Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all of you, first of all, for being here today. Thank you. Jacob Hbert's doing a phenomenal job. Everybody at our department is doing a great job, and I'm very proud of the work the State Department is putting into these and other initiatives. One of the things we really wanted to do in our time here, and one of the reasons behind many of the reforms we undertook, is to allow us to have a State Department that can move at the speed of relevance, which is something we used to say all the time. Now, it's become almost a cliche, but it really is important because world affairs are moving so quickly, economic developments are moving so quickly, and so much of that is internationalized and it involves what we do around the world as well. And so I'm very proud of everybody at the Department of State and all the work that they're doing to be a part of this initiative along with our partners and the other agencies, because this truly is an interagency challenge that we're facing.
What is the challenge that we're here to talk about today? Let me put it to you this way. I think we made a terrible mistake in this country not many years ago, under people that were in charge at the time, especially at the end of the Cold War, and that was the idea that the ability to make things no longer mattered, and no matter what didn't matter any longer where things were made. They were to be made in the most efficient place at the lowest possible cost. That meant more profits for the company, lower costs for the consumers, and that was the way the world would work. There was this fantasy, really, that the whole world would become free enterprise democracies and that everyone would look like us. That ran into reality. The reality that that is not how human events have ever worked. That the nation state still does matter. Nationalism is still real. National borders still matter. And that countries are going to always act in their best interest. But the result of it is that it de-industrialized America. We lost our ability and our capacity to make things. And not just big things, not just the kinds of big machinery and things that we normally identify with industry, but even some of the most basic components that are necessary that underpin economic life, especially in the 21st century. And we woke up to the reality just a few years ago that we are suddenly, as a nation, dangerously dependent on other nations for all sorts of things that we need, not simply for our economic vibrancy, but in many cases for our national security and our very survival as a prosperous nation state.
And so now we are involved in this endeavor across the board to try to reverse those mistakes. And it will be the work of multiple administrations, but it starts here and it starts now with this one that is receiving attention at its highest levels. One way is just the basic ingredients that go into all this, and it's why you've seen such a focus on access to not just critical minerals as raw material, but also to the ability to process them. But the other has to be the ability to actually make things once again. And we have to understand that re-industrialization, that 21st century industrial activity, is going to look different than it did in the 20th century. It's going to involve far more skills. It's going to involve not just our workers going to have to be better educated in what they're doing, but in many cases, given the evolution and the rapidly changing dynamics of the modern world, they may have to be retrained multiple times in their career.
One of the crown jewels that have powered American innovation and ultimately powered American economic influence and power around the world has been our system of higher education. It has produced extraordinary research. It has produced extraordinary breakthroughs. I think the sad part about it is the number of things we have innovated or created, but then they're made somewhere else. And so I think in the 21st century, this partnership with higher education is important. And it's important for two reasons. First of all, why build a new wheel when we already have a wheel? We just need to repurpose that wheel to become the place where 21st century American workers go to become empowered with the skills they need to succeed. But I also think it's important for higher education, and we've got some great partners here today that are already part of this initiative, and of course we want this partnership to grow to include other schools as well. But I think it's also important for higher education because increasingly young Americans are asking, is the college degree worth it? Is the college route worth it? Because we have to borrow money, or we have to spend money, or we have to do all these sorts of things, and in the end I get a degree, and all that degree does is either a, qualify me to get another degree, or b, it may not even really lead to a job necessarily that's different from the one I could have gotten otherwise. And I think this speaks to that because it also, in addition to being good for our country, is an opportunity to say to students, if you come here and you go to school and you follow this curriculum, you will leave here not just with a paper credential, but with the skills that make you immediately employable in a high-paying job, in a good-paying job with long-term stability.
And so this partnership is critical because what I hope it means, what I hope it symbolizes, and not just symbolizes, but what I hope it is evidence of, is how government partnering with non-government entities like our higher education system and the private sector. The combination of those three pillars: the private sector that needs the workers and knows what they need from the workers, the higher education system that can equip young Americans with the skills they need to fill those jobs, and government that ensures not just that it's acting as a convening body, but ensures that our national policies reflect these priorities. These three pillars working together drive us towards this outcome that we want, and it's very important. So I think today's a great way to kick this off. We have great partners on board already. We hope to attract more. I want to thank all of you for being a part of it.
And the last thing I want to say about this is that we understand that for this to work, this is not a two-year project. This is not a two-and-a-half-year project. This is a project that will involve sustainment for the long term. Multiple American administrations are going to have to make this a priority. Which is why it's so important that you see evidence that at the highest levels of our government now and for the future, you have that commitment. And it's why it's exciting for us to have the vice president here today to speak about it, because I think it evidences not just the importance this administration gives it, but our acknowledgement that this is an issue that's going to require long-term and sustained attention. This has to be an endeavor that goes on beyond the next two years. It has to go on for a generation. And I think having the vice president here today with us is evidence of that commitment. And so now I want to introduce and welcome to the stage here at the Institute of Peace, a beautiful building that the State Department's using a lot. We thank you all for coming. The Vice President of the United States of America, JD Vance.
