(As prepared)

For nearly 35 years, I have been honored to work in the fields of cultural and educational exchange in both the public and private sectors. This experience has taught me the simple truth that there is no substitute for contacts between peoples as the most promising means to the achievement of a peaceful world. The member states of the OSCE have it within their power to expand and strengthen the cultural, educational and professional exchanges that facilitate those positive contacts.

It is something of a cliché to speak of the global village, but we are undeniably present to one another in ways inconceivable only a decade ago, to say nothing of 1975 when the Helsinki Final Act was signed. The work of the OSCE accelerated this development, and we should all take a measure of pride in that accomplishment. Technological breakthroughs have helped immensely. With a click of the mouse we can visit great libraries, enroll in major universities, enter world-class museums. We have more information about one another, more readily accessible than ever before. The potential for increased mutual understanding is there.

This abundance of information is a good thing. But it is no substitute for true understanding of another country, its culture, its traditions, its values and beliefs. Such understanding and respect, in my view, come only through personal contact, through the experience of living in another culture and viewing it from the inside. Decisions taken in one country -- inside and outside government -- increasingly affect what happens in others. It is important to all of us that these decisions be based on perceptions of one another that are as accurate as possible, that they be based on first hand familiarity rather than stereotypes. Governments should encourage international exchanges that bring together prospective leaders early in their careers when they have the time and the inclination to learn and to teach.

The United States shares with a number of countries represented here a commitment to provide support to just such exchanges. We are also encouraged by movements to promote greater action in this regard on a regional basis.

Mr. Moderator, increasingly the world community recognizes that democracy is a cultural creation -- a body of values, knowledge and skills that must be cultivated by the civic community, carefully passed from generation to generation, constantly criticized and renewed through education. In recent years the importance of civic education to the health of democracy has been reexamined, and educators around the world are renewing their efforts to strengthen citizenship, civic skills and education for democracy. The work of these educators is essential to strengthen existing democracies and to permit the development of new ones.

Increasingly, United States exchange resources have been directed toward strengthening citizenship education in the consolidation of democracy. Private sector exchange resources support this direction as well, with the Soros-funded Open Society Institute leading the way to build democracy education programs both in and out of schools. There is great and growing interest in education for democracy in the new democracies in the region, while at the same time in the United States and in other established western democracies there is renewed concern for educational efforts to teach citizenship skills and nurture democracy from within.

We would be wise to ask ourselves what textbooks and other educational materials in Kosovo and throughout the Former Republic of Yugoslavia will say about tolerance and minority groups. The answer will surely be relevant if there is any hope of lessening and eventually eliminating the vestiges of intolerance, tension and conflict there. One could usefully ask the question throughout the region. The United States recommends that attention be paid to textbooks and their treatment of ethnic, religious and racial topics.

Finally, this review conference should take note of the need to redouble efforts to protect cultural property. The United States government places great importance on the protection of the world’s movable and immovable cultural heritage, a non-renewable resource that is rapidly diminishing because of pillage, vandalism, negligence and unregulated development. These threats to cultural heritage deprive nations and peoples of their past and their future by destroying information about their history and development and by snuffing out any future sustainable economic benefit that can be derived from thoughtful management and development of the heritage for cultural tourism purposes.