In 1995, at the first Defense Ministerial of the Americas held in Williamsburg, Virginia, then-Secretary of Defense Bill Perry said, This is a time of reconciliation, renaissance and new relationships built on trust, cooperation, and consensus. The defense and military establishments of our nations must play a critical role in advancing these new relationships. Today, we are playing that critical role as we gather to activate the Western Hemisphere Institute which will prepare our soldiers and our defense civilians for the challenges of this new era, and will provide them with the tools to capture the promise of this bright future. And we do, indeed, see a bright future. Today, nations in almost every corner of the globe are moving toward democracy and freedom, from Europe, where former enemies have reached across the Iron Curtain to become friends and allies, to Asia, where for the first time in 50 years, there is some hope of reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.
Few regions hold as much promise as our own hemisphere.
This is a region of dynamic markets and dramatic economic reforms, where 34 of 35 governments have come to power through the ballot box, where regional relationships based on shared respect for the rule of law show a strong and growing trend for interdependence. And yet, we also share concerns about new dangers and challenges we face today and will continue to confront for the foreseeable future. There are countries that stand outside the community of nations Iran, Iraq and North Korea to name a few whose role on the world stage is made more questionable by their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. There are veins of instability and inequity that run throughout every region of the world, from the Middle East to the former Yugoslavia, where violence fueled by ethnic hatred and nationalism runs the risk of sparking violence in neighboring states. There are other less traditional military threats that cross all boundaries fixed in geography.