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Part 2: Modernizing Our Smart Power Toolkit for the 21st Century
Smart power requires smart investments in our civilian toolkit. Simply spending more money will not make America more secure or prosperous unless we are equally committed to reforming and modernizing our foreign policy apparatus.
Getting Our House in Order
A modern, unified approach with long-term vision
Our national security and foreign policy institutions must work better together to meet 21st century challenges. Today, more than 20 separate government agencies carry out disparate and overlapping foreign assistance programs, with no integrated sense of mission or effective coordination. Sometimes they work at cross-purposes, such as supporting an economy with foreign assistance on the one hand but undermining it through trade barriers or subsidies on the other. The lines of authority and responsibility between our military programs and our international diplomacy and foreign assistance structures are increasingly blurred. We principally organize our overseas presence country-by-country, but not by region. The result too often is duplication, incoherence, gaps, and policy ineffectiveness. We must set national foreign policy goals linked to a cohesive blueprint to reform these structures and processes, so they work more effectively together. Only then can we maximize the leverage of our resources.
Powering Up Our Diplomacy and Development Tools Abroad
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
We need a more nimble, flexible, and thoroughly trained diplomatic and foreign assistance corps. We must equip this corps with the language, technical, cultural, and management skills they need to ally with partners, convert adversaries, and implement programs in the field. Our numerous foreign assistance programs need to be strategically aligned together to make sure the right resources are going to the right countries in the right amounts. The next President must work with Congress to streamline our foreign assistance bureaucracy, increase flexibility, and strengthen our ability to respond to needs overseas. Smart foreign assistance requires a comprehensive strategy that:
- tackles long term obstacles to growth, poverty reduction and human development;
- strengthens diplomacy;
- builds alliances and partnerships;
- addresses our strategic needs in key regions; and
- builds responsive and effective governance.
Our current strong investments in HIV/AIDS and malaria need to be better matched by long-term investments in economic growth, basic education, agriculture, health, and the environment to enhance social and economic progress and political stability.
Measuring Our Success
Transparency, accountability and performance measures driving smart power
The American people deserve to know where and how their foreign policy dollars are being spent and whether they are being used effectively. We need to strengthen our systems for measuring progress in achieving our national security and foreign policy goals. We must work with our partners to create a common framework for measuring what does and does not work in our efforts to foster economic growth and human development, increase global and regional stability, and help countries to build strong, accountable governments that can provide for their people.
Building a strong smart power toolkit will help America create a more secure, prosperous, and democratic world. The next President must introduce an integrated set of strategic, budgetary, and institutional changes to strengthen our capacity to achieve these goals. There are a range of options for action for the next President to consider in elevating development and diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy, including the following.
Develop and articulate a clear vision for the effective use of smart power
-Develop a National Security Strategy that integrates strong diplomatic, economic, and foreign assistance policies with military and intelligence capabilities.
-Institute a quadrennial foreign assistance strategy review that articulates the goals and objectives of U.S. assistance and provides the basis for “guidance” to agencies so budgets fit with overall objectives.
-Articulate to the American people and the world through foreign policy statements, speeches, and policy pronouncements the importance of leading the world through smart power and the key elements of the strategy.
Match investments to needs and capabilities
-Increase the number of diplomats and foreign assistance experts with relevant technical and language-skills.
-Establish a “civilian reserve corps” composed of individuals with skills to provide quick response for reconstruction efforts in failing and post-conflict states.
-Double financial resources for foreign assistance to address enormous gaps in funding for latent and post-conflict states.
Increase resources aimed at specific critical challenges, including:
-Saving millions of lives by fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis;
-Preventing childhood and maternal deaths by fighting preventable diseases and expanding access to basic health care services;
-Achieving universal primary school education, with special emphasis on girls’ education and learning;
-Ensuring an educated workforce by augmenting higher education and vocational training programs;
-Providing clean water and basic sanitation to millions of people;
-Fighting hunger and generating income for low-income farmers by increasing agricultural research and productivity;
-Improving business and trade environments to open new markets and promote long-term economic growth;
-Mitigating the impact of climate change on developing countries.
-Reinforce the links between human and political development through increased investments in promoting democratic norms and institution building.
Modernize and strengthen our strategic framework and supporting institutions for foreign policy
Elevate development to equal standing alongside defense and diplomacy and improve coherence, coordination, and effectiveness of foreign assistance by uniting programs under a common structure. While there is wide agreement on the need for greater institutional coherence, there are differing views on the best way to achieve that goal. Options include:
(1) establishing a new, independent cabinet department for international development,
(2) naming a new "foreign assistance czar" at the White House to coordinate programs,
(3) significantly strengthening the capacity and widening the authority of USAID, and
(4) broadening the mandate of the new Director of Foreign Assistance under the Secretary of State to oversee all foreign assistance programs.
-Work with Congress to update the legislation that provides the foundation for U.S. assistance policy and programs overseas – the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 – to create the policies, programs, institutions and results criteria that better meet today’s national security and development needs.
-Engage with Congress to achieve greater flexibility in foreign assistance accounts and contingency capabilities that allow rapid response to emerging crises and opportunities.
-Restructure the State Department so that regional bureaus can more effectively coordinate with regional military commanders on the ground.
-Institute an annual budget submission to Congress that covers the entire toolkit of America’s national security and international engagement – defense, diplomacy and foreign assistance – a truly, integrated National Security Budget.
-Reform agricultural subsidies that distort or reduce economic opportunities for low-income farmers in poor countries.
-Align our trade agenda to reflect coherence with development needs.
-Establish strong and independent monitoring and evaluation systems that assess the connection between funding and achievement of key goals.
Restore America’s image through cooperation and innovation
-Mobilize the compassion of Americans for 21st century volunteerism:
-Expand the recruitment of Peace Corps volunteers
-Support the myriad global service opportunities provided by America’s vibrant faith based and nongovernmental organizations, universities, and the private sector.
-Emphasize volunteer initiatives that take American entrepreneurial and management skills overseas.
Strengthen cultural and educational exchange programs.
-Establish a “Pay for Progress” program to provide bonuses or other financial rewards to U.S. institutions for advances in vaccine development (HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, diabetes).
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