In its role as the last remaining superpower, the United States has a responsibility to help developing nations, former president of South Africa F.W. de Klerk said Monday evening at the University of Oklahoma.

In a globalized world, conflicts in faraway lands are everyone's concern, as these problems will have worldwide consequences.

"The United States, ladies and gentlemen, as the last remaining superpower will inevitably have to play a disproportionate role in addressing these challenges," de Klerk said. "It is part of the burden of world leadership. However, there is maybe one thing more burdensome than being the most powerful country in the world, and that is no longer being the most powerful country in the world."

De Klerk spoke on "Bridging the Gap: Globalization without Isolation" at the President's Associates dinner in the Oklahoma Memorial Union on the OU campus.

OU President David Boren said in his introduction that he met de Klerk in South Africa about a year before de Klerk became president.

"There are very few people that I've met in my life for whom I've had greater admiration," Boren said.

De Klerk was president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994. During his presidency, he decided to release Nelson Mandela from prison and legalize the previously banned African National Congress and Communist Party, which led to that nation's first-ever multi-racial elections in 1994 and the election of Mandela as the country's president. During his term in office, he overturned every remaining discriminatory apartheid law in South Africa.

De Klerk's leadership earned him the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, and both he and Mandela were named TIME Magazine's Man of the Year.

In 1994, he assumed the post of deputy president in the National Unity Government and worked with Mandela in drafting the country's new constitution and continuing the peaceful path of political reform.

Monday evening, De Klerk spoke about the problems throughout the world that will affect even Oklahoma because of the increasingly global society.

And in that globe, about 2 billion people live below the poverty line, he said. What is more, the disparity between the richest and the poorest nations is growing, he said. Wealthy nations like the U.S. can't just turn a blind eye to the poverty and misery in much of the rest of the world, especially in Africa, he said.

"What happens there can not and dare not be ignored by us who sit in comfortable circumstances, by the U.S.A., by the G7, by the European Union," de Klerk said.

He said the United States is in a position of great influence as the world's police force and mayor. The U.S. was justified in its use of force against Afghanistan and Iraq, de Klerk said.

He quoted Theodore Roosevelt, but said that while carrying a big stick is important, the United States can't forget the first part of that phrase: speak softly.

The United States must find multilateral solutions to the world's conflicts, de Klerk said.

When seeking solutions, it's important to understand the root causes. De Klerk said the root causes of world conflicts are poverty, repression, ignorance and fanaticism. He said it was no coincidence that Al Queda found its home in Afghanistan, where the people were poor and repressed.

To help solve these root problems, de Klerk said the U.S. needs to pay more attention to helping the countries most deeply in debt, especially through promoting trade with these countries. The U.S. spends five times more on subsidies to domestic farmers, de Klerk said, "than on the billions of people who are hungry and starving."

In its role as a global leader, the U.S. also should promote good governance, he said. Many African countries are plagued by wars and need the support of America to develop democratic governments.

"The U.S. should adopt a proactive stance in diffusing potential conflicts and in promoting peaceful solutions and resolutions," de Klerk said.

He used the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as an example of a conflict that has global repercussions. The oil-rich Middle East has the potential to upset international markets. The U.S. should support a peaceful compromise in the area, de Klerk said.

He used South Africa as an example of how such a conflict should be peacefully resolved.

"We discovered that there was another way (than violence), we discovered that it was possible," he said.

In the transition from apartheid, de Klerk said he and the other leaders learned to negotiate with all participants and make sacrifices on all sides.

"If we could do it, the Israelis and the Palestinians should also be able to do it," de Klerk said.

The U.S. will have to play a key role in this and other conflict resolutions. Because America has such power and prominence, it also has a responsibility, de Klerk said.

He compared the U.S. to the empires of Great Britain and Rome. He said those empires knew the force that was necessary to maintain their power, but times have changed. Sometimes iron will and absolute force are not consistent with democratic values, de Klerk said.

He urged the United States not to lose sight of its ideals of personal and economic freedoms. Those values are what made the country great, and those are what will keep the U.S. in its position of international prominence.

"The greatness of the United States does not lie in the compounded strength of its Army, its Navy and its Air Force, it lies in the values and ideals of personal and economic freedom," de Klerk said. "... If it can remain true to these ideals, it will continue to succeed and carry on in historic global leadership."

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com