DuPont pledged to 1) invest $10 billion in research and development, 2) recognizing the link between education and nutrition, educate 2 million children by 2020 and 3) to improve the lives of farmers in rural communities.  These communities are often underserved and these three goals could have a huge impact.  Research and development has helped conquer famine by strengthening crops or drawn farmers closer to their markets, education has had a proven effect on improving livelihoods and public health, and these farmers are vitally important to maintaining or progressing the agricultural sector in the developing world.  DuPont emphasizes that improved food security improves economies and markets for American goods and services.

Senator Tom Daschle, who spoke on the DuPont Food Security Panel, said, “Public-private partnerships will be a critical component to achieve global food security.”  The announcement by DuPont joins initiatives by groups like the G-8 Sherpa-Sous Delegation on Food Security, which aims to draw together food security programs around the world.

The impact of food insecurity in the developing world has been well-documented.  In developing countries, 1 in 3 people are suffering from malnutrition, which has a devastating effect economic progress and the health of their communities.  With such a vast public health issue impeding progress in these developing countries, and private industry and donor countries alike have been combining their development efforts to increase effectiveness.

USAID’s Feed the Future initiative is taking a modern approach to agricultural and economic development by emphasizing sustainability, innovation, and public-private engagement.  By engaging with eager companies like DuPont to harness their private sector innovation across projects in the developing world, Feed the Future aims to lead agricultural development that will help communities in the developing world help themselves while strengthening their marketplaces.

Who’s in the News

U.S. Senators Introduce Plan To Avoid Additional Spending Cuts (Kate Brannen, Defense News)

A handful of U.S. Republican senators introduced a plan Feb. 2 that would delay by one year the spending cuts required under sequestration through a continued pay freeze for federal workers and a 5 percent reduction to the federal workforce.  Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is leading the charge to delay the process of sequestration, which begins automatically cutting money from discretionary spending in January 2013. For the Pentagon, sequestration would take an additional $500 billion from the Pentagon’s base budget over the next 10 years.  The 5 percent reduction in the federal workforce would be achieved by hiring two workers for every three that leave. This could take up to 10 years to achieve, McCain said.

Smart Power

Envisioning a Deal with Iran (William H. Luers and Thomas R. Pickering, New York Times)

Simply “keeping the door open to diplomacy” will not be sufficient. So the Iranian leader must be approached directly, but discreetly, by someone he trusts who conveys assurances from President Obama that covert operations and public pressure have been demonstrably reduced. The interlocutor might be a leader from a country in the region, enlisted when the American president felt the time was right.  There is no guarantee that diplomacy will succeed. But that is also true of war. And only diplomacy can offer Iran’s current rulers a stake in building a secure future without a nuclear bomb. Only diplomacy can achieve America’s major objectives while avoiding the mistakes committed in Iraq or Vietnam.

Politics/Foreign Policy

U.N. Tentatively Backs a Plan for Syria (Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times)

Security Council ambassadors reached a wobbly consensus on Thursday backing an Arab League plan for political change in Syria, after they dropped a specific reference to President Bashar al-Assad’s ceding of power.  The resolution’s passage is far from assured, and it still must be approved by the governments of the 15 member states, including Russia, which rejected a previous resolution in October.   In hopes of persuading the Russians and other skeptics, Western and Arab ambassadors also jettisoned calls for a voluntary arms embargo and sanctions.   Although diplomats acknowledged that those changes diluted the pressure being brought to bear on Damascus, they said they wanted to concentrate on supporting the Arab League in pushing Syria toward democratic transition.

Romney: Afghanistan announcement shows Obama’s “naiveté” (Jeremy Herb, The Hill)

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney slammed President Obama on Wednesday night over Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s announcement that the United States would end its combat mission in Afghanistan next year.  Speaking in Las Vegas, Romney said that announcing a timetable to end the combat mission showed the president’s naiveté.  “The secretary of Defense said that on a day certain, the middle of 2013, we’re going to pull out our combat troops from Afghanistan,” Romney said, according to reports from Las Vegas.  “He announced that. So the Taliban hears it, the Pakistanis hear it, the Afghan leaders hear it. Why in the world do you go to the people that you’re fighting with and tell them the date you’re pulling out your troops?” Romney said. “It makes absolutely no sense.”

Time for the Republican candidates to sharpen the foreign policy critique (Peter Feaver, Shadow Government)

It is high time the candidates focused on providing a compelling alternative to President Obama rather than providing a litany of reasons for detesting the other Republicans in the race.  Republicans must come to terms with the fact that this will be the strongest Democrat incumbent on national security and foreign policy they have faced in decades. This has more than a whiff of damnation with faint praise, since both President Clinton and especially President Carter were hobbled with substantial national security baggage during their reelection campaign. But for precisely that reason, I think Republicans have sometimes settled for an intellectually lazy critique because, given how weak the opposing party’s record is, that seems to have sufficed.

The importance of U.S. military might shouldn’t be underestimated (Robert Kagan, Washington Post)

Power takes many forms, and it’s smart to make use of all of them. But there is a danger in taking this wisdom too far and forgetting just how important U.S. military power has been in building and sustaining the present liberal international order.   That order has rested significantly on the U.S. ability to provide security in parts of the world, such as Europe and Asia, that had known endless cycles of warfare before the arrival of the United States.  Some find it absurd that the United States should have a larger military than the next 10 nations combined. But that gap in military power has probably been the greatest factor in upholding an international system that, in historical terms, is unique — and uniquely beneficial to Americans.

1. Federal support of research and innovation;
2. Education; and
3. Modern infrastructure

However, the report only briefly touches on another set of government tools essential to this conversation—the role of diplomacy and development in increasing U.S. competiveness abroad.

Half of U.S. exports today are to the developing world, and trends reveal those markets will grow at a far faster pace than many of our more traditional partners.  China, Europe, Brazil, and India all recognize the future of the global economy is in the developing world, and are investing heavily in becoming the economic partner of choice across Africa, Asia, and South and Central America. Success in these emerging and developing markets is central to the future of American economic competitiveness.

In a recent report published by the Council on Foreign Relations on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy, a task force of trade and foreign policy experts outlined seven pillars to make the U.S. more competitive. While some of the proposals focus on domestic challenges like those in the Commerce report, the CFR task force goes further and acknowledges that the government can play an important role in creating and supporting an environment conducive to U.S. exports. For example, the authors highlight the value of “Greater efforts to promote exports through more competitive export financing and a more active government role in supporting U.S. overseas sales.” These activities are largely funded by the International Affairs Budget–the Export-Import Bank (which provides export financing) and the State Department (which promotes U.S. businesses and a good business environment).

American businesses need a wide array of tools to succeed in these new environments, and the International Affairs Budget supports essential government programs to help U.S. businesses compete abroad. These programs promote American exports and investment, support economic reforms overseas to open markets, contribute to the development of stable, democratic societies governed by rule of law, and help grow the number of middle class consumers through poverty alleviation programs–all of which are essential for U.S. companies to thrive. While investments in research, education, and infrastructure are also essential component of competiveness, we mustn’t overlook the other tools required to help make sure the latest U.S. innovations and products are able to access the fastest growing markets.

Must Reads

Who’s in the News

Levin and McCain: Egypt’s Military Aid Really is in Jeopardy (Josh Rogin, The Cable)

Committee chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and ranking Republican John McCain (R-AZ) both said on Tuesday that a withholding of military aid to Egypt was now on the table due to the Egyptian military’s role in the Dec. 29 raids on several NGO groups in Cairo, including three U.S. government-funded organizations: the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and Freedom House.  The anger in Washington at the Egyptian government reached a boiling point this week when it was revealed on Jan. 26 that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s son Sam LaHood, the head of IRI’s Cairo office, had been barred from leaving Egypt by the government, along with five other U.S. citizens.  The issue has already led to a divorce between the Egyptian government and its Washington lobbyists.

Smart Power

Why the Global Fund matters (Paul Farmer, New York Times)

In 2001, very few people — almost none, really — living with H.I.V. in Africa had access to antiretroviral medicines. Today, more than 3.3 million people — more than half of those on treatment worldwide — are on treatment supported by the Global Fund: A true victory for the global community. The fund and the U.S. international AIDS program, Pepfar (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program), are the most ambitious global health endeavors in generations.  Now, 10 years since its founding, the Global Fund is facing a serious financial shortfall, and the fund’s board voted recently not to accept new grant requests until at least 2014. Bill Gates’ announcement of a $750 million contribution to the fund in Davos last week was welcome news — the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been among the greatest supporters of the Global Fund since its inception — but will not change the board’s decision.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Thing Again: Microfinance (David Roodman, Foreign Policy)

Microfinance is no silver bullet for poverty, but it does have things to offer. The strength of the movement is not in reducing poverty or empowering women, but in building dynamic institutions that deliver inherently useful services to millions of poor people. Poor people transact in smaller denominations, but they have to solve financial problems at least as tough as yours. They need and deserve such services too, just as they do clean water and electricity. The microfinance movement is about building businesses and business-like nonprofits that mass-produce financial services for the poor — not just microcredit, but microsavings, microinsurance, and micro money transfers too.  The well-meaning flood of money into microcredit distorts the industry toward overreliance on this one, risky service. It is the greatest threat to the greatest strength of microfinance as a whole. That is why the hype about microcredit has been not merely misleading but destructive. And that is why less money should go into microcredit, not more.

GOP Senators to release plan to stop triggered defense cuts (Jeremy Herb, The Hill)

Five Republican senators will release their plan Thursday morning to stop as much as $500 billion in automatic cuts to defense spending slated to take effect in 2013.  The senators — Jon Kyl (Ariz.), John McCain (Ariz), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Cornyn (Texas) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) — did not release details of their legislation ahead of the press conference Thursday. The bill’s title, “Down Payment to Protect National Security Act of 2012,” suggests that the bill will change the sequestration cuts for only a short period, and not wipe out the full $500 billion cut over 10 years.   That would follow a similar proposal from House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), who introduced a bill in December to undo the first year of sequestration cuts to both defense and non-defense spending by trimming the federal workforce over 10 years by 10 percent.

Panetta moves up end to U.S. combat role in Afghanistan (Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times)

In a major milestone toward ending a decade of war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday that American forces would step back from a combat role there as early as mid-2013, more than a year before all American troops are scheduled to come home.  Mr. Panetta cast the decision as an orderly step in a withdrawal process long planned by the United States and its allies, but his comments were the first time that the United States had put a date on stepping back from its central role in the war. The defense secretary’s words reflected the Obama administration’s eagerness to bring to a close the second of two grinding ground wars it inherited from the Bush administration.

U.N. pushes ambitious Afghan refugees plan (Michael Georgy, Reuters)

More than $1 billion in international aid is needed to ensure that conditions are right for millions of Afghan refugees to return to their troubled homeland, the senior U.N. official for refugees said on Wednesday.  “I think there are problems of governance, there are problems of economic development, there are problems of security,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told Reuters in an interview.  “What is important to recognize is that a lot of investment has been made in Afghanistan but that investment has not been concentrated in creating conditions for people to feel they can go back, for that return to be sustainable.”

by  Admiral Robert Natter

Florida Times Union, February 1, 2012

Republican presidential candidates are talking about our economy and national security.

My hope is they will articulate and understand how critical it is for our nation to maintain its leadership in today’s dangerous world as part of their plans for getting Americans back to work and keeping our families safe.

America has always been a beacon of hope and freedom in the world. From the global economy, to the struggle for democracy in the Arab world, to famine ravaging the Horn of Africa, our nation faces challenges as never before.

But America has never run from challenges, and we cannot now. That is why we need to ensure all of our tools of foreign policy — diplomacy and development, as well as defense — are ready to protect our national interests.

The value of investing in American global leadership and our international affairs programs cannot be overstated. It is when America has become disengaged that the world has become less stable and less prosperous.

Recently Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., warned that for the U.S. “to withdraw or retreat from the world will create a vacuum that will be filled by [other] actors … Disengaging from the world will end up costing us more.”

Rubio’s words are worth serious consideration. Our nation’s international affairs budget is an investment in preventing conflicts before they start, counter terrorism, establishing stability in war-torn and poverty-stricken regions and, most importantly, keeping our brave men and women in uniform out of harm’s way.

I know our troops cannot go it alone when it comes to American leadership abroad. Our military must be joined by strong diplomats and development experts. And the more effective their work is on the front end, the less likely America is to have to go to war to protect our freedoms.

Countries that develop strong economies and stable governments with American assistance become not only our allies in an increasingly dangerous world but new markets for our goods and services. The alternative of stepping back from our investments would have huge economic consequences for our state and for our nation.

Right now in Florida, one in five jobs is dependent on international trade, and we export nearly $60 billion in merchandise to foreign markets every year.

The fastest growing markets for U.S. goods are in the developing world, so if we want to maintain our competitive edge in the global marketplace, we have no choice but to invest in those countries. This creates both jobs and revenue here at home.

Florida has long been known as the gateway to the Americas, and many of the countries in Latin America are more stable and friendly to U.S. business thanks to the programs funded by the international affairs budget.

This is a win-win situation for our security, for our economy and for these countries.

From the Central American Free Trade Agreement signed by President George W. Bush to the Columbia Free Trade Agreement signed last year by President Barack Obama, our state has seen many new opportunities for economic growth thanks to careful U.S. diplomacy in Latin America.

Many Americans think we spend up to a quarter of our federal budget on our diplomatic and development operations, but it’s actually just 1 percent of federal spending.

When you take into account the security and economic benefits we get for that 1 percent, that’s a pretty good investment for the American people.

So as we struggle to rejuvenate our economy and keep our nation safe, we cannot forget we must maintain all of the tools of our foreign policy — development, diplomacy and defense.

Adm. Robert J. Natter, USN (Ret.) of Ponte Vedra Beach was commander in chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. 

Must Reads

USGLC in the News

Investing in America’s Global Leadership (Admiral Robert J. Natter, Florida Times-Union)

Republican presidential candidates are talking about our economy and national security.  My hope is they will articulate and understand how critical it is for our nation to maintain its leadership in today’s dangerous world as part of their plans for getting Americans back to work and keeping our families safe.  America has always been a beacon of hope and freedom in the world. From the global economy, to the struggle for democracy in the Arab world, to famine ravaging the Horn of Africa, our nation faces challenges as never before.   But America has never run from challenges, and we cannot now. That is why we need to ensure all of our tools of foreign policy — diplomacy and development, as well as defense — are ready to protect our national interests.

Who’s in the News

Romney pledges to defend the people of South Sudan (Josh Rogin, The Cable)

Responding to a call from advocacy groups, Mitt Romney’s campaign has released a statement promising to protect “innocents” and prosecute human rights abuses by the Khartoum government in Sudan and what is now South Sudan.  “Mitt Romney recognizes that for too long far too many Sudanese have been victims of war crimes and other atrocities committed by the government in Khartoum and its proxies,” the Romney campaign said in Tuesday statement.  “Governor Romney is committed to protecting innocents from war crimes and other atrocities, ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches those desperately in need, holding accountable those leaders who perpetrate atrocities, and achieving a sustainable peace for all who live in Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan,” the statement said.

Smart Power

Feeding a growing world sustainably and nutritiously (Dan Glickman, Diplomatic Courier)

Few human experiences are as universal as the need for food. Ensuring people have enough to eat is the foundation for good health and economic prosperity. Today, almost a billion people are chronically hungry and 1.5 billion are overweight or obese. As the world population grows, incomes rise, and climate shifts, there is a real risk that these rates will increase, hindering economic growth and creating conditions that foster instability.  Overcoming these challenges and securing a reliable and nutritious supply of food lays the foundation for stability and economic growth. The recent revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa were not just about democratic freedoms – they were about food.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Afghans fear economic downturn as foreigners withdraw (Graham Bowley, New York Times)

The anticipated withdrawal of most international forces is still two years away, but already Afghans who have depended on the decade-old foreign presence for their livelihoods are feeling tremors as the first troops leave and spending and aid money dries up. Many fear that the rumblings could be a harbinger of far worse things to come.  The withdrawal of tens of thousands of foreign troops and international aid workers — and the billions of dollars in aid they have brought to the country — has all the potential to undo the fragile progress Afghans have made under the international occupation and, some fear, even set off a new round of insecurity and civil unrest. So dependent is Afghanistan that in 2010, international assistance amounted to roughly 97 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to a commonly cited World Bank estimate.

Dianne Feinstein criticizes W.H.’s Afghanistan assessment (Josh Gerstein, Politico)

The Obama administration may be sugarcoating its public assessments of the situation in Afghanistan even as analysts privately predict a gloomy future for that country, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein argued at a hearing Tuesday.  “In Afghanistan, the surge of U.S. forces that began in ’09 has produced meaningful gains. That said, I think we’re all very concerned about what will happen in 2014 when we reduce our troop commitment and President [Hamid] Karzai’s term is up,” Feinstein, a California Democrat, said at the outset of the annual hearing on global threats to U.S. security.  Feinstein suggested that the U.S. government’s closed-door assessments of Afghanistan’s direction are far grimmer than the public picture.

At U.N., Pressure Is on Russia for Refusal to Condemn Syria (Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times)

The battle over Syria moved to the United Nations on Tuesday with Western powers and much of the Arab world confronting Russia in the Security Council over their refusal to condemn the Syrian government for its violent suppression of popular protests.  At the United Nations, the two sides skirmished over a draft Security Council resolution proposed by Morocco that calls for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to leave power as the first step of a transition toward democracy.  But behind all the arguments lurked the ghost of Libya, with Russia determined to block any resolution that might be construed as a license for regime change.  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined by the foreign ministers of Britain, France and several other countries, argued that Libya was a “false analogy.” The plan for a gradual democratic transition “represents the best efforts of Syria’s neighbors to chart a way forward, and it deserves a chance to work,” she said.

President Obama defended American engagement abroad on Monday afternoon, and calling out the national security, economic, and humanitarian importance of U.S. international affairs programs. During a Google+ “Hangout” and broadcast live on Youtube, Obama answered questions from five American’s over a video feed, and responded to 23 electronically submitted questions. Over 133,000 questions were submitted though Google and Youtube, but it was a homeless veteran from Boston who pressed the President about his support for foreign aid.

Asked whether the United States could afford to spend money abroad when so many are hurting at home, the President acknowledged the difficult situation, but defended international affairs programs saying, “We only spend about 1 percent of our budget on foreign aid. But it pays off in a lot of ways.” Helping other countries improve their economies, avert famine, or stabilize their economies “prevents us from having to deal with some military crisis somewhere down the road that could be even more expensive,” he stated. Obama then turned the discussion to national security matters, and the cost of military spending. “Most of the aid we provide goes to countries that are helping us with our national security. When we’re providing aid to that country, we may be saving a larger amount in terms of what we would have to deal with if they weren’t cooperating with us.” The International Affairs Budget, therefore, is used to prevent potential military expenditures that would be far greater in the cost of both the American pocketbook and the lives of American soldiers.

The International Affairs Budget is critical to protecting and promoting American interests in the world, and we look forward to the President’s release of his FY13 budget proposal on February 13th.

Must Reads

Who’s in the News

President Obama Hangs Out with America (Google+ Hangout)

It’s important for folks to understand that we only spend about 1% of our budget on foreign aid, but it pays off in a lot of ways.  Because, if we are contributing to an improving economy in a country, if we’re giving more people opportunity, if we’re preventing a famine, that results in huge numbers of refugees, that’s prevents us from having to deal with some military crisis somewhere down the road that could be even more expensive.  So aside from it being the right thing to do as a very wealthy country, us trying to develop other countries, it’s also important for people to understand that it’s also a part of our security strategy.

Clinton to urge Security Council action on Syria (Voice of America)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to urge the U.N. Security Council to support an Arab League peace plan for Syria, after Washington strongly condemned escalating violence by President Bashar al-Assad’s government.  Clinton will join the foreign ministers of France and Britain at Tuesday’s Security Council session.  Western powers have been working on a draft resolution endorsing the Arab League plan, which calls for Assad to step aside as a way to resolve the crisis.  Syria has rejected the proposal as a violation of its sovereignty.  Clinton said in a statement Monday the Security Council “must act” by showing the international community views Syria’s crackdown on a 10-month opposition uprising as a threat to peace and security.

Smart Power

London Declaration: A tipping point for the world’s poor (Dr. Peter Hotez, Huffington Post)

In London today, global health leaders — the CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies, Bill Gates, WHO Director General Margaret Chan, senior government officials from endemic and donor countries, and others — announced an unprecedented commitment to control or eliminate 10 diseases by the end of this decade.  The neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs, are the most common afflictions of the world’s poorest billion people. They are ancient scourges such as hookworm, elephantiasis, river blindness, schistosomiasis, trachoma and guinea worm.  The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases serves as a new generation Marshall Plan for the bottom billion, but with a priority on girls and women living in poverty.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Up to 500,000 new refugees could flee to S. Sudan (Hereward Holland, Reuters)

Conflict and food shortages could push up to half a million Sudanese refugees to flee to South Sudan in the next couple months if Khartoum does not allow aid agencies more access to its restive border regions, the World Food Program said.  deputy executive director Ramiro Lopes Da Silva said more than 1,000 people per day have crossed into South Sudan over the last week, as many people as were crossing into Kenya from Somalia at the peak of the famine in the Horn of Africa last year.  “In a couple of months it is what is typically the hunger season both in Sudan and South Sudan and obviously the potential impact on those populations is very serious,” Da Silva told reporters.  “There is a sense of urgency that the window for an effective intervention with the populations where they are is narrowing.”

Tunisia navigates a democratic path tinged with religion (Anthony Shadid, New York Times)

The challenges before Tunisia’s year-old revolution are immense — righting an ailing economy, drafting a new constitution and recovering from decades of dictatorship that cauterized civic life. But in the first months of a coalition government led by the Ennahda Party, seen as one of the most pragmatic of the region’s Islamist movements, the most emotional of struggles has surged to the forefront: a fight over the identity of an Arab and Muslim society that its authoritarian leaders had always cast as adamantly secular.  The popular revolts that began to sweep across the Middle East one year ago have forced societies like Tunisia’s, removed from the grip of authoritarian leaders and celebrating an imagined unity, to confront their own complexity.

Rohrabacher slams Ambassador Crocker’s comments on Afghanistan rebuilding (Pete Kasperowicz, The Hill)

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) last week criticized Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, for making comments that Rohrabacher said imply that Congress should not be holding open discussions about how best to structure Afghanistan’s fledgling government.  “Ambassador Crocker seems to want to stifle the debate on how to reform and improve the Afghan structure so as to leave behind a more sustainable and legitimate government in Kabul when the U.S. and its allies withdraw in 2014,” Rohrabacher said. “It is not a ‘lie’ that such a debate is in progress, nor is the debate a ‘dishonor’ to those who have died fighting enemies of the United States.”

Must Reads

USGLC in the News

Keep America a shining city on a Hill (Dr. Tony Beam, Greenville News)

Looking at the instability we see around the world today, one thing I want the fine men still running for president to not forget is their fundamental responsibility to ensure the United States remains a leader on the global stage. The fact is American global leadership is essential to our national security, our economic prosperity, and our most central values.  Our top military leaders have made clear that by investing a small amount — just over 1 percent of our overall budget — in development and diplomacy programs, we can prevent conflicts before they start, fight terrorism and international crime, promote stability, and thereby keep our service members out of harm’s way. The best war is the one we never have to fight, and in today’s dangerous world, that means utilizing all the foreign policy and national security tools we have available in order to keep our country safe.

Who’s in the News

Malaria’s Defeat, Africa’s Future (Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Huntington Post)

Africa is taking command of its future by tackling an ancient plague: malaria.  Supported by the lessons learned from the decade to “roll back malaria,” which produced a 33 percent decline in malaria deaths in Africa between 2000 and 2010, 41 African presidents have now signed on to end deaths from the disease in their home countries as part of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA).  Africa must demonstrate its own commitment to this outcome by expanding domestic funding of health. Innovative finance approaches — such as pooled commodity procurement or airport surcharges — will be a major topic of discussion at the ALMA meeting this week. We should also commit to using the resources in hand, including investments made in our countries by the World Bank, to fuel continued progress in the malaria fight.

Smart Power

Between Hard Power and Soft (Roy Godson, Weekly Standard)

A U.S. leader who wants to prevent military conflict while maintaining America’s national security and global preeminence must be committed to understanding—and shaping—politics in volatile places. That entails bolstering leaders, political groups, and movements that share our values. Human rights and honest justice systems, in particular, are pillars of legitimate, stable governments. It is time to have a new, specialized professional corps of Americans, drawn from military, diplomatic, and other backgrounds, with dedicated career tracks that allow them to stay in a region and develop long-term trust and connections that allow us to help shape a freer, more stable future. This strategic, hard-edged but softer approach is our best bet for precluding the need for a large and expensive U.S. military footprint on the ground.

GOP candidates Ron Paul & Mitt Romney Should Realize Why We Need Foreign Aid (Sehreen Noor Ali, PolicyMic)

Foreign aid costs only 1% of the federal budget, yet GOP candidates consistently criticize the practice, threatening to cut it off completely or, as in the case of Mitt Romney, imply that the U.S. should leave it to countries like China to “take care” of poverty. If current GOP candidates properly understood the American public and foreign aid, they would tone down their hawkish stance on overseas assistance and acknowledge the benefits of contributing to aid organizations like The Global Fund.  According to a recent World Public Opinion report and the 2010 Chicago Council on Global Affairs poll, a strong majority of Americans support the provision of “food and medical assistance” (74%) and “aid to help needy countries to develop their economies” (62%) even in economic downturns. U.S. citizens believe that developed nations have a “moral responsibility” to help poorer countries and to take measures that support their democratic ambitions. In addition, most respondents said that helping developing countries is good for the America’s own economic growth.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Egypt’s assault on civil society (New York Times)

On Dec. 29, security forces raided as many as seven nongovernmental groups in Cairo, including three American-financed democracy-building groups — the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House. Employees were hauled in for questioning in a bogus criminal investigation.   On Thursday, the Egyptian government confirmed that it had barred at least six Americans — including I.R.I.’s Egypt director, Sam LaHood, the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood — from leaving the country.   Egypt’s military receives $1.3 billion in annual aid from Washington. It is beyond us why the generals would keep pressing this destructive dispute, even after hearing remonstrations from President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. They must let Mr. LaHood and the others go immediately.

Foreign students can boost economic development (Stuart S. Malawer, Richmond Times-Dispatch)

State universities have a huge untapped asset in the foreign graduate students who have chosen to study in the United States. The primary motive for most of these students is to learn about their professional fields in connection with the United States. In fact, they often want to start businesses with links to their homelands.  New arrivals in this country often become the most aggressive entrepreneurs. They help bring together people, ideas, products and financing from around the world. They are a self-selecting group that has gone through a lot of effort to study and live in the United States. Why waste this opportunity?  The commonwealth can help match the interests of these students or the leads they provide to firms within Virginia. This process would not be too difficult or an excessively burdensome obligation for universities. The schools’ cooperation would help with the most important issue of this decade: job creation.

Defending Defense: A Response to the Obama Administration’s Preview of the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Budget Request (Heritage Foundation)

The President’s budget request will slash $487 billion from the military over the next ten years, delaying vital next-generation systems and giving the pink slip to 100,000 active duty men and women in uniform.  Unfortunately, this is a budget-driven strategy that kills jobs and puts our military at risk while it is still in harm’s way. Despite increasingly tough talk about the importance of Asia, the Obama administration’s preview of its fiscal year 2013 defense budget proves that it is a “pivot” in name only.  This budget is a prayer that the United States will not have to fight more than one major war at a time.  The two-war standard has long been a way to measure America’s global reach and deter potential adversaries.  The world is no less dangerous today than it was twenty years ago—so why is the Obama administration planning for an era of decreased conflict?  Our world was changed on September 11^th   because of an act of war for which America was not prepared.  With diffuse and growing threats, the world can ill-afford American complacency.

by Dr. Tony Beam

The Greenville News, January 29, 2012

The eyes of the nation have been on our fair state for the past couple of weeks, as the Republican candidates for president crisscrossed from I-95 to I-26 to I-85, shaking the hands of every voter they could find along the way. South Carolina turned out to be a make-or-break state for a few of the candidates, and our primary was a great opportunity for our citizens to influence the future direction of our state and our nation.

Looking at the instability we see around the world today, one thing I want the fine men still running for president to not forget is their fundamental responsibility to ensure the United States remains a leader on the global stage. The fact is American global leadership is essential to our national security, our economic prosperity, and our most central values.

Our top military leaders have made clear that by investing a small amount — just over 1 percent of our overall budget — in development and diplomacy programs, we can prevent conflicts before they start, fight terrorism and international crime, promote stability, and thereby keep our service members out of harm’s way. The best war is the one we never have to fight, and in today’s dangerous world, that means utilizing all the foreign policy and national security tools we have available in order to keep our country safe.

There is another issue on voters’ minds this election season, though. In addition to keeping our families safe, Americans are looking for leaders who can get our economy moving again. It may sound surprising to some, but American engagement abroad helps create jobs here at home.

In the Upstate, we know the value of international investment as companies like BMW and Michelin have brought in millions of dollars and thousands of jobs right here in our community. Local businesses here depend on access to the 95 percent of consumers who live outside the United States in order to grow and create new jobs; and in fact, one in five jobs in South Carolina depends on international trade. Considering the world’s fastest-growing markets are in the developing world, our economic growth depends on our investment there.

So while we know U.S. global leadership helps keep us safe and creates jobs here at home, it produces something deeper and more fundamental for all Americans. The United States is at its best when we are sharing our values of freedom, liberty and democracy with the world. Our development and diplomacy programs communicate these values and save lives in all corners of the globe.

One only has to look at the devastating famine currently ravaging the Horn of Africa to see the critical importance of American leadership. Some 13 million men, women and children are at risk of starvation — that’s about three times the entire population of our state. I take seriously the admonition to care “for the least of these” and believe our life-saving intervention in this strategically critical region is nothing less than a moral obligation.

These days, everyone is looking for places to cut back, but even in difficult economic times, America’s values endure. The world must see that our basic principles cannot be eroded by recession, and that we must allocate adequate resources to continue our successful global development and anti-poverty efforts abroad.

President Ronald Reagan described America as a shining city on a hill, a beacon of freedom and democracy for the entire world to see. This was more than just rhetoric to him — it was a deep-seated belief in America’s role as an engaged global leader.

President Reagan took action by signing international security and foreign assistance legislation into law, saying at the time, “The ultimate importance to the United States of our security and development assistance programs cannot be exaggerated.”

No matter which candidate takes the oath of office next January, it is my deep belief that he should continue this proud legacy by standing up for U.S global engagement. When America is a leader in the world, we are stronger and safer here at home — and that is a platform we can all get behind.

Dr. Tony Beam is the vice president of Student Services and Christian Worldview at North Greenville University and the host of Christian Worldview Today. He is a member of the State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.