"The world will
succeed by mutual respect and solidarity, or it will fail. I believe
that our destiny is shared, but also in peril. Together, can we find
that common purpose?"

Blair spent his forty-five minute address
suggesting, to a rapt audience of more than 1,500 Tufts students and
community members, ways in which world leaders might foster a common
purpose, using his political background and recent experience as a
Middle East envoy to offer both anecdotes and insights.

The
conflict between Israel and Palestine took center stage in Blair's
remarks. A resolution to that conflict, he offered, would set a
powerful precedent for future conflicts in the 21st century.

"If
we were able, in that conflict, to provide the basis for peace, if in
that small strip of land, people actually learnt to live with each
other after all the bitterness and conflict that has gone before, that
would be the single most powerful expression of coexistence there could
be."

But, he explained, that the conflict, like many facing the
world – climate change, the economic crisis, and rampant preventable
diseases like malaria – cannot be resolved according to the traditional
principle of "narrow self-interest."

"Each problem is global,
each requires a global response; in no case is any one country able to
handle them on its own. And this is part of the challenge to us.
Because we have to realize that if indeed we are in an interdependent
and interconnected world, and if it is the case that no one country can
deal with these challenges on its own, then the implications are clear:
to deal with those challenges, we need global alliances."

In order to form such alliances, Blair suggested, new and deeper understandings need to be created.

"A
narrow view of foreign policy conducted according to immediate national
self-interest no longer works effectively. If it is true that we need
global alliances, alliances between different countries with different
cultures, then those alliances cannot come about upon the basis of
imposing one world view on another."

Addressing global problems
requires a more "enlightened" conception of national self-interests,
based upon a recognition of interdependence and of the possibility that
"those countries that are going backwards are not merely harming
themselves, but areas of conflict are spreading."

With these new ways of thinking, a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is within reach, Blair said.

"Take
any reasonable group of Israelis and Palestinians," Blair explained,
"who basically believe in peace, put them in two separate rooms, tell
them to come up with a peace agreement, and the two wouldn't be that
far apart. If we are determined-and Obama has signaled he is – to take
this issue and drive it, guide it, then I believe that peace is
possible."

Referencing the recent military operations in the
Gaza strip, Blair stressed the need for urgency. "In the past few
weeks, I've felt the tension rising in the region, felt the fault lines
in the politics of that region go deep. We cannot afford to let another
year pass without substantial progress."

Blair also cited a need
to focus on secular education, asking, "when there are young people
taught in religious madrasahs, from the early hours of the morning into
the evening, religious instruction and nothing but, why are we
surprised when there are some who drift into extremism?"

The
solution, Blair offered, is to "make sure that people of different
faiths find the means to understand each other better, to respect each
other better – not merely to tolerate each other – but to understand
that we have a common destiny and purpose."

Delayed nearly an
hour and a half by an intense and rare snowstorm in London earlier
Monday, the former Prime Minister took only a handful of pre-screened
audience questions after his address.

Asked whether, given
subsequent developments, he could still publicly say that the US
invasion of Iraq was justified, Blair said only that "you face
decisions and you make them. I still don't think that the region would
be more peaceful if Saddam were running Iraq."