Statements by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the International Affairs Budget
July 18, 2007 – Article in Reuters
- “The non-military instruments of America’s national power need to be rebuilt, modernized and committed to the fight.”
November 26, 2007 – Kansas State University
- “What is clear to me is that there is a need for a dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security – diplomacy, strategic communications, foreign assistance, civic action, and economic reconstruction and development.”
- “One of the most important lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that military success is not sufficient to win: economic development, institution-building and the rule of law, promoting internal reconciliation, good governance, providing basic services to the people, training and equipping indigenous military and police forces, strategic communications, and more – these, along with security, are essential ingredients for long-term success.”
- “The Department of Defense has taken on many of (the) burdens that might have been assumed by civilian agencies in the past. … [F]orced by circumstances, our brave men and women in uniform have stepped up to the task, with field artillerymen and tankers building schools and mentoring city councils – usually in a language they don’t speak. … But it is no replacement for the real thing – civilian involvement and expertise.”
January 17, 2008 – Interview on National Public Radio
- “One of the points that I make, if you took all Foreign Service officers in the world – about 6,600 – it would not be sufficient to man one carrier strike group.”
Transcript of entire radio interview
January 26, 2008 – CSIS Event
- “The Army is planning to add about 7,000 more soldiers in 2008 to the active Army. It’s part of a multi-year expansion. In pure numbers, that is equivalent to adding the entire U.S. Foreign Service to the Army in one year.”
February 6, 2008 – Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee
- “The reality – as I talk about in the speech – is that at the height of the Cold War, [US]AID had 15,000 employees. It has 3,000 now. And it’s basically a contracting agency. [US]AID in its heyday was an expeditionary agency….It was an important component of America’s arsenal in the Cold War, where that was as much a war of ideas as it was of military power.”
- “But I think there needs to be greater attention both in the Executive and in the Legislative branches in how do we strengthen some of the civilian side of the government that deals with international affairs.”
February 6, 2008 – Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee
- “My hope is that one consequence of my speaking out on this issue will create a more favorable climate here on the hill for approval of this increase in the capabilities of the Department of State. Same way with the Agency for International Development.”
- “But I do know that we need to look at new institutions for the 21 century in terms of how we make use of the full range of national power.”
April 15, 2008 – Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee
- “For years to come, America will be grappling with a range of challenges to the international system and to our own security – from global terrorism to ethnic conflicts, to rogue nations and rising powers…. And as I have said before, they will require devoting considerably more resources to non-military instruments of national power, which will need to be rebuilt, modernized, and committed to the fight.”
- “I would also, once again, give my strong support to the State Department’s Civilian Stabilization Initiative in State’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget request. This initiative will improve America’s ability to respond to instability and conflict by funding a corps of civilian experts that can deploy with the U.S. military.”
- “From the military’s perspective, virtually any campaign we undertake today or in the near future is unlikely to succeed without civilian involvement and expertise.”
- “And I think the more that we have seen military personnel pressed into service to carry out tasks that they recognize are better performed by civilian experts — even though our folks do a good job of it — they would be the first to admit that when the real experts come in, it’s a huge force multiplier.”
- “I think that the State Department is the proper place to oversee all of the elements of American foreign policy and where there is accountability and where there is operational authority and the ability to persuade or work, coordinate others. The NSC clearly has a role in policy formulation and coordination and so on and so on, but part of the problem that the State Department has is that it can never be empowered — let me phrase it a different way: The State Department does not have the authority, the resources or the power to be able to play the role as the lead agency in American foreign policy, and the Congress has not been willing, decade in and decade out, to give the State Department the kind of resources, people and authority that it needs to play its proper role in American foreign policy.”
- “Now, it’s a strange thing for a former director of CIA and the secretary of defense to say, but I think that’s the reality. And so, I think that — I mean, [the] secretary and the president have some proposals up here that would significantly strengthen the Foreign Service, strengthen the Department of Defense. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a start.”
July 15, 2008 – U.S. Global Leadership Campaign Tribute Dinner
- “Broadly speaking, when it comes to America’s engagement with the rest of the world, you probably don’t hear this often from a Secretary of Defense, it is important that the military is – and is clearly seen to be – in a supporting role to civilian agencies.”
- “It has become clear that America’s civilian institutions of diplomacy and development have been chronically undermanned and underfunded for far too long – relative to what we traditionally spend on the military, and more important, relative to the responsibilities and challenges our nation has around the world.”
- “I cannot pretend to know the right dollar amount – I know it’s a good deal more than the one percent of the federal budget that it is right now. But the budgets we are talking about are relatively small compared to the rest of the government, steep increase of these capabilities is well within reach – as long as there is the political will and wisdom to do it.”
- “And, for the first time in a long time, I sense real bipartisan support in Congress for strengthening the civilian foreign affairs budget.”
- “To do all these things, to truly harness the ‘full strength of America,’ as I said in the National Defense Strategy, requires having civilian institutions of diplomacy and development that are adequately staffed and properly funded.”
- “In the campaign against terrorist networks and other extremists, we know that direct military force will continue to have a role. But over the long term, we cannot kill or capture our way to victory. What the Pentagon calls “kinetic” operations should be subordinate to measures to promote participation in government, economic programs to spur development, and efforts to address the grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies and among the discontented from which the terrorists recruit.”
- “In recent years the lines separating war, peace, diplomacy, and development have become more blurred, and no longer fit the neat organizational charts of the 20th century. All the various elements and stakeholders working in the international arena – military and civilian, government and private – have learned to stretch outside their comfort zone to work together and achieve results.”
