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Who’s in The News

Lockheed CEO: Despite GOP Gains, U.S. Defense Cuts Possible (John T. Bennett – Defense News)

Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stevens said Nov. 4 that Republican control of the U.S. House and gains in the Senate will not stave off pressure to pare defense spending. During an interview on Bloomberg Television, Stevens also said the U.S. Navy’s desire to buy two Littoral Combat Ship designs would lower total program costs and boost the shipbuilding industrial base.

Politics/Foreign Policy

For Obama, Foreign Policy May Offer Avenues for Success (Helene Cooper  –  New York Times)

The elections on Tuesday gutted the Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, paved the way for a pro-Israel Cuban-American to preside over the House Foreign Affairs Committee and removed the most antiwar Democrat from the leading Senate foreign policy committee.

A sightseeing bus on Havana’s waterfront in July. Republican gains in Congress could stymie plans to ease American visits there.

But for President Obama, a truism holds: While his domestic agenda may end up being stalled for the next two years, national security remains his domain, no matter how unfriendly Congress may be.

After ‘shellacking,’ can foreign policy be a bright spot for Obama? (Howard LaFranchi – Christian Science Monitor)

An Obama who could present the American electorate with a breakthrough deal with Iran, or better yet a done Middle East peace deal that guarantees both Israel’s peace and security and a viable Palestinian state, could restore his stature with the US public.

But in the short term, Obama’s foreign-policy agenda may present almost as many pitfalls and opportunities for setbacks as does the domestic front, some foreign-policy analysts contend.

Post-midterms, Obama to focus on foreign policy in four-nation Asian trip (Scott Wilson – Washington Post)

President Obama embarks Friday on a foreign trip focused on Asian nations that he believes are essential to the recovery of a stumbling U.S. economy, just days after voters anxious over the lack of jobs dealt Democrats a stinging defeat.  Presidents often emphasize foreign policy during difficult political times at home, and Obama’s only extended foray outside the country this year will take him to a quartet of democracies where he is viewed more favorably than he is in the United States.

Haitians Brace for Storm as New Crisis Looms (Mike Esterl – Wall Street Journal)

Hundreds of thousands of earthquake-displaced Haitians, still living in tents and under tarps, hunkered down in makeshift homes Thursday as a powerful storm threatened to push their Caribbean nation’s humanitarian crisis into a new phase of misery.

Tropical Storm Tomas was expected to strengthen overnight, potentially packing hurricane-force gusts of 75 miles an hour or more along Haiti’s western coast and dumping as much as 15 inches of rain in some areas.

Myanmar Opposition Group Has New Tack: Cooperation (Wall Street Journal)

The secretive military regime that rules this Southeast Asian nation will hold its first national election in 20 years on Sunday, and few observers doubt the outcome. For two decades, Myanmar’s embattled opposition has been led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, among the world’s most famous political prisoners. She has inspired a robust anti-regime movement among exiles and their sympathizers that has held sway over Myanmar policy in Washington and European capitals. Now, a new opposition movement is gaining force, and it threatens the legacy she built. Led by a loose coalition of activists, intellectuals and businessmen—including some with alleged ties to Myanmar’s military and others who spent time as political prisoners—it preaches a simple and, some say, dangerous, message: Collaboration with the regime is the best way to bring about change. Helping lead the push, according to people familiar with the movement, is a civil-society group in Yangon called Myanmar Egress. Egress’s stated mission is to seek “constructive” engagement with the regime and other groups while promoting democracy. It has drawn acclaim from international aid groups and funding from European donors and others who see its work as part of a new way forward for the country.

2010 Elections

Big changes coming post election to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Josh Rogin – Foreign Policy)

It’s an open secret on Capitol Hill that of the four “Select A” committees, SFRC is typically considered the least desirable. Although the committee has an aggressive agenda of foreign policy-related legislation, it does not hold much payoff in terms of domestic political benefit or fundraising potential. The panel sets authorizations for State and Foreign ops funding, but appropriators actually dole out the money. The committee’s other two functions are to confirm nominees and approve the occasional treaty, such as the New START agreement with Russia. For all these reasons, several GOP members are looking to leave SFRC when their seniority level rises due to the influx of new Republican senators. Those said to be eyeing the exit door include Sens. Johnny Isaacson (R-GA), Bob Corker (R-TN), and Jim DeMint (R-SC).

Clinton: Election Won’t Change Foreign Policy (Associated Press)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says a shift in congressional power won’t greatly affect U.S. foreign policy goals because “politics stops” at the nation’s borders. Clinton, who represented New York in the Senate for eight years, reminded reporters Wednesday that she was in the Senate minority for six of those years. The morning after elections that gave the GOP control of the House, Clinton said Republicans and Democrats can “build coalitions” and “find allies on issues that are in America’s interests.” Clinton, who is in the middle of a two-week tour of Asian-Pacific nations, said she will be “working very hard” to get to know the new members of Congress and vowed to “work with them.”

Senate loses its left-wing leader on foreign policy (Josh Rogin – Foreign Policy)

Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold was no ordinary Democratic senator. He staunchly staked out unabashedly liberal positions on all things foreign policy and national security related, right up until his defeat Tuesday night. Feingold is, or was, technically the third-ranking Democratic senator on the Foreign Relations Committee, after Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT). With Dodd retiring, Feingold stood to become chairman if Kerry were ever tapped for secretary of state. In fact, the rumor around town is that the prospect of an independent-minded Feingold leading the panel worried the White House so much that it had negative implications on their consideration of Kerry for Foggy Bottom. Even as a mere rank-and-file committee member, Feingold was more active on foreign policy than most. He had as many as five full-time staffers on the issues, we’re told, which is more than double the contingent for the average senator. Feingold had an extensive foreign-policy agenda, the leading item of which was his call for the administration to set a flexible timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

Meet your new House Foreign Affairs chairwoman: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Josh Rogin – Foreign Policy)

Ros-Lehtinen has been a force on the committee for years as the vocal, passionate, sometimes combative ranking Republican. A Cuban-American lawmaker from a heavily Jewish district, Ros-Lehtinen has staked out firm positions on several issues that stand in contrast to now outgoing chairman Howard Berman (D-CA). Her ascendancy as chairwoman will change the tone and agenda of the committee and will pose new challenges for the Obama administration’s efforts to advance its foreign-policy agenda. Over the mid to long term, Ros-Lehtinen is poised to thwart Obama’s efforts to move toward repealing sanctions on Fidel Castro and resist any White House attempts to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She isn’t likely to move Berman’s foreign-aid reform bill through the committee and she is likely to seek cuts in the foreign-aid budget in her authorization bill.

Free trade gets an early evening boost in Senate (Josh Rogin – Foreign Policy)

The projected victory of Rob Portman in the Ohio Senate race will increase support for free trade in Congress immediately. Portman, the former congressman and former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is an avid and open free trade supporter. From May 2005 to May 2006, he was the U.S. Trade Representative and describes himself as the “quarterback” of the drive to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in Congress. In fact, Portman won in spite of his views on free trade, which the Democrats attacked as responsible for the losses of thousands of jobs in Ohio. If President Obama plays his cards right, he might be able to use Portman to help build support in Congress for three pending free trade deals that languished under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama. A GOP-led House could be very open to such outreach.

U.S. Election Global Reaction: World Watches, Speculates On Impact (Elaine Gailey – Huffington Post)

The poor showing by President Barack Obama’s party in the U.S. election is not likely to lead to major changes in the country’s foreign policy, and could even help improve the situation in Afghanistan, opinion makers said Wednesday. “One would massively underestimate the president of the United States if one wanted to think that he would be weakened in foreign policy,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told ZDF television. “America is a strong country; the American president is a very strong and decisive president.” During Tuesday’s midterm election, Obama’s Democrats held onto the Senate but gave up their majority in the lower house to Republicans, the biggest gain by Republicans in the House of Representatives since 1938.

The Post Election Foreign Policy Hangover (Amb. Marc Ginsberg – Huffington Post)

The good news for the home team is that we have seen this movie before. President’s losing control of either or both houses of Congress is nothing new. What is new, however, is that it didn’t happen when the U.S. faced so many global security challenges at one time. What with two wars, a lethal terror threat, a resurgent China, a nuclear wannabe state sponsor of terror (aka Iran), and, most importantly, the incalculable conclusion by many foreign observers that the U.S. was already constrained by recession, battle fatigue and an impaired capacity to influence global events. America’s allies abroad will be particularly nervous because a politically weaker American president may very well translate into more tepid American global leadership. So what does this new post mid-term Election Day mean for America’s national security?

Foreign Policy

Audit questions tensions in Iraq (Robert Burns – Associated Press)

In its report, the State Department’s office of inspector general said stability in Iraq may be years away. It warned that the failure of Iraqi political leaders to form a unity government has interfered with the “urgent task” of planning for Washington’s post-2011 diplomatic role. Stephen Biddle, an Iraq watcher at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it will be difficult for U.S. diplomats to keep a lid on Sunni-Shiite and Arab-Kurd rivalries in the absence of a sizable American military presence. “Normally, stabilizing a situation like this requires peacekeepers,” he said. “Peacekeepers are soldiers. That doesn’t say there aren’t important and valuable things that government civilians can do. But … security protection is important in this environment, and that’s not something State Department civilians do.”

Must Reads

Who’s In the News

Previewing the potential House Republican foreign-policy heavyweights (Foreign Policy – Will Inboden)

Most new Representatives will enter office with little foreign policy experience — with the notable exception of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans running for Congress. These vets — who will join several other Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom vets already serving in the House — won’t necessarily take the same positions on Iraq, Afghanistan, and national security. However, they will influence Congressional policy debates in at least two ways: bringing with them the credibility and insight gained from their firsthand experiences in theater, and through the informal networks they maintain with their military colleagues who are still deployed who can pass along back-channel assessments of front-line conditions.

President Obama, Asia is calling (Fareed Zakaria – Washington Post)

After the midterm elections, Barack Obama will get a chance to follow a long line of American presidents who have had setbacks at home. He will go abroad. His long-delayed Asian trip this week – India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan – is by chance perfectly timed. Asian powers are showing a striking – and growing – interest in American power. Just a few years ago, if you traveled to Asia, the talk was all about the irrelevance of the United States and the dawn of Chinese power. In 2006, analyst Joshua Kurlantzick declared that Chinese “soft power” in Southeast Asia had become so potent that, “for the first time in post-World War II history, the United States may be facing a situation in which another country’s appeal outstrips its own in an important region.”

Smart Power

In Speech and in Deed, Hillary Clinton Endorses Social Entrepreneurship (Auren Kaplan – Huffington Post)

The social entrepreneurship movement has grown by leaps and bounds over the past year. Early arriver TOMS Shoes has now received mainstream acceptance, having given away over 1,000,000 pairs of shoes to children in need all around the world as a result of their marriage of shoe-buying and shoe-giving — a Buy One, Give One business model that could revolutionize how social needs are met and goods delivered across the world. And as the recent Social Capital Markets, or SOCAP, conference has shown, the mainstream is beginning to identify a large-scale investment opportunity in social businesses. Now, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is throwing her hat in the ring in moving the social entrepreneurship movement forward. In a recent speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, Secretary Clinton lauded social entrepreneurs, saying that “Social entrepreneurs who marry capitalism and philanthropy are using the power of the free market to drive social and economic progress.”

Politics/Foreign Policy

Obama’s foreign policy after the midterms (Laura Rozen – Politico)

Some foreign policy observers have predicted that American presidents stymied on the domestic front by an opposition-led Congress tend to become more involved foreign policy presidents. But former U.S. diplomat Aaron Miller, in an article previewing Obama’s foreign policy waterfront after anticipated Republican gains in tomorrow’s midterm elections, urges Obama to resist the temptation, because in Miller’s views, there are so few foreign policy victories to be had. That said, Miller doesn’t believe Obama’s domestic right flank will prevent him from pursuing diplomatic opportunities that might become available.

Change We Can Believe in (Alon Ben-Meir – Huffington Post)

The new strategy must begin with President Obama’s visit to Israel after the midterm election. Rightly or wrongly, Obama’s decision not to visit Israel following his June 2009 Cairo speech and other trips to the region was interpreted as a slight to Israel. This month, the president will make his third official overseas visit as president to four Asian countries, including a Muslim majority country, Indonesia, once again skipping Israel and sending the message to the Israeli public that he is uninterested in engaging the Israelis directly. Because of President Obama’s long overdue visit to Israel, the Israeli public is becoming increasingly more skeptical of the president and his administration.

Sowing seeds for an organic revolution (William Wan – Washington Post)

In Chongming Island, China the small-scale farmer is a dying breed in China, made up mostly of the elderly left behind in the mass exodus of migrant workers to much higher-paying jobs in industrial cities. But on an island called Chongming, a two-hour drive east of Shanghai, a group of young urban professionals has begun to buck the trend. They are giving up high-paying salaries in the city and applying their business and Internet savvy to once-abandoned properties. They are trying to teach customers concepts such as eating locally and sustainability. And they are spearheading a fledgling movement that has long existed in the Western world but is only beginning to emerge in modern China: green living.

Obama in India (James Love – Huffington Post)

On November 5, President Obama will begin a four day trip to India. This will begin with a Business and Entrepreneurship Summit that has been carefully organized with big U.S. and European business interests. A number of NGOs working on public health issues are concerned that the President may push India to adopt more strict intellectual property protections on pharmaceutical drugs. They have reasons to be concerned. And, as is discussed below, there is also an emerging argument that current U.S. trade policies on medicines and intellectual property have an overall negative impact on our own domestic interests.

Smart Power

Great Ideas from Unexpected Places (Bill Gates – Huffington Post)

Grand Challenges Explorations — part of the foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative — funds bold research ideas that have the potential to create breakthroughs in global health solutions. This week, nine previous grant recipients were awarded next-stage grants of up to $1 million. I have always been interested in the scientific discoveries underlying health advances in developing countries. The benefits of such breakthroughs are substantial, with the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives. And the challenges are great, often involving issues that no one has been able to solve before. Two years ago, the foundation launched Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE), which is aimed at encouraging researchers with promising and sometimes unconventional ideas for improving health to apply for $100,000 grants.

U.S. to Send Visual Artists as Cultural Ambassadors (Kate Taylor – New York Times)

But under a new $1 million program being announced this week, the Obama administration is planning to expand its cultural diplomacy programs to include visual artists like painters and sculptors, who will be asked next year to create public art projects in 15 foreign countries. The new program, known as smART Power, will be administered by the Bronx Museum of the Arts, which was selected from a dozen institutions to choose the artists. They will be sent to places that include Pakistan, Egypt, Venezuela, China, Nigeria and a Somali refugee camp in Kenya. “To me, visual artists are just as capable as other artists of capturing a dialogue with people,” said Maura M. Pally, a deputy assistant secretary of state who is overseeing this two-year pilot program.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Clinton proposes China, Japan join 3-way talks with U.S. to ease tensions (John Pomfret – Washington Post)

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told China on Saturday that she expects Beijing to press North Korea not to take “provocative steps” against South Korea. She also appealed to Chinese and Japanese officials Saturday to end their month-long spat. Chinese officials told Clinton, for their part, that China was committed to maintaining its exports of rare-earth minerals – crucial to the manufacture of many high-technology products – despite reports that it had halted its sales to gain diplomatic leverage over Japan and the United States. Clinton’s demands for help dealing with North Korea underscored U.S. concern about reports indicating increased activity at nuclear sites in the reclusive state and worries about possible North Korean mischief in the run-up to the meeting of the Group of 20 major economies scheduled to begin Nov. 11 in Seoul.

Op-Ed: Cantor’s foreign aid ‘gimmick’ is dangerous (David Harris – JTA)

This election season in the United States has not been a great one for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Republicans and the tainted Emergency Committee for Israel launched mendacious ads and campaigns against pro-Israel Democrats across the country threatening the historic bipartisan support for Israel that has existed in Washington. The lies in these campaigns have been called out by an array of independent journalists from The New York Times to Salon, and politicizing support for Israel in this way has been condemned by key figures such as Israeli U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren. But now U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia — the Republican whip and a key member of the GOP leadership team — has shared with us a disturbing policy planned for the future. Cantor signaled to JTA recently that if Republicans take control of the House in November, he and the GOP leadership would sever aid to Israel from the larger foreign aid budget.

Clinton Presses, Courts Beijing (Jay Solomon – Wall Street Journal)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged greater U.S.-China cooperation in Asia, even as she stressed that the U.S. will increase its effort to remain a military and economic power in the region. Mrs. Clinton, embarking on a seven-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region, said the Obama administration is committed to defining events regionally and safeguarding the defenses of its allies, such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore. “Now, there are some who say that this long legacy of American leadership in the Asia-Pacific region is coming to a close. That we are not here to stay. I say, look at our record. It tells a different story,” Mrs. Clinton said Thursday in Hawaii.

Smart Power
Elements Slow Aid in Indonesia, and New Eruption Raises Fears (Aubrey Belford – New York Times)
Indonesian rescue workers struggled against rough weather and difficult terrain to reach tsunami victims on Thursday as the death toll continued to rise from the natural disasters that hit the archipelago nation this week on two separate fronts and just 24 hours apart. In the remote Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra, aid workers said that the isolation of many villages as well as choppy seas meant that some victims had yet to receive any assistance three days after a magnitude 7.7 underwater quake sent a 10-foot-tall tsunami crashing onto land, smashing apart homes and killing hundreds. A new eruption Friday morning at Mount Merapi on the island of Java, about 750 miles to the east, sent more hot ash and debris into the air and stirred fears of further destruction. Powerful eruptions late Tuesday killed 34 people and destroyed villages, said Nelis Zuliasri, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Agency. As a steady trickle of supplies reached the islands with the help of military ships and aircraft, officials raised the toll of the tsunami to 399 confirmed dead, The Associated Press reported. An estimated 16,000 people have been displaced, officials said.

4 Nations With Child Soldiers Keep U.S. Aid (Brian Knowlton – New York Times)
In 2009, the government of Chad conscripted refugee children for unlawful use as guards and combatants in its desert battles against rebel forces; the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo forced children to carry ammunition and supplies through the jungle, and some died under their weight; hundreds of boys and girls were forced into the army of southern Sudan, despite a commitment to release them; and in Yemen, children as young as 14 make up perhaps half the ranks of both the government’s forces and the rebels opposing them. Despite those findings, in an annual State Department report on human trafficking, the Obama administration is allowing American military aid to continue to the four countries, issuing a waiver this week of a 2008 law, the Child Soldiers Prevention Act. In a memorandum to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday, President Obama said he had determined that the waiver was in “the national interest.”

Politics/Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy and the 2010 Midterms: War in Afghanistan (Jayshree Bajoria – Council on Foreign Relations)

According to the most recent polls, the war in Afghanistan is barely on the radar in the upcoming midterm elections, as the economy and jobs dominate voters’ concerns. Moreover, Americans are growing war-weary, and public support for the war is waning. An increasing number of Americans are questioning U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, and it has become a controversial issue in Congress, with President Barack Obama fielding criticism from both sides of the aisle. Both Democrats and Republicans are concerned about civilian aid to the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which is seen as highly corrupt. Many Democrats on the left question the president’s 2009 decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. While most Republicans support the war, many criticize his July 2011 drawdown date for U.S. troops. They argue setting a deadline sends the wrong signals to U.S. partners in the region who question Washington’s commitment, and strengthens insurgents who will then simply wait for U.S. forces to leave. Regardless of which party gains control of Congress on November 2, “political support for the war depends powerfully on whether it looks like the war is succeeding or failing,” says Stephen Biddle, CFR’s senior fellow for defense policy.

The Potential Pitfalls of Winning Big (Gerald Seib – Wall Street Journal)

In an interview with National Journal out this week, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was asked what his party’s main political job will be after next week’s election. He gave a surprisingly stark answer: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” In many respects, that answer summarizes both the promise and the peril before Republicans in their hour of ascendance. They are about to achieve, in Tuesday’s voting, a remarkable revival from the depressed condition in which they found themselves just two years ago, when serious analysts wondered whether the GOP had permanently shrunk into a minority party based in the South. At the same time, the temptation after Tuesday—one that comes through occasionally in candid conversations with party leaders—will be to simply look past the next two years to the potential political bonanza that awaits Republicans in 2012.

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Who’s In the News

Four House GOP figures who could be crucial to foreign policy (Josh Rogin – Washington Post)

Congress may not be in charge of making foreign policy, but it sure can influence its implementation. Since taking office in January 2009, members of Congress – drawn primarily but not exclusively from the ranks of the GOP – have slowed the Obama administration’s efforts to advance its strategy for dealing with Russia, Syria, Israel, Cuba and a host of other countries. And the midterm elections won’t be making things any easier for President Obama. Republican lawmakers stand to play a huge role in debates next year about the promised July 2011 drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, whether to maintain or increase U.S. foreign assistance packages, and how strongly to press countries such as Russia and China to implement new sanctions against Iran.

Smart Power

A Tectonic Shift at State and USAID? (Tara Sonenshine and Beth Cole – Huffington Post)

The time is ripe for this renewed commitment to a coordinated, comprehensive and coherent partnership between the agencies of the U.S. government to build stronger, more robust societies that are able to withstand the temptation to resort to violence to settle disputes over religion, identity, resources and culture. Best practices are out there, in the private sector, the humanitarian sector, the academic literature, and the experiences of soldiers and civilians. If the QDDR builds on these best practices and delivers this renewed commitment to coordination, the nation will be well-served.

US not tracking spending on Afghan projects, audit says (BBC)

The special inspector general’s office for Afghanistan reconstruction talked of a “confusing labyrinth” of spending. It said some 7,000 contractors received $17.7bn from 2007-09 but data prior to 2007 was too poor to be analysed. It is the first comprehensive audit of US spending in Afghanistan since US-led troops ousted the Taliban in 2001. According to the report, US government agencies are not tracking Afghan contracts in a shared database and cannot easily show where the money went. The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says record-keeping has been so poor that most of the money has not been properly recorded. The Pentagon, state department and USAID “are unable to readily report on how much money they spend on contracting for reconstruction activities in Afghanistan”, said the report from the special inspector general’s office, which was set up by Congress.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Obama waiver allows U.S. aid to 4 countries using child soldiers (Mary Beth Sheridan – Washington Post)

Administration officials said cutting off aid would cause more damage than good in countries where the U.S. military is trying to fight terrorism and reform abusive armies. Obama sent a memo to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, dated Monday, saying that it was “in the national interest” to waive a cutoff of military assistance for Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Yemen. Those countries would have been penalized under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush shortly before he left office. The law took effect this year, after the State Department identified six countries that used government soldiers – including Somalia and Burma. Senior U.S. officials said Wednesday that Yemen was exempted because ending military aid would jeopardize the country’s ability to fight al-Qaeda.

White House prepares for foreign policy challenges — from Congress (Paul Richter and Christi Parsons – Los Angeles Times)

With voters focused on the U.S. economy, President Obama‘s foreign policy agenda has been largely overlooked in the midterm campaigns, but it will come under harsh scrutiny in the Congress that emerges after election day, say Republican and Democratic strategists.

Republicans, considered likely to win control of the House and to pick up seats in the Senate on Tuesday, are expected to challenge the White House on its policies involving Afghanistan, nuclear arms control, Russia, China and foreign aid spending, to name a few. Though the GOP won’t have enough leverage to entirely block the administration on key issues, it will be able to complicate the White House’s plans and inflict political damage as the 2012 presidential campaign election launches, analysts say.

AIPAC defends foreign aid (Ben Smith – Politico)

Eric Cantor’s suggestion that aid to Israel be removed from the foreign aid budget, driven by broader Republican opposition to much foreign operations spending, is drawing a rare, if gentle, rebuke from the high-powered pro-Israel group AIPAC. “For decades, annual U.S. foreign assistance to Israel has been one of the most tangible expressions of American support for Israel and our country’s national security interests. A robust foreign aid budget is a strong signal of U.S. leadership around the globe,” said AIPAC spokesman Darren Mackoff. “Congressman Cantor has always been, and continues to be a strong leader on the vital issues surrounding the United States and Israel, as well as an ardent supporter of U.S. foreign aid.” AIPAC has traditionally been a major force in lobbying for aid to Israel, Egypt, and for foreign aid in general. Democratic members of Congress and the liberal group J Street have sharply criticized Cantor for the suggestion.

Karzai Delays Order to Ban Private Security Companies (Alissa Rubin – New York times)

Under intense pressure, the government of President Hamid Karzai announced Wednesday that it would extend, if briefly, a contentious deadline for banning most private security companies in Afghanistan. The announcement came after heavy lobbying from the countries spending billions of dollars to develop Afghanistan’s infrastructure and sending thousands of troops to fight the Taliban insurgency. Diplomats here, including those from the United States, argued that Mr. Karzai’s original schedule to phase out private contractors did not leave enough time for an orderly transition and that it was endangering important aid projects. A presidential decree issued in August had required that private security companies cease operations by Dec. 17 and transfer protection responsibilities to the Afghan police.

Washington, DC—The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition today announced that George Rupp will join Bill Lane as co-president of its board of directors.  Along with USGLC honorary chairman General Colin Powell, every living former Secretary of State and numerous other former cabinet secretaries and Members of Congress, Rupp will play an integral part in the organization’s mission to advocate for a strong and effective International Affairs Budget and elevate America’s smart power tools of development and diplomacy.

“We are fortunate to have George’s leadership and expertise at the helm of the USGLC,” said George Ingram, chairman of the USGLC.  “Pairing George’s knowledge of the humanitarian aid and development community with Bill Lane’s expertise in the business world makes for a powerful team.”

In his role, Rupp will join USGLC co-president Bill Lane, Caterpillar’s Washington Director, in providing oversight and direction to the USGLC’s mission, which brings together over 400 businesses and non-governmental organizations that share a commitment to advocating for a strong and effective U.S. International Affairs Budget.

“I am honored to be a part of the USGLC’s leadership and its ongoing effort to increase investment in the U.S. International Affairs Budget,” said Rupp.  “From my work at the IRC, I see firsthand how critical international aid and development assistance is to saving lives and fostering stable and healthy communities.  Enhanced investment in international development will only strengthen the country’s foreign policy, economic and national security goals.”

Rupp is the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and a globally recognized leader in development and humanitarian assistance.   Prior to the IRC, he was the president of Columbia University and Rice University, as well as the John Lord O’Brian Professor of Divinity and dean of the Harvard Divinity School.  He is the author of numerous articles and five books, including Globalization Challenged: Conviction, Conflict, Community.

Rupp replaces Nancy Lindborg, the former USGLC co-president and president of Mercy Corps, who is now the Assistant Administrator of USAID for the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance.

“I look forward to working with George as we demonstrate to Capitol Hill the broad support existing for the International Affairs Budget from both the NGO and business communities,” said Bill Lane.  “We also owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Nancy Lindborg for her leadership, and we congratulate her in her new role at USAID.”

The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (www.usglc.org) is a broad-based influential network of 400 businesses and NGOs; national security and foreign policy experts; and business, faith-based, academic and community leaders in all 50 states who support a smart power approach of elevating diplomacy and development alongside defense in order to build a better, safer world.

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Who’s In the News

Clinton sees diplomats of the future in cargo pants as well as pinstripes (Andrew Quinn – Reuters)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Congress to finance a major new U.S. push on overseas development aid, arguing that only by building up a global middle class will the United States increase its own national security. Clinton, in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine which previews a pending State Department report on diplomacy and development, says it is essential for Congress to keep the money flowing even as the United States grapples with its own financial problems at home. “The American people must understand that spending taxpayer dollars on diplomacy and development is in their interest,” Clinton wrote, saying it was time to put to rest “old debates on foreign aid.”

Smart Power

Development aid in key Afghan province lacking in oversight, audit finds (Karen De Young – Washington Post)

U.S. and other international development programs in a key Afghan province are “incoherent” and lack mechanisms to avoid wasteful overlap or to monitor their success, according to a new report by government auditors. More than $100 million in U.S. aid to Nangahar province, an area in eastern Afghanistan often cited as a model for success elsewhere in the country, was spent in fiscal 2010 with little or no input from local officials, according to the audit by the congressionally mandated Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Turning the Taliban Against Al Qaeda (Scott Atran – New York Times)

For the last week there have been widespread news reports that NATO is facilitating talks between the Afghan government and Taliban leaders, even as it routs Taliban forces  from their main stronghold in Kandahar. The United States plan seems clear: allow for “preliminary” talks to end the war through a broad-based “reconciliation” process, but don’t get serious about a deal until beefed-up coalition forces have gained the initiative on the battlefield. Yet, despite assertions by senior NATO officials that they can defeat the Taliban militarily if given enough money and men, and that military pressure will start the Taliban thinking about alternatives to fighting, the surge in southern Afghanistan appears only to have expanded the scope of the Taliban’s activity and entrenched their resolve to fight on until America tires and leaves. In truth, the real pressure to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel is not on the Taliban, but the United States, so it can start drawing down troops next year as President Obama has pledged. This is why NATO and Washington are only now openly discussing the talks, although they have been going on in fits and starts for years. True, some senior Taliban leaders are playing along — but this is not so much because they fear defeat at the hands of the Americans, but because they worry that their new generation of midlevel commanders is getting out of control.

Cantor’s Call for Splitting Out Israel Funding Meets Resistance (Emily Cadei – CQ Today)

Advocates of foreign aid funding are pushing back against a proposal by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor to pare the foreign operations budget, with the exception of aid to Israel. Cantor told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency over the weekend that Congress should look at separating tax dollars directed to Israel from the rest of the money Congress budgets for the State Department and foreign operations, making it easier to defund other elements of that budget. Most of the foreign aid that the United States provides Israel each year comes in the form of military assistance. The White House requested $3 billion for Israel in fiscal 2011, making it the largest recipient of U.S. aid. Though many foreign aid boosters say a move to wall off funding for Israel is unlikely to succeed, they acknowledge that the effort reflects a growing antipathy to foreign aid funding on Capitol Hill.

Haiti cholera toll near 300, disease seen “settling” (Joseph Guyler Delva– Reuters)

Deaths from Haiti’s cholera epidemic approached 300 on Tuesday, and health experts said the illness would “settle” in the poor Caribbean nation, joining other endemic diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. The week-old epidemic of the deadly diarrheal disease has so far mostly affected the central Artibonite and Central Plateau regions, with an accumulated 295 deaths and 3,612 cases registered to date, Haitian health authorities said. Although the number of new deaths and cases has slowed slightly from earlier days, a United Nations-led international medical response is fighting to prevent the outbreak from penetrating Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, which is crowded with 1.3 million homeless survivors of a January 12 earthquake.

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Who Will Stand Between Obama and the World (Josh Rogin – Foreign Policy)

Congress may not be in charge of making foreign policy, but it sure can influence its implementation. Since taking office in January 2009, members of Congress — drawn primarily but not exclusively from the ranks of the GOP — have slowed the Obama administration’s efforts to advance its strategy when dealing with Russia, Syria, Israel, Cuba, and a host of other relationships. And the midterm elections won’t be making things any easier for President Barack Obama. GOP lawmakers stand to play a huge role in the upcoming debates next year over the promised July 2011 drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, whether to maintain or increase U.S. foreign assistance packages, and how strongly to press countries such as Russia and China to implement new sanctions against Iran. If current polls hold, Republicans will make significant gains in the Senate and likely take the House of Representatives, elevating a set of lawmakers to new heights of power and complicating Obama’s efforts to execute his foreign-policy agenda.

Lowey hits back at Cantor over foreign aid funding (Josh Rogin – Foreign Policy)

The Democratic chairwoman of the subcommittee tasked with drawing up U.S. foreign assistance bills rejected Monday calls from a member of the Republican leadership to separate funding designated for Israel from the rest of the foreign aid budget, in the event that the foreign operations budget explodes into a war next year. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), the current House minority whip who could become majority leader if Republicans take control next year, told the Jewish Telegraph Agency that a GOP-led Congress would seek to defund aid to countries that don’t share U.S. interests. If that means rejecting the State Department and Foreign Operations funding bill altogether, so be it, Cantor said. However, he added that he would separate out funding for Israel, so that alone could move forward unimpeded.

Smart Power

Amid Cholera Outbreak in Haiti, Fear and Misery (Deborah Sontag – New York Times)

International health officials stressed that the pattern of the outbreak was almost impossible to predict. But Monday was a relatively good day: only six cholera deaths were registered in a 24-hour period. More than 200 died of the acute bacterial infection in the epidemic’s first few days. The known death toll stands at 259, with more than 3,000 cases, all but 450 or so in the Artibonite area. Despite its central role in this epidemic, despite the new banner at the town’s entrance that says “Wash your hands!” St.-Marc is not a ghost town, with residents shuttered in their homes. Girls in school uniforms, their hair in bows, skip through the streets, and vendors hawk their wares as boisterously as always. At the entrance to St. Nicholas Hospital, an anti-cholera message, set to a festive compas beat — “There’s no life without health and no health without hygiene” — blares discordantly from a loudspeaker.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Bethesda-based development firm gets Kyrgyzstan contract (Walter Pincus – Washington Post)

The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded a $3.25 million contract to Bethesda-based Development Alternatives Inc. to assist the newly elected Kyrgyzstan parliament, an illustration of the government’s growing – and often troubled – reliance on outside contractors to promote democratic institutions abroad. DAI, which has been in business for almost 40 years, has 87 projects in 60 countries and employs 2,000 “development professionals.” Its revenue in 2009 was $409 million, with its largest client being USAID. It also does work for the Departments of State, Defense and Labor. USAID selected DAI to run its Kyrgyzstan “Parliamentary Strengthening Program” without competitive bidding because of what the agency described as the urgent need “to ensure from the outset that the new parliament and its members understand their representative roles and functions.”

Karzai again blasts security firms’ role in Afghanistan (Joshua Partlow and Rajiv Chandrasekaran – Washington Post)

The confrontation between President Hamid Karzai and the NATO coalition over the fate of private security companies accelerated Monday as Karzai lashed out again about the damaging role the hired guns play in Afghanistan. Karzai has come under intense pressure to back down from his intention to ban private guards from protecting development projects in Afghanistan, including a call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as U.S. officials have warned that the ban could shut down billions of dollars in programs and put thousands of Afghans out of work. Behind the scenes, foreign diplomats have been working furiously to forge some face-saving compromise that allows Karzai to phase out the private security companies over time while not jeopardizing a key component of NATO’s counter-insurgency strategy.

Geithner’s Global Central Planning (John Cochrane – Wall Street Journal)

Economists are full of bad ideas. Terrible ideas seem to emerge when the gurus get together to talk about coordinating their bad ideas. Last week’s public letter from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to the G-20 finance ministers is a great example. Mr. Geithner starts with a dramatic proposal: “G-20 countries should commit to undertake policies consistent with reducing external imbalances below a specified share of GDP [later reported to be 4%] over the next few years.”

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Karzai Stands By Private Security Ban (Mari Abi-Habib – Wall Street Journal)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is standing by his decree to dissolve the private security companies some aid organizations use for protection, although a delegation of Western diplomats warned Sunday that huge amounts of aid and development money could be affected. Several international aid organizations are drawing up plans to withdraw from Afghanistan, worried about the ability of Afghan security forces to protect their staffs, potentially taking with them billions of dollars in development cash as well as jobs for ordinary Afghans.

JTA: Cantor proposes separating Israel aid from foreign ops budget (Laura Rozen – Politico)

House Republican Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) tells  JTA in an interview that should Republicans take the House of Representatives next month, he would propose separating U..S. aid to Israel from the foreign operations budget, which the GOP may vote to defund…While Cantor’s intent seems to be to exempt from future partisan budget battles the $30 billion in U.S. foreign and security assistance the Obama administration has pledged to Israel over the next ten years, some pro-Israel advocates are getting increasingly nervous about the coming Congress. “This gimmick doesn’t bode well for keeping aid to Israel the uncontroversial proposition it is in Congress today,” one Democratic Hill staffer said. “Unfortunately, in reality, this measure would endanger aid to Israel and put partisan Republican interests over the interests of the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

Smart Power

Ban on private guards threatens Afghan aid work (Deb Riechmann – Associated Press)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called President Hamid Karzai on Saturday to persuade his government to modify its imminent ban on private security companies, which threatens to shut down or stall billions of dollars in development projects across the nation. Clinton suggested formulating a joint plan to steadily phase out private security companies without disrupting the work of contractors who employ private guards to protect their workers, projects and facilities, said P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department. The telephone call was part of intense negotiations that U.S. and other Western diplomats are conducting with Afghan officials this weekend over Karzai’s decision to shut down private security contractors by Dec. 17. He claims the private guards are undermining his nation’s army and police, and wants Afghan security forces to take on the job of providing protection for the aid workers. Western officials argue that the hand-over must be phased in so projects are not disrupted.

Curing the Ills of America’s Top Foreign Aid Agency (Mark Landler – New York Times)

A few days after Rajiv Shah was sworn in as the head of the United States Agency for International Development, he stopped by to see its rapid response center, a high-tech command post for disaster relief, which on that day stood empty and still. Twelve hours later, an earthquake devastated Haiti, and for the next two months the center became Dr. Shah’s round-the-clock home. A brainy, 37-year-old physician with little government experience, Dr. Shah suddenly found himself coordinating a desperate emergency relief effort under the gaze of President Obama. The pace has barely let up since: catastrophic floods in Pakistan, the surge of aid workers into Afghanistan, a top-to-bottom review of American foreign assistance — all have heavily involved Dr. Shah, turning him into one of the administration’s most visible foreign policy players. But for this politically astute son of Indian immigrants from Ann Arbor, Mich., who is now the highest-ranking Indian-American in the administration, it is his ambitious campaign to rebuild USAID that will ultimately determine his success or failure in Washington.

D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution (Nicholas Kristof – New York Times)

Like so many highly trained young women these days, Elizabeth Scharpf has choices. She could be working in a Manhattan office tower with her Harvard Business School classmates, soaring through the ranks as a banker or business executive and aspiring to become a senator or a C.E.O. someday. After all, there’s no question that women around the world enjoy opportunities that simply didn’t exist a few decades ago. Yet the women exerting the greatest pressure for change often aren’t the presidents and tycoons but those toiling further down the pyramid, driven by a passion to create a better world. And in particular, a better world for women…It’s all about what might be called Do-It-Yourself Foreign Aid, because it starts with the proposition that it’s not only presidents and United Nations  officials who chip away at global challenges. Passionate individuals with great ideas can do the same, especially in the age of the Internet and social media.

Politics/Foreign Policy

The World from The Hill: Foreign policy takes back seat in midterm campaign (Bridget Johnson – The Hill)

Foreign policy has played a noticeably subdued role on the campaign trail, despite myriad serious international issues that will likely face the next Congress. It’s a stark contrast to just two years ago when the Iraq and Afghanistan wars weighed heavier on voters’ minds and candidates were scrutinized for their foreign policy acumen. President Obama campaigned on a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, and reminded Americans of that pledge on Aug. 31 when he brought combat operations there to an end. Vowing to concentrate U.S. efforts on battling al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Obama implemented a surge — which drew criticism from the left wing in his party — and a promised drawdown of coalition forces beginning in July 2011.