Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discussed the role the United States must play to improve humanitarian aid worldwide in the Third Annual Fritz Institute Lecture on Humanitarian Relief yesterday morning in Gaston Hall.

Albright spoke before a crowd of some 500 students, faculty and representatives of a range of organizations, including Relief International, the American Red Cross, Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of International Migration and the host organization, the Fritz Institute.

Albright used the term “National Security Assistance” in place of “foreign aid,” emphasizing the need to persuade conservative American policymakers that the national interest lies in humanitarian aid.

“With the help of others around the world, we can create a dedicated, motivated and equipped force,” Albright said. “There must be a collective response to prevent people from slaughtering one another.”

According to Albright, the United States should take the lead in that collective response and should lead the search for long-term ways to prevent genocides, such as the current one in Darfur. To achieve these ends, she said, a deeply divided electorate and body of U.S. lawmakers must unite.

“We need to move beyond ideological battlegrounds to establish common ground,” Albright said.

Peace Corps Volunteer Margaret Vernon (SFS ‘05), who departs for West Africa in August, expressed that she was impressed by Albright’s insights.

“I really appreciated her comments about how to sell the internationalist left’s worldview to the American public by making it an issue of national security,” she said. “If our national policies reflect global needs, the country will definitely be better off and more secure in the long run.”