1/14/09

Over the last eight years the Bush administration has favored the use of hard military power at the expense of America’s diplomatic power. As a result, our military has been asked to do too much and has received too little support from the State Department and other civilian agencies. In the wake of difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is now near unanimous agreement among top military officials and outside experts that the State Department and other civilian agencies must be empowered to do more. While resources have flown to the Pentagon over the last eight years, the same is not true for the State Department. Conservative-controlled Congresses have instead often viewed the State Department with contempt and blocked efforts to expand its capabilities and modernize its structure. But there are hopeful signs that this will now change. President-elect Obama’s decision to appoint Hillary Clinton, a woman with tremendous stature and profile to the position of Secretary of State, statements from senior Pentagon officials and Secretary of Defense Gates, and the presence of a new, more progressive Congress, should raise hopes of a revival at the State Department.

Appointment of Sen. Hillary Clinton is a bold step in raising profile and reviving the State Department.  In yesterday’s confirmation hearings, Sen. Hillary Clinton gave strong indications that she intends to work hard to raise the importance of the State Department within the U.S. foreign policy infrastructure.  Clinton, according to the Washington Independent, “defined the task as not merely one of increasing the State Department’s budget, but ‘proving’ that the department is up to the task of shouldering a greater burden by increasing its capacity for traditional development — she said USAID had been ‘decimated’ by budget cuts — but for the new tasks of reconstruction and stability assistance to foreign countries.” She also threw her support behind “Smart Power”-- “an approach integrating military, economic, diplomatic and cultural solutions in a pragmatic fashion.”  The reaction to Clinton’s appointment has been almost universally favorable, with the expectation that she will bring her impressive talents and prestige to a department that has languished under the Bush administration.  Thomas Friedman wrote of her appointment, “Mrs. Clinton is a serious person. She is smart, tough, cunning, hard-working and knows the world — all key qualities for a secretary of state. She would also bring a certain star quality to the top of the State Department that can be useful.” Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger echoed this praise, saying “She is a lady of great intelligence, demonstrated enormous determination and would be an outstanding appointment.”  The New York Times editorial board rendered its verdict after yesterday’s confirmation proceedings: “One of America’s greatest strengths is its potential for redemption and renewal. We saw that again Tuesday during Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s confirmation hearing to be President-elect Barack Obama’s Secretary of State…Rising above petty turf wars. Coordinating effective approaches to complex issues. Reinvigorating American diplomacy. War as the last resort. Confirmation promises. But after eight years, they are a huge relief.” [Washington Independent, 1/13/09. NY Times, 11/19/08. CNN, 11/16/08. NY Times, 1/14/09]

There is an urgent need to rebalance U.S. foreign policy in favor of non-military solutions.  The Bush administration opted to conduct most foreign policy through the Pentagon, neglecting other foreign policy agencies, most notably the State Department.  Nothing illustrates this more than the difference between the Department of Defense and the State Department’s budget.  In 2001, the year Bush took office, the Department of Defense budget was $302 billion, whereas the State Department's budget was roughly $21 billion. Yet, by 2008, Defense spending soared to more than $510 billion, leaving out the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the State Department's budget rose to only $32 billion.  The imbalance proved so great that in 2005, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace offered Carlos Pascual, the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization in Iraq, roughly $100 million out of the Pentagon’s budget.  In recognition of the urgent situation, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Michael Mullen, have lobbied hard to elevate State’s position and budgetary clout, with Mullen observing this week that “civilian agencies including the State Department deserve more money and support, because they can often do a better job of projecting American policy and ideas.”  [OMB – DOD, FY 2003. OMB – State Department, FY 2003. OMB – DOD, FY 2009.  OMB – State Department, FY 2009. National Journal, 4/30/07. Foreign Affairs, January/February 2009. Washington Post, 1/12/09]

Experts and public agree: diplomacy and America’s image abroad are important for U.S. security.  The American Academy of Diplomacy and the Stimson Center performed a detailed study of the current state of America’s diplomatic capabilities, saying “our foreign affairs capacity is hobbled by a human capital crisis... Currently the Secretary of State lacks the tools – people, competencies, authorities, programs and funding – to execute the President’s foreign policies. The status quo cannot continue without serious damage to our vital interests. We must invest on an urgent basis in our capabilities in the State Department, USAID, and related organizations to ensure we can meet our foreign policy and national security objectives. There must be enough diplomatic, public diplomacy, and foreign assistance professionals overseas and they cannot remain behind the walls of fortress embassies.”  A Center for American Progress report found that “Successfully executing stability and peacekeeping and counterinsurgency operations is as much a political and economic challenge as a military one. These operations are therefore challenges for the entire U.S. government. Facilitating a consensus-based political process, maintaining and improving the administrative capacity of the government, and promoting economic development, are not military tasks, but tasks for our diplomatic and development professionals.” As a 2007 CSIS report by Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye argues, “The nature of security today is that we need to conceive of it more broadly than at any time before...  ‘Today’s central question is not simply whether we are capturing or killing more terrorists than are being recruited and trained, but whether we are providing more opportunities than our enemies can destroy and whether we are addressing more grievances than they can record.’” As the Foreign Affairs/Public Agenda Foundation’s 2008 Foreign Policy Index notes, the American public consistently agrees:  “Over the course of the foreign Policy Index, the public has consistently favored non-military solutions to international problems. If anything, that has strengthened in this edition.”  [The American Academy of Diplomacy, 10/08. CAP, 12/07. FPIF, 5/3/06. CSIS, 2007. The Stanley Foundation/CNAS, 2008, Public Agenda Foundation, 2008]

What We’re Reading

A new audio tape, allegedly from Osama bin Laden, urges jihad against Israel.

A key Bush administration official who was “in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial” confirms that a detainee was tortured at Guantanamo Bay.

Rockets hit Israel from Lebanon as Gaza fighting continues.

The Russia-Ukraine-EU gas dispute continues.  Though Russia resumed limited gas shipments to the Ukraine intended for Europe, the Ukraine says it will not send the fuel to Europe due to unacceptable Russian conditions on the shipments.  The EU says it may sue Russia and/or the Ukraine over gas flow interruptions.

Georgia’s Parliament criticizes its energy minister, who struck a quiet deal with a Russian company allowing it joint control over the hydroelectric plant that provides almost half of Georgia’s electricity.  The plant is on the border between Georgia and the separatist province of Abkhazia.

President Bush said that the biggest challenge for President-elect Obama is “an enemy attack.”

Security intensifies in Zimbabwe as Robert Mugabe prepares to set up a new government.  The humanitarian crisis worsens.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will try again to end term limits.  A national referendum is expected next month that would allow Chavez and others to run for reelection an unlimited number of times.

More Chinese are willing to challenge China’s legal system, which routinely rejects politically sensitive cases.

Commentary of the Day

Wei Jingsheng, a former Chinese political prisoner, argues that the financial crisis has evoked such discontent in China that the Communist Party will fall in the next few years.

Jonathan Finer discusses Israel’s “losing media strategy” in Gaza as opposed to how it approached journalism in the 2006 war with Hezbollah.

The LA Times reviews the Bush administration’s legacy of secrecy.