PBS NewsHour’s chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner talked about the “New World Order” Monday night at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
She said, “There’s no ‘New World Order.’ It’s a new world disorder.”
Warner’s speech was the first of the Media School’s spring Speaker Series.
As she reflected upon the most transformative world events she covered, Warner said it forced her to think about how much the world had changed in regards to foreign affairs.
The phrase “New World Order” was coined during George H. W. Bush’s presidency in the 1990’s, and Warner said it has not rung true in her 25 years of covering foreign affairs.
“It is a really unpredictable place,” she said. “There’s no way for the U.S. to shape the world the way that we’re used to.”
Among other accomplishments, Warner won an Emmy for her reporting on Pakistan and the Edward Weintal Prize for International Reporting. She was awarded the Lee H. Hamilton Public Service Fellowship during her talk Monday for her service in journalism.
She has worked in the PBS newsroom since 1993 covering world conflicts such as the revolution in Egypt and wars in Iraq.
Sophomore Emily Lovell said Warner’s talk might help students better understan foreign affairs.
“It’s always important for younger people to understand what’s going on in their backyard,” she said.
Donna Ormiston, resident of Brown Country and regular NewsHour viewer, said she looked forward to hearing Warner’s insights.
“She’s always informative,” she said.
Warner described her past nine years of travels as a kaleidoscope of images. She said her reporting did not rely on what officials had to say alone, however critical.
She said she looked through the scope of human lives to tell the story. She recalled her coverage in Darfur where villages were burned down and women were traveling on foot with children to refuge for 150 miles in 120-degree heat.
“But yet the kids were laughing and playing the way kids do, and I thought ‘where do they get this fortitude?’” she said. “I don’t know; I guess it’s the human spirit.”
That human spirit was what guided her work.
“To me, it’s not only the world leaders that I do get to interview often,” she said. “But it’s really the lives of people who are caught up in competing forces, under competing forces of which they have no control.”
Bloomington resident Alice Leake said she enjoys Warner’s ability to bring into focus specific details and uncover truth when reporting.
“I really appreciate somebody who goes into the minds behind the news, the reasoning behind the news, the sort of subtleties which they so often don’t show.”
In regards to foreign policy, Warner said global events and conflicts were no longer rigidly defined. It is an age of unconventional war, she said.
As a journalist, she aimed to answer the question of what America’s role in foreign affairs should be in this era.
She said, “I think that diplomacy, if pursued, has to be tackled vigorously.”
Although fragmented power has made way for disorder in regards to foreign affairs, she said there is a way to chart a more successful course.
However, she said, “I think we’re in for a long, rough ride.”
