Heads of State Discuss Global Politics

Seven prominent current and former heads of state considered the world's most pressing problems at a panel sponsored by the Council of Women World Leaders at the ARCO forum last night.

Kennedy School of Government (KSG) Dean Joseph S. Nye described the event as "a way for our students. who are being trained to be public leaders, to see that women can be effective leaders."

The panel, moderated by CNN anchor Judy Woodruff, featured Vigdis Finnbogadottir, former president of Iceland (1980-1986); Ruud Lubbers, former prime minister of the Netherlands (1982-1984); Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada (1993); Malcolm Fraser, former prime minister of Australia (1975-1983); Helmut Schmidt, former chancellor of West Germany (1975-1982); Hanna Suchoka, former prime minister of Poland (1993-1994); and Jennifer Smith, current premier of Bermuda.

Woodruff began the discussion b asking the panelists what they saw as the most pressing priorities of the approaching century.

"We haven't really come to grips with such issues as the environment [and] population," Fraser said.

Schmidt agreed, suggesting that overpopulation "will lead to wars in Asia, in Africa, maybe in Latin America and other places."

Several other leaders said they perceive potential crises stemming from fundamental divisions between groups such as the young and the old, the rich and the poor, or those with and without access to information age technology.

"The leaders of the world do not look enough at the young people...in a few years' time, more than half of humankind will be less than 20 years old," Finnbo-gadottir said.

Fraser also addressed what he sees as an increased division between the rich and the poor.

"In the last 15 years we have created a global financial situation in which the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer," he said. "Major western nations have not exhibited a sense of responsibility about the rest of the world."

According to Fraser, "governments have gotten meaner year by year by year."

Smith addressed the growing division between those with and without access to information age technology.

"Looking at the next millennium, what we now have to recognize is the inaccessibility of many families to technology," Smith said.

Campbell also noted the reluctance of the United States to act decisively regarding these divisions. Comparing the present situation to the U.S.'s late entrance into the World War Two, she asked, "How do we make the US take notice? There are worse things happening than Pearl Harbor."

The leaders concluded the forum with a discussion of how leaders might become more effective at dealing with the issues they had discussed.

"We observe the constant erosion of leaders," Suchoka said.

"We live in a time when it is about short term thinking," Lubbers said. "This is a real handicap and a challenge for a leader who needs to give hope and perspective for the future."

Lubbers blamed this, in part, on "the growth of television" as a social force.

Schmidt argued that successful leadership is often the result of strong national institutions guided by elites.

Schmidt argued that good leadership "will be the result of elites governing society well" and that "the grass roots will more or less follow."

Smith, on the other hand, said she approached the issue of leadership itself with an attitude she calls "faith in human nature."

"When leaders do not understand the problems, the people will come to solutions," she said.