The Foreign Service Journal, December 2008

C Y B E R N O T E S 12 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8 underscores the need to expand the Foreign Service, among other things (see Cybernotes, November 2008). Enhancing diplomatic capacity is also the first of several recommenda- tions to the Obama administration in a special report from The Friends Com- mittee on National Legislation, “The Responsibility to Prevent” ( www.fcnl. org/issues/item.php?item_id=3426 &issue_id=130 ). “A new civilian-led foreign policy initiative dedicated to strong diplomacy and prevention of deadly conflict is needed to reassert U.S. leadership in promoting peace and stability. Enhanced diplomacy and conflict-management capacities should include a doubling of well-trained and deployable State Department person- nel, periodic country-conflict assess- ments, and strengthened civilian crisis- response capacity,” the report states. Smarter Power. The need for basic change in U.S. foreign policy axioms gained momentum throughout 2007. In November of that year, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Commission on Smart Power, a bipar- tisan project co-chaired by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Harvard Professor Joseph S. Nye, released “A Smarter, More Secure America,” detailing the steps needed to qualitatively boost America’s projection of “soft power” ( www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/071 106_csissmartpowerreport.pdf ). The Project on National Security Reform undertook a nonpartisan re- view of the U.S. national security sys- tem in mid-2007, the first such com- prehensive study since the National Security Act of 1947 was adopted. Funded by Congress, the project has issued its preliminary findings identi- fying a number of problems ( www. pnsr.org/data/images/pnsr prelimi- nary findings july 2008.pdf ). A final report recommending actions to Con- gress and the executive, including draft presidential directives and a new National Security Act to replace many of the provisions enacted 61 years ago, is at the printer ( www.pnsr.org ) . A joint Heritage Foundation-CSIS report released in September, “Home- land Security 3.0: Building a National Enterprise to Keep America Safe, Free and Prosperous,” recommends a shift of focus from the Department of Homeland Security to making changes to the broader national security infra- structure to deal with transnational terrorist and other threats ( www.her itage.org/Research/HomelandDef ense/sr23.cfm ). “Shaping the New Administration’s Counterterrorism Policy,” is the title of a two-day conference the Cato Insti- tute has set for Jan. 12-13, 2009 ( www. cato.org/counterterrorism ) . Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato’s vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, explains how to protect America’s security while avoiding unnecessary and unrewarding military adventures in his June 2008 book, Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America ( www.catostore.org/index. asp?fa=ProductDetails&method= cats&scid=47&pid=1441390 ). (See the November FSJ for a review.) The Foreign Assistance Tangle. Foreign assistance has been another focus of attention in the effort to enhance the effectiveness of America’s soft power. In an article in the Novem- ber/December issue of Foreign Af- fairs , “Arrested Development: Making Foreign Aid a More Effective Tool,” J. Brian Atwood, M. Peter McPherson and Andrew Natsios, three former administrators of USAID, argue that the next president will have to “dra- matically overhaul the foreign aid establishment during his first year” ( www.foreignaffairs.org/20081001 faessay87609/j-brian-atwood-m- peter-mcpherson-andrew-nat- sios/arrested-development.html ). Foreign assistance functions should be reconsolidated in a strengthened USAID, either as an independent Cabinet-level agency or a strong autonomous agency whose head re- ports directly to the Secretary of State. (See p. 34 for more details.) Carole Adelman of the Hudson Institute and Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute propose a more appropriate business model for foreign aid in “Foreign Aid: What Works and What Doesn’t” ( www.aei.org/publications/pubID. 28842,filter.foreign/pub_detail. asp ). Adelman and Eberstadt were co-vice chairman and commissioner, respectively, of the congressionally mandated U.S. Helping to Enhance the Livelihood of People around the Globe Commission. In December 2007, the HELP Commission issued an influential report concluding that the U.S. foreign aid systemwas broken and must be overhauled, along with recommendations for doing so ( www. helpcommission.gov/ ). At hearings on April 23, House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chair- man Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., outlined his committee’s goal for the next administration: rewrite the For- 50 Years Ago... T he question that faces the Foreign Service, and which The Ugly American attempts to illustrate, is whether the United States can be adequately represented abroad, and the political, economic and social evolutions of any given country correctly assessed, by representatives, diplomatic or other, who operate from what frequently resem- ble American redoubts in hostile territory. — Editorial, “The Lesson of The Ugly American ,” FSJ , December 1958.