ND Jobs, US Security on the Line – Gen. Charles Wald
“ND Jobs, US Security on the Line”
by Gen. Charles Wald
The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, June 26, 2011
As a proud North Dakota native, I know what international engagement means for local families and businesses. With more than 300 miles of international border, our state faces both opportunities and dangers in today’s interconnected world.
What many folks may not know is a small investment can help us seize the opportunities and deflect the dangers at the same time. Programs funded by the U.S. International Affairs Budget only cost about 1 percent of the federal budget, but they deliver extraordinary results.
When it comes to national security, our international affairs programs keep us safe by preventing conflicts and promoting stability in the most dangerous corners of the world. At the same time, they also help create jobs here in North Dakota by opening fast-growing new markets to locally produced goods and services.
There is broad, bipartisan agreement that the International Affairs Budget is vital to our national security. As a career military officer, I can tell you from experience that we live in a dangerous world, and in order to keep our families safe, we must utilize all of the tools available to us. That means investing in our civilian-led tools of development and diplomacy, alongside defense, in an approach we call smart power.
I’m not alone on this. As our top military leaders, from Gen. David Petraeus to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Adm. Mike Mullen, have made clear over and over, investing in a smart power foreign policy approach saves lives. I’ve seen for myself how these programs fight terrorism and root out the instability and desperate poverty that can turn our friends into enemies. And most importantly to me, this investment is an option that may preempt the use of U.S. troops being sent in as a last resort.
This is a civil-military endeavor that requires building on what our troopers in uniform have achieved.
Create jobs
Protecting our national security is always a top priority. But in times like these, we also must find ways to create jobs. In North Dakota, we have found that the way to do that is to engage in the global economy. Exports of our products were up 15 percent last year alone, and the Gallup organization found North Dakota had the best job market of any state in the country.
Here in North Dakota, we’ve seen how this small investment leads directly to more good-quality jobs here at home. Just as one example, a North Dakota small business named Healthy Oilseeds, a second-generation family farm, has found markets for their locally grown flax all over the world, from South Africa to South Korea. In 2009, international sales for Healthy Oilseeds exploded, increasing a whopping 450 percent. It’s no wonder Roger Gussiaas, founder and president, was named North Dakota Exporter of the Year.
What’s important about this story is that Gussiaas doesn’t run a Fortune 500 company with a brand name everyone has heard of. He runs a North Dakota small business, and his family and employees have seen firsthand the importance of engaging in the global economy.
Smart investment
As a nation, we face a critical moment. While we fight to keep our families safe and get our economy back on track, our leaders in Washington must also wrestle with an out-of-control deficit and calls for harsh spending cuts. It’s no easy task, and I believe strongly that we must find ways to cut back spending. But we have to make sure we trim only the programs that are not serving our national interests and protect those that are doing that job. Based on my military experience and the business outcomes I’ve seen in North Dakota, it’s clear that the International Affairs Budget is a smart investment.
Wald is former deputy commander of United States European Command and serves on the National Security Advisory Council of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. He is a native of Minot, N.D. He will lead a discussion on this topic at 8 a.m. Thursday at North Dakota State University.
