Solutions must extend beyond traditional top-down approaches to bottom-up processes that will strengthen institutions of government and society, not only security forces, Hadley said in a May 14 conversation with New York Times correspondent David Sanger at USIP. The experiences in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan demonstrate that societies in conflict can’t solve their problems by military tactics or technology.

“You can have a drone program in Pakistan until the cows come home, and it will not bring stability to that country,” Hadley said in the wide-ranging discussion that also touched on Syria, Iran, Russia and China. “If you’re going to get stability in a place like Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, then you’ve got to have governments that are able to have strong security forces but also have governments for which their security forces will fight.”

That means authorities that are “not corrupt, that are transparent, that are responsive, that are competent,” Hadley said.

“I’ve spent my career in the issue of brokering peace from the top down, from the vantage points of governments,” he said. “What we find in the way the world is moving – there is an enormous opportunity to help construct peace from the bottom up.”

Hadley, who is serving his third, though non-consecutive, term on the USIP board of directors, was elected chairman in January. He spent four years as the principal White House foreign policy advisor to then-President George W. Bush. He previously worked as deputy to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, with responsibilities including in the specific fields of U.S. relations with Russia, the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, the development of a strategic relationship with India and ballistic missile defense. In 1987, Hadley was counsel to the Tower Commission, as it investigated U.S. arms sales to Iran. He also served on the National Security Council under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977.

Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for the Times, is a former writer-in-residence at USIP. He asked Hadley about the fluctuating perceptions of the U.S. in the past decade or more from that of a country too likely to intervene in a foreign conflict to that of a nation that is leaving vacuums by its absence.

Hadley said both extremes are exaggerated, “and we in the Bush administration bear some responsibility for that.” “The Iraq war got characterized, wrongly, as using military force to impose democracy,” he said. At the same time, he said, criticism in the Middle East and the Far East that the administration of President Barack Obama is disengaged is unfair. While that impression can still be damaging, he rejected the implication of a recent cover for The Economist magazine that asked “What would America fight for?”

The cover instead should have asked “what will America stand for,” Hadley said. “The world still needs and wants American leadership.”

With the Syrian conflict between the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups now in its fourth year, Hadley said the Obama administration is right to try to maintain a coalition and to train and arm a vetted democratic opposition that can not only fight Assad but also counter the threat that has developed there from al-Qaida.

“Syria is not only a humanitarian tragedy,” Hadley said in the discussion. “It is encouraging Sunni-Shia tensions, it has opened the door to Iraq, it’s destabilizing its neighbors … So I think one of the lessons is that you can over-learn the lessons of the last war.” Ultimately, Syria will need a government made up of elements of the regime and of the democratic opposition that reassures Syrians of all ethnic and religious backgrounds “that there’s a place for them in the new Syria,” he said. Such a government should be able to reduce the violence and pursue al-Qaida.

One factor that might help on Syria in the long term is a potential deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program. While regional security issues aren’t on the agenda of the nuclear talks with the U.S. and its five partners, a deal might allow Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to extend his authority to relations with neighbors, Hadley said. Syria’s Assad has relied heavily for years on support from Iran as well as from Russia.

The nuclear agreement “is only a piece of what has to be a much more comprehensive approach to the region,” Hadley said.Such complex conflicts all over the globe require political solutions alongside security approaches, he said. Preventing problems in the Asia-Pacific, for example, will require the U.S. to be “very present” diplomatically, economically and militarily to reassure allies, while also engaging with China on common interests such as energy, environment and terrorism.

Hadley expressed hope that the inter-state conflicts that dominated the 20th Century are a phenomenon of the past, though he said that depends to a certain extent on the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.

“The trick is to fashion a long-term policy that reduces his leverage, that deters him from taking action, that brings some of these states [to the] west and strengthens their institutions so that they’re not vulnerable to what he’s doing in Ukraine,” Hadley said. “I think that is possible, but it again requires a very sophisticated, long-term strategy. To think that you’re going to fix this by some quick sanctions on Russia is just a fool’s errand.”

USIP’s own role is “ever more critical, given the way that the world is changing and given the kinds of conflicts and potential conflicts we’re going to see out there.”

“What we’re seeing is disruption and conflict within states,” fueled by trans-national scourges such as organized crime, terrorism and trafficking as well as internal strife over ethnic and religious differences or resource competition.

“The insight of this institution is yes, there will be conflict, but conflict does not need to result in armed conflict,” Hadley said. “And there are ways to avoid that, and those ways can be learned, and they can be taught.”

In Iraq, for example, USIP has brought Sunnis and Shia together in some areas to help defuse local conflicts. Among the next steps is to explore whether it’s possible to help Sunnis build grassroots political support for moderate leaders who are interested in working cooperatively with Shia counterparts, Hadley said.

He cited the case of Tunisia as a “classic case of bottom-up,” where civic and business leaders and others exerted pressure for a new constitution and then persuaded the Islamist government to step down peacefully.

“We’ve spent, as a country, billions and billions and billions of dollars and 60 years learning how to recruit, train, fight and improve our military,” Hadley said. “We have not made anything like the comparable commitment to develop these civilian capabilities … that can help societies under pressure build good governance, develop and provide a better life for their people. That is the big hole in how we approach dealing with conflict.”