The Future–and Importance–of Development and Foreign Assistance
Last night at a forum jointly hosted by the USGLC and the Tampa Bay Council on World Affairs, General David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, spoke about the vital role development plays in U.S. national security in the 21st century. “Projects such as building of schools and administration of aid rise in importance in regions where extremist groups recruit heavily,” Petraeus said. Gen. Petraeus also spoke about what he called a extremely challenging situation in securing Afghanistan — the country’s 10 percent literacy rate. “You can’t enforce the law if you can’t read it,” he said. “We’ve almost found it more helpful to teach them to read up to an eighth-grade level than anything else.”
Other developments yesterday: Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), the House’s top foreign affairs appropriator, cautioned about the challenge in fulfilling the Obama administration’s $52.8 billion request for the State Department and USAID this year. “We’re going to be as strong an advocate as we can be, but with 10 percent unemployment, urgent needs at home, a trillion-dollar budget deficit, and focus on creating jobs, there is no doubt that these factors make it a difficult political environment for expanding our foreign assistance and development budgets,” she noted.
