American political leaders gathered in Washington Thursday for the ceremonial groundbreaking of a building for a nonpartisan group helping to resolve international conflict and promote peace.
美国政治领袖星期四聚集在华盛顿，参加美国和平研究所的奠基典礼。和平研究所是一个帮助解决国际冲突和促进和平的跨党派组织。
This will be the first permanent headquarters for the U.S. Institute of Peace, founded by Congress in 1984 as an independent, nonpartisan organization to resolve conflict and promote post-conflict stability and development.
这座建筑物将成为美国和平研究所的第一个永久总部。美国国会于1984年成立了这个 独立的、非党派的组织，以解决冲突并促进冲突后的稳定和发展。
Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz said the group is focused on trying to better understand what factors lead to violence and how are they resolved.
美国前国务卿乔治.舒尔茨说，这个组织的重点是要更深入地了解哪些因素导致暴力以及如何解决暴力。
"How did something violent go to something more stable and peaceful? How did that breakdown and all of a sudden there is violence, from the killing fields of Cambodia to something more stable," he said.
舒尔茨说：“怎样才能让暴力转向更加稳定与和平？稳定与和平是如何破裂的，怎么会在突然间出现暴力？怎样才能让柬埔寨的屠杀场转变成一种比较稳定的局面？”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the U.S. Institute of Peace helped resolve some of the worst violence of the last century and continues that work today.
美国国会众议院议长佩洛西说，美国和平研究所帮助解决了上个世纪的一些最严重的暴力事件，今天仍在继续工作。
"The Institute has played a role in helping to find peaceful solutions from South Africa to Rwanda in Kosovo and now in Sudan," she noted.
她说：“从南非到卢旺达、科索沃以及现在的苏丹，这个研究所在帮助找到和平解决方案方面发挥了作用。”
U.S. President George Bush said it is in America's vital interest to help resolve conflict because people who live in free societies are less likely to turn to ideologies of hatred and fear.
美国总统布什说，帮助解决冲突符合美国的切身利益，因为在自由世界生活的人不太可能转向仇恨和恐惧的意识形态。
"Freedom is universal," he said. "We believe that freedom is the birthright of every man, woman, and child. Free societies are peaceful societies. Freedom helps supplant the conditions of hopelessness that extremists exploit to recruit terrorists and suicide bombers."
他说：“自由是普世的。我们相信，自由是每个男人、妇女和儿童与生俱来的权利。自由社会是和平的社会。自由能够取代绝望的状态，而正是这种绝望被极端分子利用来招募恐怖分子和自杀炸弹手 。”
The president again spoke of the ideological struggle against extremism and three primary ways it challenges free societies. He said countries including Colombia, Lebanon, and Pakistan are facing drug cartels or terrorist networks that are threatening to overwhelm state institutions.
布什总统再次谈到了反对极端主义意识形态的斗争以及自由社会的三个主要挑战。他说，哥伦比亚、黎巴嫩、巴基斯坦等国正在面临毒品跨国集团或恐怖网络要推翻这些国家政权的威胁。
"There are developing nations, many on the continent of Africa, that are facing extreme poverty and health epidemics and humanitarian catastrophes and are therefore vulnerable to extremists who take advantage of chaos and instability," he added.
布什说：“一些发展中国家，特别是非洲大陆很多国家，正面临极端贫困、疾病流行和人道主义灾难。这些国家的混乱和不稳定很容易被极端分子所利用。”
And in Afghanistan and Iraq where U.S. forces have removed previous governments, Mr. Bush said the United States has a special obligation to help build free societies by providing the security necessary for that freedom to grow.
在阿富汗和伊拉克，美军已经推翻了前任政府。布什说，美国有特别的义务来帮助建立一个自由社会，提供必要的安全让自由能够成长。
The U.S. Institute of Peace is currently working on conflict and post-conflict analysis in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Liberia.
美国和平研究所目前正致力于对阿富汗、尼日利亚、黎巴嫩、伊拉克、伊朗和利比里亚的冲突以及冲突后的局面进行分析。
Its headquarters near Washington's Lincoln Memorial will include a public education center, a research library, archives, classrooms, and a conference center.
美国和平研究所的总部座落在华盛顿的林肯纪念堂附近，大楼里将包括一个公众教育中心，研究图书馆，档案馆， 教室和一个会议中心。 |