
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第八，我们将管控21世纪最大的地缘政治考验：我们同中国的关系。
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中国是唯一一个具备经济、外交、军事和技术实力，足以严峻地挑战稳定、开放的国际体系的国家——让世界按照我们希望的方式运作的所有规则、价值观以及各种关系，因为这最终服务于美国人民的利益并体现他们的价值观。
我们同中国的关系将在应当竞争的时候具有竞争性，在可以合作的时候具有合作性，并在必须对抗的时候具有对抗性。其共同点是应当从实力地位出发同中国接触。
这要求必须同盟友及伙伴方共同努力，而不是诋毁他们，因为中国要想无视我们联合起来的力量会困难得多得多。这要求必须参与外交和国际组织，因为在我们退出的地方，中国填补了进来。这要求必须在新疆的人权遭到蹂躏或香港的民主遭到践踏时捍卫我们的价值观，因为如果我们不这么做，中国将做出甚至更严重的有罪不罚的举动。而且这意味着投资于美国的劳动者、公司企业和各项技术，并坚持要有一个公平的竞争环境，因为当我们这样做的时候，我们就能竞争胜过任何人。
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这些优先重点还全部都同时是国内事务和对外事务。而且我们必须以这种方式应对它们，否则就将功亏一篑。
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“国内”政策与“对外”政策之间的区别已经消失殆尽，比在我的职业生涯——也许是我的有生之年——的其他任何时候都更是如此。我们的国内复兴与我们在世界上的实力是完全交织在一起的。而且我们如何展开工作将反映出这种现实。

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesperson
For Immediate Release
SPEECH
Secretary Antony J. Blinken
“A Foreign Policy for the American People”
March 3, 2021
Ben Franklin Room
Washington, D.C.
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good morning.  My fellow Americans, five weeks ago I was sworn in as your Secretary of State.  My job is to represent the United States to the world, to fight for the interests and values of the American people.  When President Biden asked me to serve, he made sure that I understood that my job is to deliver for you – to make your lives more secure, create opportunity for you and your families, and tackle the global crises that are increasingly shaping your futures.
I take this responsibility very seriously.  And an important part of the job is speaking to you about what we’re doing and why.
Later today, President Biden will share what’s called the “interim strategic guidance” on our national security and foreign policy.  It gives initial direction to our national security agencies so that they can get to work right away while we keep developing a more in-depth national security strategy over the next several months.  The interim guidance lays out the global landscape as the Biden administration sees it, explains the priorities of our foreign policy – and specifically how we will renew America’s strength to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of our time.
So for this – my first major speech as Secretary – I’m going to walk through – walk you through how American diplomacy will carry out the President’s strategy.  If we do our jobs right, you’ll be able to check our work – to see the links between what we’re doing around the world and the goals and values I’ll lay out today.
I know that foreign policy can sometimes feel disconnected from our daily lives.  It’s either all about major threats – like pandemics, terrorism – or it fades from view.
That’s in part because it’s often about people and events on the other side of the world, and it’s about things you don’t see – like crises stopped before they start, or negotiations that happen out of sight.
But it’s also because those of us who conduct foreign policy haven’t always done a good job connecting it to the needs and aspirations of the American people.  As a result, for some time now Americans have been asking tough but fair questions about what we’re doing, how we’re leading – indeed, whether we should be leading at all.
With this in mind, we’ve set the foreign policy priorities for the Biden administration by asking a few simple questions:
What will our foreign policy mean for American workers and their families?
What do we need to do around the world to make us stronger here at home?
And what do we need to do at home to make us stronger in the world?
The answers to these questions aren’t the same as they were in 2017 or 2009.  Yes, many of us serving in the Biden administration also proudly served President Obama – including President Biden.  And we did a great deal of good work to restore America’s leadership in the world; to achieve hard-won diplomatic breakthroughs, like the deal that stopped Iran from producing a nuclear weapon; and to bring the world together to tackle climate change.  Our foreign policy fit the moment, as any good strategy should.
But this is a different time, so our strategy and approach are different.  We’re not simply picking up where we left off, as if the past four years didn’t happen.  We’re looking at the world with fresh eyes.
Having said that, while the times have changed, some principles are enduring.
One is that American leadership and engagement matter.  We’re hearing this now from our friends.  They’re glad we’re back.  Whether we like it or not, the world does not organize itself.  When the U.S. pulls back, one of two things is likely to happen: either another country tries to take our place, but not in a way that advances our interests and values; or, maybe just as bad, no one steps up, and then we get chaos and all the dangers it creates.  Either way, that’s not good for America.
Another enduring principle is that we need countries to cooperate, now more than ever.  Not a single global challenge that affects your lives can be met by any one nation acting alone – not even one as powerful as the United States.  And there is no wall high enough or strong enough to hold back the changes transforming our world.
That’s where the institution I’m privileged to lead comes in.  It’s the role of the State Department – and America’s diplomats and development workers – to engage around the world and build that cooperation.
President Biden has pledged to lead with diplomacy because it’s the best way to deal with today’s challenges. At the same time, we’ll make sure that we continue to have the world’s most powerful armed forces.  Our ability to be effective diplomats depends in no small measure on the strength of our military.
And in everything we do, we’ll look not only to make progress on short-term problems, but also to address their root causes and lay the groundwork for our long-term strength.  As the President says, to not only build back, but build back better.
So here’s our plan.
First, we will stop COVID-19 and strengthen global health security.
The pandemic has defined lives – our lives – for more than a year.  To beat it back, we need governments, scientists, businesses, and communities around the world working together.  None of us will be fully safe until the majority of the world is immune because as long as the virus is replicating, it could mutate into new strains that find their way back to America.  So we need to work closely with partners to keep the global vaccination effort moving forward.
At the same time, we need to make sure we learn the right lessons and make the right investments in global health security, including tools to predict, prevent, and stop pandemics, and a firm global commitment to share accurate and timely information, so that a crisis like this never happens again.
Second, we will turn around the economic crisis and build a more stable, inclusive global economy.
The pandemic has caused unemployment to surge around the world.  Nearly every country on earth is now in a recession.  The pandemic also laid bare inequalities that have defined life for millions of Americans for a long time.  So we’ve got a double challenge:  to protect Americans from a lengthy downturn, and to make sure the global economy delivers security and opportunity for as many Americans as possible in the long term.
To do that, we need to pass the right policies at home, like the relief package the President is pushing hard for right now, while working to manage the global economy so it truly benefits the American people.  And by that, I don’t just mean a bigger GDP or a rising stock market; for many American households, those measures don’t mean much.  I mean good jobs, good incomes, and lower household costs for American workers and their families.
We’re building on hard lessons learned.  Some of us previously argued for free trade agreements because we believed Americans would broadly share in the economic gains that those – and that those deals would shape the global economy in ways that we wanted.  We had good reasons to think those things.  But we didn’t do enough to understand who would be negatively affected and what would be needed to adequately offset their pain, or to enforce agreements that were already on the books and help more workers and small businesses fully benefit from them.
Our approach now will be different.  We will fight for every American job and for the rights, protections, and interests of all American workers.  We will use every tool to stop countries from stealing our intellectual property or manipulating their currencies to get an unfair advantage.  We will fight corruption, which stacks the deck against us.  And our trade policies will need to answer very clearly how they will grow the American middle class, create new and better jobs, and benefit all Americans, not only those for whom the economy is already working.
Third, we will renew democracy, because it’s under threat.
A new report from the independent watchdog group Freedom House is sobering.  Authoritarianism and nationalism are on the rise around the world.  Governments are becoming less transparent and have lost the trust of the people.  Elections are increasingly flashpoints for violence.  Corruption is growing.  And the pandemic has accelerated many of these trends.
But the erosion of democracy is not only happening in other places.  It’s also happening here in the United States.  Disinformation is rampant here.  Structural racism and inequality make life worse for millions.  Our elected leaders were targeted in the violent siege of the Capitol just two months ago.  And more broadly, Americans are increasingly polarized – and the institutions that exist to help us manage our differences, so our democracy can continue to function, are under strain.
Shoring up our democracy is a foreign policy imperative.  Otherwise, we play right into the hands of adversaries and competitors like Russia and China, who seize every opportunity to sow doubts about the strength of our democracy.  We shouldn’t be making their jobs easier.
I take heart from the fact that we’re dealing with our struggles out in the open.  And that sets us apart from many other countries.  We don’t ignore our failures and shortcomings or try sweep them under the rug and pretend they don’t exist.  We confront them for the world to see.  It’s painful.  Sometimes it’s ugly.  But it’s how we make progress.
Still, there’s no question that our democracy is fragile.  People around the world have seen that.  Many recognize in our challenges the challenges that they’re facing.  And now they’re watching us because they want to see whether our democracy is resilient, whether we can rise to the challenge here at home.  That will be the foundation for our legitimacy in defending democracy around the world for years to come.
Why does that matter?  Because strong democracies are more stable, more open, better partners to us, more committed to human rights, less prone to conflict, and more dependable markets for our goods and services.  When democracies are weak, governments can’t deliver for their people or a country becomes so polarized that it’s hard for anything to get done, they become more vulnerable to extremist movements from the inside and to interference from the outside.  And they become less reliable partners to the United States.  None of that is in our national interest.
The more we and other democracies can show the world that we can deliver, not only for our people, but also for each other, the more we can refute the lie that authoritarian countries love to tell, that theirs is the better way to meet people’s fundamental needs and hopes.  It’s on us to prove them wrong.
So the question isn’t if we will support democracy around the world, but how.
We will use the power of our example.  We will encourage others to make key reforms, overturn bad laws, fight corruption, and stop unjust practices.  We will incentivize democratic behavior.
But we will not promote democracy through costly military interventions or by attempting to overthrow authoritarian regimes by force.  We have tried these tactics in the past.  However well intentioned, they haven’t worked.  They’ve given democracy promotion a bad name, and they’ve lost the confidence of the American people.  We will do things differently.
Fourth, we will work to create a humane and effective immigration system.
Strong borders are fundamental to our national security, and laws are the bedrock of our democracy.  But we also need a diplomatic, and just plain decent, solution to the fact that year after year, people from other countries risk everything to try to make it here.  We need to address the root causes that drive so many people to flee their homes.  And so we’ll work closely with other countries, especially our neighbors in Central America, to help them deliver better physical security and economic opportunity so people don’t feel like migrating is the only way out and up.
As we do this work, we will not lose sight of our core principles.  Cruelty, especially to children, is unacceptable.  And turning our backs on some of the most vulnerable people on earth is not who we should ever be.
One of the most important pieces of our national identity is that we are a country of immigrants.  We’re made stronger by the fact that hardworking people come here to go to school, start businesses, enrich our communities.  We’ve gotten away from that part of ourselves in the past few years.  We’ve got to get back to it.
Fifth, we will revitalize our ties with our allies and partners.  Our alliances are what the military calls force multipliers.  They’re our unique asset.  We get so much more done with them than we could without them.  So we’re making a big push right now to reconnect with our friends and allies, and to reinvent partnerships that were built years ago so they’re suited to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.  That includes countries in Europe and Asia that have been our closest friends for decades, as well as old and new partners in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Over the decades, these commitments have created new markets for our products, new allies to deter aggression, and new partners to help meet global challenges.  We had a name for it: “enlightened self-interest.”  We’ll be clear that real partnership means carrying burdens together, everyone doing their part – not just us.  And whenever we can, we will choose engagement.  Wherever the rules for international security and the global economy are being written, America will be there, and the interests of the American people will be front and center.
We’re always better off at the table, not outside the room.  You should expect nothing less from your government.
Sixth, we will tackle the climate crisis and drive a green energy revolution.  Maybe you live in California, where wildfires get worse every year.  Or the Midwest, where farmland keeps flooding.  Or the Southeast, where communities have been destroyed by stronger and more frequent storms.  The climate crisis is endangering all of us, and costing us more by the month.  We can’t fix it alone.  The United States produces 15 percent of the world’s carbon pollution.  That’s a lot, and we badly need to get that number down.  But even if we brought it down to zero, we wouldn’t solve the crisis, because the rest of the world is producing the other 85 percent.
This is the definition of a problem we need to work together, as a community of nations, to solve.  And we can’t settle for only doing the bare minimum.  We have to challenge ourselves and each other to do more.  While we do, we must also position the United States to thrive and lead in the growing global market for renewable energy.  Wind and solar are the cheapest sources of electricity generation in the world today.  They’re not the industries of the future anymore; the future is now.  And other countries are ahead of us.  We need to turn that around and create millions of good-paying jobs for Americans in renewables.
Seventh, we will secure our leadership in technology.  A global technology revolution is now underway.  The world’s leading powers are racing to develop and deploy new technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing that could shape everything about our lives – from where get energy, to how we do our jobs, to how wars are fought.  We want America to maintain our scientific and technological edge, because it’s critical to us thriving in the 21st century economy.
But we know that new technologies aren’t automatically beneficial.  And those who use them don’t always have good intentions.  We need to make sure technologies protect your privacy, make the world safer and healthier, and make democracies more resilient.  That’s where American diplomacy comes in.  We’re going to bring our friends and partners together to shape behavior around emerging technologies and establish guardrails against misuse.
At the same time, we must strengthen our tech defenses and deterrents.  We need only look at SolarWinds, the major hack of U.S. Government networks last year, to see how determined our adversaries are to use technology to undermine us.  Today, safeguarding our national security means investing in our technological capabilities and elevating this issue in our diplomacy and our defense. We will do both.
And eighth, we will manage the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century: our relationship with China.
Several countries present us with serious challenges, including Russia, Iran, North Korea.  And there are serious crises we have to deal with, including in Yemen, Ethiopia, and Burma.
But the challenge posed by China is different.  China is the only country with the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and open international system – all the rules, values, and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to, because it ultimately serves the interests and reflects the values of the American people.
Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be.  The common denominator is the need to engage China from a position of strength.
That requires working with allies and partners, not denigrating them, because our combined weight is much harder for China to ignore.  It requires engaging in diplomacy and in international organizations, because where we have pulled back, China has filled in.  It requires standing up for our values when human rights are abused in Xinjiang or when democracy is trampled in Hong Kong, because if we don’t, China will act with even greater impunity.  And it means investing in American workers, companies, and technologies, and insisting on a level playing field, because when we do, we can out-compete anyone.
These are the eight top foreign policy priorities of the Biden administration.  You may notice some things about that list.
First, important items are not on it.  That doesn’t mean they don’t matter to us or that we won’t work hard on them.  Indeed, I look forward to setting out what we’ll do on other vital pieces of our foreign policy in the days and weeks ahead.
But these priorities – the ones I’ve talked about today – are the most urgent, the ones on which we must make swift and sustained progress.
They’re also all simultaneously domestic and foreign issues.  And we’ve got to approach them that way, or we’ll fall short.  Beating COVID means vaccinating people at home and abroad.  Winning in the global economy means making the right investments at home and pushing back against unfair trading practices by China and others.  Dealing with climate change means investing in resilience and green energy here at home and leading a global effort to reduce carbon pollution.
More than at any other time in my career – maybe in my lifetime – distinctions between domestic and foreign policy have simply fallen away.  Our domestic renewal and our strength in the world are completely entwined. And how we work will reflect that reality.
And finally, as the President has promised, diplomacy – not military action – will always come first.
Again, this is shaped by hard lessons learned.  Americans are rightly wary of prolonged U.S. military interventions abroad.  We’ve seen how they’ve often come at far too high a cost, both to us and to others.  When we look back at the past decades of our military involvement in the world, especially in Afghanistan and the Middle East, we must remember what we’ve learned about the limits of force to build a durable peace; that the day after a major military intervention is always harder than we imagine; and how critical it is to pursue every possible avenue to a diplomatic solution.
Of course, we will never hesitate to use force when American lives and vital interests are at stake.  That’s why President Biden authorized an airstrike last week against Iranian-backed militia groups targeting U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq.  But in that case – and in future cases when we must take military action – we will do so only when the objectives and mission are clear and achievable, consistent with our values and laws, and with the informed consent of the American people.  And we’ll do it together with diplomacy.
Finally, all our priorities go directly to our core sources of national strength.  And we define strength broadly, because a truly strong country is strong in many ways at once.  Real strength isn’t bluster or bullying.  And it’s not based in military power alone.
Real strength is that and more.
It’s making sure our most valuable commodity as a nation – our human resources – can meet their full potential.
It’s a flourishing democracy and an innovative and inclusive economy.
It’s the ability to bring countries together because they trust us to lead, and no one can unite others like we can.
It’s having our diplomats walk into buildings around the world and be respected because they have the confidence and trust of the American people.
And it means leading with our values.  That’s what I want to close on today.
At our best, the United States is a country with integrity and a heart.  That’s what makes us proud to be Americans and why so many people around the world have given everything to become Americans.
That includes members of my own family, and many of your families, too.
The Biden administration’s foreign policy will reflect our values.
We will stand firm behind our commitments to human rights, democracy, the rule of law.  And we’ll stand up against injustice toward women and girls, LGBTQI people, religious minorities, and people of all races and ethnicities.  Because all human beings are equal in rights and dignity, no matter where they live or who they are.
We will respect science and data, and we will fight misinformation and disinformation, because the truth is the cornerstone of our democracy.
We’ll work with Congress whenever we can – on the take-off, not just the landing – because they represent the will of our people, and our foreign policy is stronger when the American people support it.
We’ll build a national security workforce that reflects America in all its diversity, because we’re operating in a diverse world, and our diversity is a unique source of strength that few countries can match.  When we don’t have a diverse team, it’s like we’re conducting diplomacy with one arm tied behind our back.  This is a national security imperative and a personal priority for me.
We will bring nonpartisanship back to our foreign policy. There was a time, as the saying goes, when politics stopped at the water’s edge.  Secretaries of State didn’t represent Democrats or Republicans.  We represented all Americans.  Some might think the idea is quaint now.  Well, I don’t.  And the President doesn’t either.
We will balance humility with confidence.  I have always believed they should be the flip sides of America’s leadership coin.  Humility because we aren’t perfect, we don’t have all the answers, and a lot of the world’s problems aren’t mainly about us, even as they affect us.  But confidence because America at its best has a greater ability than any country on Earth to mobilize others for the common good and for the good of our people.
Above all, we’ll hold ourselves accountable to a single, overarching measure of success:  Are we delivering results for you?
Are we making your lives more secure and creating opportunities for your families?  Are we protecting the planet for your children and grandchildren?  Are we honoring your values, and proving worthy of your trust?
It’s the honor of my life to serve as your Secretary of State.  And I’m aware every day that we’re writing the next chapter of our history.  It’s up to us whether the story of this time will be one of peace and prosperity, security and equality; whether we will help more people in more places live in dignity and whether we will leave the United States stronger at home and in the world.
That’s our mission.  That’s our opportunity.  We will not squander it.
We serve the American people.  And we will do everything we can to make you proud.
Thank you very much.
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