1/21/10

Leading a strong international response to the Haiti crisis serves both America's moral and strategic interests.  The two peoples are closely linked, and public support for aid to Haiti is very strong.  We have seen in past humanitarian disasters - including the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and the devastating 2005 cyclone in Bangladesh -that the United States can play a pivotal role in the recovery efforts, and that this role promotes broader U.S. interests.  When a crisis occurs in our own neighborhood, the United States has a particularly strong strategic interest in leading the aid effort. The response also has implications for regional dynamics, beginning with increased pragmatic cooperation with Cuba.  Greater cooperation with regional actors in responding to the earthquake in Haiti responds to Americans' sense of rights and wrong - and enhances U.S. security interests.

Americans support a sustained commitment to Haiti for moral and practical reasons.  With more than half a million Haitian Americans living in the U.S. and 40,000 American citizens in Haiti, the futures of the two countries are clearly interconnected.  Eighty percent of Americans support the president's move to lead the humanitarian response, according a CBS News poll.  The Miami Herald places the disaster in perspective, saying, "With more than 200,000 feared dead and 1.5 million left homeless, the government is still trying to assess the full extent of the crisis."  With such devastation there is a serious concern of a humanitarian crisis caused by a wave of mass refugees.  This is an area where the United States will play an important role.  The Herald reports that, "Meanwhile, U.S. forces have set up 100 tents at the Guantánamo Bay Navy Base in Cuba as a rudimentary humanitarian relief site that could house up to 1,000 Haitians if earthquake victims start fleeing their nation, a senior military official said."  The US has also set up refugee camps in Haiti, and the Christian Science Monitor describes the efforts at one camp saying, "The food and water have been supplied by USAID and Catholic Relief Services."

The humanitarian response that flows naturally from American generosity also pays long-term dividends for our national interest.  In 2008 the Center for American Progress's Lawrence Korb and Max Bergmann argued that American responses  to natural disasters -including the 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and the devastating 2005 cyclone in Bangladesh -promotes U.S. interests, because it "maintain[s] precious stability... improves the image of the U.S.... cast[s] our global military posture in a better light... and [it]is the price of being the world's largest superpower."  Korb and Bergmann also point out that approval ratings for the U.S. in Pakistan and Indonesia jumped significantly, following U.S. involvement in disaster relief.  Robert Cohen, an expert on displaced peoples at the Brookings Instruction agrees, saying in 2006 that about the Tsunami that "The United States has also come in for praise. Its military was quick to undertake rescue and relief operations, and it was among the world's top contributors... Indeed, polls have found a more favorable view of the United States because of its response to the tsunami." [U.S. Census Bureau, 2007. State Department Briefing, 1/15/10. CBS News Poll, via Reuters, 1/19/10. Miami Herald, 1/21/10. Christian Science Monitor, 1/21/10. Lawrence Korb and Max Bergmann, 5/20/08. Roberta Cohen, 1/12/06.]

Addressing instability in Haiti should be a priority for the US, and for its rebuilding ties across Western Hemisphere.  The Obama administration's response to the crisis in Haiti carries implications for its promise to recast U.S. relations with the broader hemisphere.  As CAP's Stephanie Miller has noted, President Obama faces the challenge of adding substance to hemispheric relations that goes beyond the President's lofty 2009 rhetoric at the Summit of the Americas: "I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership...I'm here to launch a new chapter of engagement that will be sustained throughout my administration." 

A strong and lasting response to the Haitian crisis is a good place to start - because our hemispheric neighbors desire it and because it is in our own interest.  As a Center for American Progress report from 2009 notes, Haiti's "proximity to the United States-600 miles south of Florida-makes it impossible to ignore." The Washington Post highlighted the stakes  for the broader region, emphasizing that "U.S. officials are stepping up measures to prevent last week's earthquake in Haiti from triggering a Caribbean migration not seen in nearly two decades," adding that with "with as many as 3 million people affected by Tuesday's quake, the stakes for the Obama administration in heading off a wave of migrants are high."  Former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios underscored the broader implications of relief efforts in Haiti "We don't want to have destabilization in Haiti, and deaths of this magnitude in Haiti cause destabilization and have political implications." [President Obama, 4/17/09. Stephanie Miller, 4/22/09. CAP, 9/01/09. Washington Post, 1/17/10]

U.S. efforts to provide relief to Haiti offer pragmatic new dynamic in relations with Cuba.  The hemispheric implications of the Obama administration's response to the disaster in Haiti extend to Haiti's neighbor Cuba.  Steve Clemons, of the New America Foundation, writes: "This is time for the US, for Cuba, and other major Latin American nations to throw their weight into stopping a worse human tragedy in Haiti than already exists - and to potentially tie the US and Cuba together in a way that creates greater positives for Haiti and for longer-term, 21st century US-Cuba relations." In the immediate aftermath of the quake, the Obama administration announced that it had "coordinated with the Cuban government for authorization to fly medical evacuation flights from the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Miami, through Cuban airspace, cutting 90 minutes off one-way flight time," according to USA Today. Reuters noted additional avenues for cooperation, including deploying international aid from Cuban airports: "[j]oint efforts could include using airports in eastern Cuba to deliver aid to Port-au-Prince, 250 miles (400 km) across the Caribbean, easing the air traffic bottleneck that has delayed international aid to Haiti. ‘If so, and if Cuba would agree, all nations with airlift capability could then deliver the aid as fast as Haiti can absorb it,' said Phil Peters a Cuba expert with the Lexington Institute in Virginia." 

Cooperation with Cuba on Haiti relief would also pay dividends for relationships across the broader region, according to Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas.  Stephens told Reuters that "[e]nlisting with the Cubans in a joint effort to speed and magnify aid efforts to Haiti would set a new example for U.S. diplomacy that will return long-standing benefits to our nation and our relationships across the Western Hemisphere."  [USA Today, 1/15/10. Reuters, 1/20/10. Steve Clemons, 1/14/10]

What We're Reading

The Taliban have embarked on a sophisticated information war to soften their image and win favor with local Afghans.

After months of criticism, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is expected to remain in office, but it is less certain how much actual power he will retain.

The death of a relatively unknown journalist in Russia by a young police officer has sparked a renewed focus of the culture of impunity Russian authorities seem to exercise.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a major tightening of British aviation security measures, including the creation of a new "no-fly" list.

Analysts believe Google's presence in China helped internet users gain a greater awareness of various sources of information, and thus changed the surfing habits of Chinese internet users permanently. The Chinese government continues to paint their differences as merely an economic one, and not as a political issue, which could have ramifications with trading partners.

President Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Safety Administration withdrew his name. 

Just a month after world leaders fashioned a tentative and nonbinding agreement at the climate change summit meeting in Copenhagen, the deal already appears at risk of coming undone, the top United Nations climate official warned.

Four democracy advocates in Vietnam were convicted in a closely watched trial, part of campaign against dissent that has led to dozens of arrests in recent months.

The American editor of a Palestinian news agency was removed from Israel on Wednesday after being questioned by authorities about his "anti-Israel" views.

British candy company Cadbury is facing a nationalist backlash as American food company Kraft is offering a $19 billion dollar bid for the company. Cadbury shareholders are expected to accept the hostile takeover. 

Commentary of the Day

Matthew Alexander opines in the New York Times that America's interrogation policies continue to be inhumane and counterproductive.

Caylan Ford explains what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can achieve with her speech on internet freedom.

The Washington Post believes a large-scaled relief program is needed for Haiti, even beyond the scale of what was seen to help tsunami victims in southeast Asia. 

Tahir Andrabi and Asim Ijaz Khwaja discuss disaster planning software which might help disaster relief efforts in the future.