[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H3474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SECURITY CHALLENGES ARISING FROM THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, students of history know that 
hyperinflation in Germany was a significant factor in the rise of 
Hitler. The economic decay of the Soviet Union led to regime change 
across Eastern Europe. And a serious economic crisis preceded the 
French Revolution. So the record is clear that economic crises can have 
consequences for national security of the highest order. Here in the 
United States, our economic strength has always been the foundation of 
our national power and our national security. Economics plays no less 
important a role in the fate of many other nations.
  Knowing this, the House Armed Services Committee decided to explore 
how the current global financial crisis is affecting national security 
by holding a hearing last week with a distinguished panel of economic 
and national security experts. We had been working to hold such a 
hearing since November, but the urgency of this effort was only 
emphasized when the Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis 
Blair, stated in this annual threat assessment that the global 
financial crisis represents the primary near-term concern for U.S. 
national security. During our hearing, we learned more about the many 
ways the world has been thrown into serious turmoil by this sudden 
global shock and that many if not most of the international 
consequences are yet to come.
  We learned that, at a minimum, the global financial crisis will 
exacerbate an already growing set of political and economic challenges 
facing the world. In country after country, the crisis is increasing 
citizen discontent and anger toward their leaders and providing an 
excuse for authoritarian regimes to consolidate their power. It 
distracts and strains our allies and generates conditions that could 
provide fodder for terrorism. Financial turmoil can loosen the fragile 
hold that many countries have on law and order and increase the number 
and size of ungoverned spaces.
  While most of the experts we heard from agree that the strongest 
economies will weather this storm, it is the fragile states that worry 
me the most. Emerging democracies throughout Eastern and Central 
Europe, Africa, and Asia will turn to the Western world for support. If 
we cannot or do not help them, they may be forced into economic 
alliances of necessity with long-term consequences. When Iceland 
recently turned without success to its friends in the West, it found a 
``new friend'' in Russia. Jamaica has received significant financial 
assistance from China. The list of countries in critical regions in 
need of such assistance is long indeed. Economic pressures within 
European countries might even become so severe as to seriously weaken 
or unravel the ties that bind the countries of the European Union and 
NATO Alliance together.
  Perhaps most serious, at a time when U.S. leadership is sorely 
needed, our international credibility is at an unprecedented low. The 
crisis is causing the emerging nations to question the Western model of 
market capitalism. Flawed policies, poor decisions, weak regulation, 
and questionable behavior have led to a widespread perception that 
American-style capitalism is unsustainable. This perception may be the 
most corrosive effect of the current crisis.
  Mr. Speaker, our response to the global economic crisis must be far 
reaching and far seeing. We must restore our economy, maintain and 
enhance our key instruments of national power, including the Department 
of Defense, and take an approach with the world that reestablishes our 
credibility and claim to world leadership. We must support our friends 
and maintain our alliances. We must not become so self absorbed that we 
fail to recognize our long-term strategic interests. And we must be 
very clear, in today's world a strong national defense is not a luxury, 
it is an imperative.

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