The Foreign Service Journal, June 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2017 15 dren who have seen and experienced far too many horrors for their age. Retired military and former gov- ernment officials say that childhood education is one of the most potent and underappreciated tools for combatting terrorism. “I think it’s a brilliant idea and phenomenally positive,” said David Barno, a retired U.S. Army ranger and former commander of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan. “If we’re not doing enough in aid, development, childhood education, we’re going to have to keep fighting terrorists.” Terrorist groups use a variety of tools to recruit and groom the next genera- tion of fighters. Sesame Street offers a real alternative, said Ammar al-Sabban, a “Muppeteer” for the Arabic version, which has been based in the United Arab Emirates since 2015. “We get to deliver really positive mes- sages of equality, of tolerance, of accep- tance for other people,” he said. “Educa- tion is what can counter extremism.” —Gemma Dvorak, Associate Editor GAO Inventories State- Defense Cooperation on Security Assistance A March report from the Government Accountability Office provides an inventory of the wide range of security- related activities conducted by the State Department and Department of Defense to build foreign partner capacity. The State Department and DOD are engaged in more than 194 security assis- tance and security cooperation projects around the world today, and more than F or most career Foreign Service offi- cers peace-building is not simply a profession, it is a passion. Unfortu- nately, the same cannot always be said for those parliamentary bodies which must vote the appropriations needed to support peace-building activities. Parliaments, in fact, too often treat peace-building like a step-child. Too often, they are willing to vote many bil- lions for bullets, but balk at allocating a fewmillions for the productive work of strengthening peace. There have, however, been notable exceptions. Most significant among themwas the action taken by the U.S. Congress 20 years ago when this country invited both its allies and its former enemies in history’s greatest war to join that unique and magnificent partnership, known as the Marshall Plan, which was designed to rehabilitate a vast continental area— and thus, hopefully, to eradicate from it the seeds of future conflict. America’s willingness to underwrite European economic recovery was, without question, one of the most truly generous impulses that has ever motivated any nation anywhere at any time. But as with the early Quaker mission- aries—of whom it has been said that they went out into the world to do good, and wound up by doing very well—the United States derived enormous benefits from the bread it figuratively cast upon the international waters. …Today, the United States, its former partners in the Marshall Plan and—in fact—all other advanced industrialized countries, including those of Eastern Europe, are being offered an even bigger bargain: the chance to form an effective partner- ship for worldwide economic and social progress with the earth’s hundred and more low-income nations. The potential profits in terms of expanded prosperity and a more secure peace could dwarf those won through the European Recovery Program. Yet the danger that this bargain will be rejected—out of apathy, indif- ference and discourage- ment over the relatively slow progress toward self-sufficiency made by the developing countries thus far—is perhaps even greater than was the case with the Marshall Plan. For the whole broadscale effort of development assistance to the world’s poorer nations—an effort that is generally, but I think quite mislead- ingly, called “foreign aid”—has never received the full support it merits and is now showing signs of a further slippage in both popular and govern- mental backing. Under these circum- stances, the study of the Marshall Plan’s brief but brilliantly successful history is much more than an aca- demic exercise. —Paul G. Hoffman, administrator of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (1948-1950) and member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations (1956-1957). From 1959 to 1972, he acted as managing director of the U.N. Special Fund. 50 Years Ago Peace-building–Its Price and Its Profits