Policymakers should look beyond simplistic solutions and examine the root causes of threats like terrorism, former British Broadcasting Corporation reporter Philip Short argued in a speech sponsored by the Rockefeller Center on Tuesday.
Short, who worked as a foreign correspondent for more than 20 years and recently wrote a book about Pol Pot, was at Dartmouth to talk about the late Cambodian dictator and his reign of terror in Southeast Asia during the late 1970s.
Estimates are that starvation, illness and execution during Pol Pot's communist rule killed some 1.5 million people -- one-fifth of Cambodia's population -- though the real numbers may never be known.
According to Short, however, foreign intervention in the area during Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime was misguided.
"What was going on in Cambodia was dreadfully complicated and every response was simple," Short said.
One important lesson, Short told a small crowd, is to realize how perceived threats -- then communism and now terrorism -- come to be. He encouraged world leaders to address the causes of these threats rather than their symptoms.
"When we see enemies -- people who are threatening our way of life, like the communists did -- we need to figure out where they're coming from," Short said.
Short did not go so far as to call the United States "responsible" for Pol Pot's rise to power, citing the influence of other countries, but said American intervention during the Vietnam War was an important factor.
"Had there been no Vietnam with an American role, Pol Pot would not have come to power," Short said.
Nevertheless, simple answers to the events that endowed Pol Pot with the power to kill are hard to come by, Short said.
"One likes to be able to pin things down to give a one-line answer that sums things up, and with Pol Pot, you can't do that -- there is no one answer," he said.
One element, nonetheless, was paranoia about neighboring Thailand and Vietnam, which Short said led to irrational behavior.
Short looked for more answers during research for his book, which was recently released in the United States, speaking with former Khmer Rouge leaders.
"I wanted to know why they killed," Short said in an interview with the Dartmouth.
The 59-year-old former journalist, who left the BBC in 1997 and now lives in the south of France, wondered why Americans do not scrutinize the roots of terrorism.
"Who in this country asks, 'Why do they become terrorists'?" Short asked.
He questioned the Bush administration idea of spreading democracy to promote peace, saying that forcing other countries to accept America's form of government sounded like a "dictatorship mindset."
"Democracy is not a commodity. Democracy grows from within a country. It's not something you can export," Short said, noting that democracy can only be "encouraged."
Short also questioned a book on democracy by his friend, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, which recently made headlines as a reported Bush favorite.
He said it is hard to change views formed early on, and Sharansky's were formed in a dictatorship.
"Mr. Bush's bedtime reading is Soviet-inspired," Short said.
Short said that during visits to colleges like Dartmouth, he enjoys the questions that he gets, and that professors should give student s more credit for the intellectual exchange that leads to book ideas.
Short also cast doubt on the current state of American journalism, saying there is "too much uncritical regurgitating" in today's news reporting.
Short said he is now working on a documentary about Mao Tse-Tung -- a subject of one of his previous biographies.
After the speech, Short signed copies of his new book in conjunction with the Dartmouth Bookstore.
