The Congress of Phoenix

On Tuesday, May 13, 1997, Václav Havel, president of the Czech Republic and a patron of the New Atlantic Initiative (NAI), launched the NAI's second annual congress at a Senate briefing and reception on Capitol Hill. In an opinion editorial published the same day in the New York Times, President Havel beseeched the Atlantic community to support the entrance of Central and Eastern Europe's fledgling democracies into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and reminded us that NATO is "first and foremost an instrument of democracy intended to defend mutually held and created political and spiritual values." "If the West does not stabilize the East," he continued, "the East will destabilize the West. If principles of democracy win in the East, the peace and stability of all Europe will be insured." And it is with this poignant message in mind that the New Atlantic Initiative convened the Congress of Phoenix from May 16-18, 1997, in Phoenix, AZ.

More than 120 business, political, and intellectual leaders from Europe and the United States gathered at the historic Arizona Baltimore in Phoenix to discuss and debate a range of trade and security issues. Sessions at the congress concentrated on economic sanctions and secondary boycotts, currencies and markets, privatization and deregulation, the future of Atlanticism, and the enlargement of NATO. With the announcement of the new NATO-Russia charter pending and with the much anticipated NATO Madrid Summit approaching, questions of the costs and consequences of NATO enlargement captured the attention of all in attendance.

The New Atlantic Initiative was honored to include as guests, among others, U.S. Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Ambassador Paul Wolfowitz of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, former Vice President Dan Quayle, U.S. Representative Chris Cox, members of the British and German parliaments, and senior government and diplomatic officials from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Ukraine. Texts of keynote speeches and a copy of the congress agenda are available below.

The Congress of Phoenix - Agenda

"Is the Atlantic Community Obsolete?" Paul Wolfowitz

"More Important than Opulence," Margaret Thatcher

"Defending the Civilized World," Jon Kyl