Atlantic Council Board Director and Middle East Strategy Task Force Co-Chair Secretary Madeleine Albright writes for The Boston Globe on the US role in the migrant crisis, highlighting the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Strategy Task Force and its focus on rebuilding societies over the long term:
THERE HAVE BEEN many significant days in my life, but the most important of all was Nov. 11, 1948. That was the day my family and I arrived in the United States, beginning a new life in exile from our native Czechoslovakia.
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No one is suggesting that admitting more refugees to the United States will resolve the underlying crisis in the Middle East. We need to work urgently to end the horrendous violence and barrel bombing in Syria, while helping the people of the region rebuild their societies over the long term — which is a focus of the Atlantic Council’s new Middle East Strategy Task Force I am cochairing with former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. But if the United States is to be taken seriously, and press our allies in the Middle East and in Europe to do more to foster peace, we must show leadership and a willingness to shoulder our special responsibilities. Perhaps the simplest and most important way to start is to embrace more of the region’s most vulnerable people. And like my family, they too can become grateful defenders of the American dream.