The University's Whig-Cliosophic Society presented former Secretary of State George Shultz '42 with the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service on Tuesday.
Shultz addressed students in McCosh 10, urging them to seek "the road not taken" and remember that diplomacy achieves change most effectively when supported by strength.
Shultz defended the Bush administration's doctrine of preemptive warfare and the United States' involvement in Iraq.
"If you attack ahead, you are highly reliant on intelligence and we know how hard it is to be accurate," he said. "But suppose you don't act. You pay a very heavy price."
He pointed out the benefits of removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, including stability in the Middle East.
Holding back, on the other hand, would have left "Iraq with all this money, awesome weaponry and great hostility, changing the dimensions of the Middle East and of our world," he said.
On the domestic front, Shultz said new, more creative solutions are needed to reform government programs such as Social Security.
"Those systems were created in another era," he said, explaining that life expectency was shorter in the 1930s. "That setting doesn't resemble where we are now, not even remotely."
Whig-Clio Vice President Matt MacDonald '07 said he agreed with most of Shultz's views and that the lecture helped solidify his own.
"They provided a valid context in which to evaluate my opinions," he said.
However, Charm Tang '06 said she disagreed with many of Shultz's ideas.
"He didn't necessarily change my mind," she said. "But he did make me think twice."
Shultz served in the Reagan administration as Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989 during the end of the Cold War.
Before his term at the State Department, Shultz served as Secretary of Labor under President Nixon and received the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1989, according to Whig-Clio President Karis Gong '06.
She said the debate society chose to present the James Madison Award to Shultz because leaders of the future can learn from Shultz's experience.
"[James Madison's] leadership and longterm vision for his country are ideals encompassed by the award we present today," added Elizabeth Linder '07, Whig-Clio's Director of Speakers.
"The week following the [presidential] election is a time when we all appreciate the wisdom of the public servants that have gone before," Linder said.
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