The geopolitical landscape has changed. And I believe that while America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, the world cannot meet them without America. We must neither retreat from the world nor try
to bully it into submission – we must lead the world, by deed and example. There are five ways America will begin to lead again when I’m President to let the world know that we are committed to our common security, invested in our common humanity, and still a beacon of freedom and justice for the world.

The first way America will lead is by bringing a responsible end to this war in Iraq and refocusing on the critical challenges in the broader region – on the conflict in the Middle East, where Hamas and Hezbollah feel emboldened and Israel’s prospects for a secure peace seem uncertain; on Iran, which has been strengthened by the war in Iraq; and on Afghanistan, where more American forces are needed to battle al Qaeda, track down Osama bin Laden, and stop that country from backsliding toward instability.

Second, we must build a truly 21st century military and deploy it wisely. I strongly support the expansion of our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines. However, when we send our men and women into harm's way, I will clearly define the mission, seek out the advice of our military commanders, objectively evaluate intelligence, and ensure that our troops have the resources and the support they need. I will not hesitate to use force, unilaterally if necessary, to protect the American people or our vital interests whenever we are attacked or imminently threatened. We must also consider using military force in circumstances beyond self-defense -- but when we do, we should make every effort to garner the clear support and participation of others -- as President George H. W. Bush did when we led the effort to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991.

Third, we must work to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons and materials – a real threat in light of the 50 tons of highly-enriched uranium held at civilian nuclear facilities in over 40 countries. As president, I will lead a global effort to secure all nuclear weapons and material at vulnerable sites within four years and reinvigorate a range of other nonproliferation efforts.

Fourth, we must work to rebuild and construct alliances and partnerships around the world. Whether it’s strengthening NATO or forging new partnerships in Asia, we should be striving to strengthen these relationships in order to more effectively address common threats like global warming, terrorism, and nonproliferation.

Finally, as president, I will double our annual foreign aid investments to $50 billion by 2012. We need to invest in building capable, democratic states that can establish healthy and educated communities, develop markets, and generate wealth. By investing in our common humanity, we can go a long way to ensure that those who live in fear and want today can live with dignity and opportunity tomorrow.

I will open a new era of diplomacy. I have made clear that I will not be afraid to conduct aggressive and principled diplomacy with friend and foe and in so doing get back to the pragmatic foreign policy of using all the instruments of our power to advance our interests. I am not afraid I will lose a propaganda battle with a petty tyrant.

I opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. I thought it was a “rash war,” that would damage our interests, trap us in a sectarian conflict, and divert us from finishing the effort against al Qaeda. Changing the definition of success to stay the course with the wrong policy is the wrong course for our troops and our national security.

The time to end the surge and to start bringing our troops home is now – not six months from now. That is why my plan would begin withdrawing our combat brigades immediately. We can draw down 1-2 combat brigades a month, getting all 20 out within 15-16 months. My plan envisions maintaining a small follow on force in Iraq or the region focused on force and facility protection and counter-terrorism. Because there is a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Iraq now – with more than 4 million Iraqis having been forced from their homes – my plan would also dramatically increase investment in refugee assistance. Lastly, in an effort to get Iraq’s political leaders to resolve the political disagreements at the heart of their civil war, I would work with the United Nations to call a constitutional convention in Iraq, using aggressive diplomacy to get the neighbors to back that convention and stop the flow of weapons and terrorists into Iraq.

No President should ever hesitate to use force to protect ourselves and our vital interests when we are attacked or imminently threatened. But when we use force in situations other than self-defense, we should make every effort to garner the clear support and participation of others – the kind of burden-sharing and support President George H.W. Bush mustered before he launched Operation Desert Storm.

And when we do send our men and women into harm’s way, we must also clearly define the mission, prescribe concrete political and military objectives, seek out advice of our military commanders, evaluate the intelligence, plan accordingly, and ensure that our troops have the resources, support, and equipment they need to protect themselves and fulfill their mission.

We must take these steps with the knowledge that while sometimes necessary, force is the costliest weapon in the arsenal of American power in terms of lives and treasure. And it’s far from the only measure of our strength.

Right now, Americans are most concerned about the war in Iraq. As president, my first priority would be to end the war in Iraq. It has cost America dearly in terms of blood and treasure, been a diversion from the fight against al Qaeda, stretched our military, and undermined the view of the United States the world wide.

Ending the war in Iraq will permit us to ensure we are taking sufficient action against the terrorists on the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan; that we develop the capabilities and partnerships we need to counter the terrorist threat in other parts of the world; that we engage the world to dry up support for terrorism and extremism; that we restore for the rule of law and our values; and that we secure a resilient homeland.

A third concern is how to secure, destroy, and stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. As leaders from Henry Kissinger to George Shultz to Bill Perry to Sam Nunn have all warned, the actions we are taking today on this issue are simply not adequate to the danger.

And lastly, a fourth concern remains climate change and energy. Unless we robustly engage this issue and reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, we will not be able to mitigate the worst ramifications of climate change.

There is a real mismatch between the urgency of the genocide in Darfur, where innocent civilians are dying every day, and an international response that won’t be providing any additional protection until many months down the road. Though the steps the Bush Administration has taken thus far, including sanctions announced on May 29th, represent a modest positive step, the truth is that the United States has failed to exercise effective leadership to stop a four year-long campaign of genocide in Darfur. The United States needs to lead the world in ending this genocide, including by imposing much tougher sanctions that target Sudan’s oil revenue, implementing and helping to enforce a no-fly zone, and engaging in more intense, effective diplomacy to get a political roadmap to peace.

Rather than pressure the perpetrators of genocide to stop the killing, for four years we have been negotiating compromise after feckless compromise with the Khartoum regime, while it continues its campaign of atrocities. To stop the genocide, the international community needs to deploy a large, capable force with a robust enforcement mandate to protect civilians. This force should be commanded, funded, mandated and staffed by the U.N. This force is needed now, not at some point next year, and it needs to be free from restrictions and obstacles thrown up by the Government of Sudan. I await concrete evidence that the Sudanese government is finally prepared to halt atrocities, re-engage in a peace process, and allow an unfettered peacekeeping mission to do its work.

Although the Sudanese government recently accepted a UN-AU hybrid peacekeeping force, the government typically fails to fulfill its commitments. True to form, since accepting the hybrid force, Khartoum has continued to bombard civilian targets, obstruct non-African participants in the hybrid force and expel foreign diplomats. The U.S. needs urgently to change the calculus in Khartoum and stop the genocide. Therefore, the Administration should immediately implement the oil sanctions it threatened last year and still failed to impose on May 29th.

With our allies and our partners in Africa, we need to take immediate steps – economic, military – to let Khartoum know we will not tolerate continued genocide. These steps should include more effective sanctions by the U.S., the EU and the UNSC.

We also need to establish a no-fly zone to protect civilians and increase pressure on Khartoum to halt the killing and consent to the robust international force. In addition to taking immediate steps to protect civilians and end the genocide, the U.S. should step up its diplomatic efforts to negotiate a lasting peace among the Darfur rebel groups and the Sudanese Government.

I am dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the amount scientists agree is necessary to stop and reverse the effects of global climate change. I believe that this is on the order of 80 percent by 2050, and I have cosponsored legislation introduced by Senators Bernard Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) that would achieve this result.

As the world’s largest per capita emitter, most vibrant economy, and technological leader, the United States must assert leadership to fight global warming both at home and abroad. By adopting an aggressive cap on domestic emissions, the U.S. can begin to confront the problem while recapturing the moral authority to lead the world toward an effective and equitable solution. While the United States must lead, we must ensure that China, India, Brazil and all our major trading partners also move quickly to confront this shared global challenge.

Another top priority for my energy and global warming agenda will be changing the cars we drive and the fossil fuels we burn. I will increase fuel efficiency standards by 4% per year, lift the 60,000-permanufacturer cap on buyer tax credits to encourage more Americans to buy ultra-efficient vehicles, and encourage automakers to make fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles. Domestic automakers will get either assistance shouldering their health care legacy costs in exchange for investing 50 percent of the savings into technology to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles or generous tax incentives for retooling assembly plants.

I proposed a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard tao reduce the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of passenger vehicle fuels sold in the U.S. by 10 percent in 2020 and require additional reductions of 1% annually thereafter.

A successful approach to climate change requires that all major emitting nations actively participate in the solution. Unfortunately, the current administration, instead of trying to improve the Kyoto Treaty by including oil guzzlers like China and India, walked away from the entire global effort to stem climate change. If we must take the first step, our second and third steps must be conditioned on meaningful participation by all countries. This is also an enormous opportunity for us to provide our technological developments to these nations so they can leapfrog to cleaner technologies.

As president, I will enact a cap on our country’s greenhouses gases with a goal of an 80 percent reduction by 2050 – the level scientists warn us we must get to in order to limit the most damaging impacts of climate change. Getting our own house in order is the vital first step in assuring we can get the rest of the world’s major polluters – like China, which just passed us as the world’s largest emitter – to agree to binding caps.

And as we impose our own cap, we must lead constructive international negotiations of a follow-on protocol to Kyoto, whose first phase expires in 2012, that tackles decisively the challenge of climate change.

My administration would continue to cooperate with ongoing ICC investigations in Sudan.

Now that it is operational, we are learning more and more about how the ICC functions. The Court has pursued charges only in cases of the most serious and systemic crimes and it is in America’s interests that these most heinous of criminals, like the perpetrators of the genocide in Darfur, are held accountable. These actions are a credit to the cause of justice and deserve full American support and cooperation. Yet the Court is still young, many questions remain unanswered about the ultimate scope of its activities, and it is premature to commit the U.S. to any course of action at this time.

The United States has more troops deployed overseas than any other nation and those forces are bearing a disproportionate share of the burden in the protecting Americans and preserving international security. Maximum protection for our servicemen and women should come with that increased exposure. Therefore, I will consult thoroughly with our military commanders and also examine the track record of the Court before reaching a decision on whether the U.S. should become a State Party to the ICC.

In the 21st century, progress must mean more than a vote at the ballot box – it must mean freedom from fear and freedom from want. We cannot stand for the freedom of anarchy. Nor can we support the globalization of the empty stomach. We need new approaches to help people to help themselves. The United Nations has embraced the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. When I’m President, they will be America’s goals. The Bush Administration tried to keep the UN from proclaiming these goals; the Obama Administration will double foreign assistance to $50 billion to lead the world to achieve them.

America must not rush to produce a new generation of nuclear warheads. And we should take advantage of recent technological advances to build bipartisan consensus behind ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

The best way to keep America safe is not to threaten terrorists with nuclear weapons – it’s to keep nuclear weapons and nuclear materials away from terrorists. That’s why I’ve worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law accelerating our pursuit of loose nuclear materials. And that’s why I’ll lead a global effort to secure all loose nuclear materials during my first term in office.

But we need to do much more. We need to change our nuclear policy and our posture, which is still focused on deterring the Soviet Union – a country that doesn’t exist. Meanwhile, India and Pakistan and North Korea have joined the club of nuclear-armed nations, and Iran is knocking on the door. More nuclear weapons and more nuclear-armed nations mean more danger to us all.

Here’s what I’ll say as President: America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons.

We will not pursue unilateral disarmament. As long as nuclear weapons exist, we’ll retain a strong nuclear deterrent. But we’ll keep our commitment under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty on the long road towards eliminating nuclear weapons. We’ll work with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert, and to dramatically reduce the stockpiles of our nuclear weapons and material. We’ll start by seeking a global ban on the production of fissile material for weapons. And we’ll set a goal to expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global.

As we do this, we’ll be in a better position to lead the world in enforcing the rules of the road if we firmly abide by those rules. It’s time to stop giving countries like Iran and North Korea an excuse. It’s time for America to lead. When I’m President, we’ll strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty so that nations that don’t comply will automatically face strong international sanctions.

To succeed in post-conflict peacebuilding, we must improve our civilian capacity. The finest military in the world is adapting to the challenges of the 21st century. But it cannot counter insurgent and terrorist threats without civilian counterparts who can carry out economic and political reconstruction missions -- sometimes in dangerous places. As President, I will strengthen these civilian capacities, recruiting our best and brightest to take on this challenge. I will increase both the numbers and capabilities of our diplomats, development experts, and other civilians who can work alongside our military. We can't just say there is no military solution to these problems. We need to integrate all aspects of American might to ensure that we can effectively defeat them.

I support meeting our obligations to fund assessed peacekeeping operations and doing our share to fund voluntary peacekeeping operations. I do not support the creation and funding of the United Nations Emergency Peace Service.

The Responsibility to Protect is an important and developing concept in international affairs and one which my Administration will closely monitor.

There are a number of meritorious treaties currently pending before the Senate. Some of these are clearly in the national interest, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. As president, I will make it my priority to build bipartisan consensus behind ratification of such treaties.

America is the strongest nation on earth. Our country has emerged triumphant in revolution, civil war, two world wars, and the Cold War, without abandoning the moral high ground. We adhere to our principles and should not abandon them simply on evidence that al Qaeda or other opponents abuse or torture prisoners, strangle civil liberties, or otherwise refuse to reciprocate in the protections we accord detainees from their side. We will defeat terrorism as we have overcome great challenges in the past: through the strength of our military, the quality of our intelligence, and the power of our ideas.

I support the restoration of habeas corpus, and opposed the Military Commissions Act because it overturned our tradition of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is part of the foundation of our free society. It’s the most basic check on the power of our government to take away a person’s freedom. We have nothing to fear from restoring habeas corpus; on the contrary, it will help us ensure we are detaining the right people, not the wrong people, in the war against terrorists.

The practice of "extraordinary rendition" to countries that routinely abuse prisoners has been called “:torture by proxy” for good reason. I will not tolerate U.S. forces torturing prisoners, and will not ask other countries to do it for us. As president, I will bar the extralegal transfer of individuals to countries that practice torture as a method of interrogation, and take the steps necessary to enforce that prohibition.

While I would consider supporting such a commission, I believe we already know how detention and interrogation policy should be handled. As the counter-insurgency manual reminds us, we cannot win a war unless we maintain the high ground and keep the people on our side. But because the Administration decided to take the low road, our troops have more enemies. Because the Administration cast aside international norms that reflect American values, we are less able to promote our values. When I am President, America will reject torture without exception. America is the country that stood against that kind of behavior, and we will do so again.

I also will reject a legal framework that does not work. There has been only one conviction at Guantanamo. It was for a guilty plea on material support for terrorism. The sentence was 9 months. There has not been one conviction of a terrorist act. I have faith in America's courts, and I have faith in our JAGs. As President, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists.

This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom. That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists. The FISA court works. The separation of powers works. Our Constitution works. We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary.

My administration will close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

To renew American leadership in the world, I intend to rebuild the alliances, partnerships, and institutions necessary to confront common threats and enhance common security. Needed reform of these alliances and institutions will not come by bullying other countries to ratify changes we hatch in isolation. It will come when we convince other governments and peoples that they, too, have a stake in effective partnerships.

We must heed first the call of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for major reforms at the United Nations. U.S. leadership and determination are essential if the U.N. is to achieve its promise as an institution of collective security. But United Nations reform will be difficult; it will take time; and even with substantial reform, the U.N. will remain a meeting place of all the world’s governments, be they democratic or authoritarian, rights-protecting or rights-abusing.

The United States should play a leading role in the United Nations, including by pushing to implement important reforms. I believe our ability to effectively lead the UN is undermined when we do not fulfill our financial obligations at the UN.

Yes.

Much of my appreciation for America’s role in the world comes from being the child of a mixed marriage, someone who was born in the racial melting pot of Hawaii, having lived in Indonesia, and still having family in Kenya. Kenya in particular, where individual rights are almost entirely subject to the self-restraint of army generals or the whims of corrupt bureaucrats, drastically highlights the blessings we have here in America. Because of my background, I’ve never had the option of restricting my loyalties on the basis of race, or measuring my worth on the basis of tribe. I believe that part of America’s genius has always been its ability to absorb newcomers, to forge a national identity out of the disparate lot that arrived on our shores. In this we’ve been aided by a Constitution that—despite being marred by the original sin of slavery—has at its very core the idea of equal citizenship under the law; and an economic system that, more than any other, has offered opportunity to all comers, regardless of status or title or rank.

We can inspire and invite other people to assert their freedoms; we can use international forums and agreements to set standards for others to follow; we can provide funding to fledgling democracies to help institutionalize fair election systems, train independent journalists, and seed the habits of civic participation; we can speak out on behalf of local leaders whose rights are violated; and we can apply economic and diplomatic pressure to those who repeatedly violate the rights of their own people. It is this fundamental change that must lead the U.S. to renew its leadership in the world. We must bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end and then renew our leadership – military, diplomatic, and moral – to confront new threats and capitalize on new opportunities.

These are lessons that I have learned not only during my time as a U.S. Senator, but growing up in different regions of the world, working as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, working with churches and labor unions to help laid-off workers get new skills and depressed communities rebuild, and as a civil rights lawyer. That was the best education I ever got. It taught me that true change comes from the bottom up. It’s a lesson that guides me every day and one that led me to a life of public service almost twenty-five years ago, and one I’ll carry with me to Washington.