Jul 30: Making Peace an Election-Year Issue

Prevent War: Making Peace an Election-Year Issue

July 30, 2008

The Bush administration set a record this year, requesting the most money for the military since World War II. If the president's request is approved by Congress, U.S. military spending for 2009 will surpass military spending of all other countries combined.

With elections just around the corner, now is the time to let candidates for Congress know that you oppose this budget choice and instead want the United States to improve its capacity to prevent deadly conflict. What candidates hear from voters on the campaign trail can influence the policies they propose and support. This Prevent War gives you questions and facts so you can raise these issues with the candidates.

Topics in this message:

  1. 2008 Elections: Questions and Answers
  2. Update on Civilian Response Corps
  3. Additional Resources
  4. New Resources at FCNL.org

(1) 2008 Elections: Questions and Answers

A huge portion, about 94 percent, of what the United States spends to engage with the rest of the world is allocated to the military budget. A tiny amount, about 6 percent, is devoted to diplomacy, development, civilian post-conflict reconstruction efforts, and supporting international institutions. This election year, we urge you to ask candidates for Congress what they would do to correct these imbalanced priorities. Listed below are some facts, followed by questions for candidates with suggestions for building U.S. and international capacity to prevent conflict from turning deadly.

Diplomacy

U.S. diplomats are critical to preventing deadly conflict and bolstering U.S. national security. According to its own recent estimate, however, the State Department is short more than 1,500 Foreign Service officers worldwide. Roughly 11.3 percent of posts abroad are currently unfilled.

Will you support funding to double the number of State Department personnel over 10 years to ensure that U.S. embassies are filled to capacity and increase the U.S. civilian presence in critical areas like Africa and South Asia?

Civilian Response Corps

In July the State Department officially launched the Civilian Response Corps. This initiative creates teams of civilians with skills in engineering, policing, law, health care, and finance. These crisis response teams could be sent rapidly to unstable countries to help prevent state collapse or to rebuild after violent conflict.

Will you support funding the Civilian Response Corps at $500 million in fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriations?

United Nations

Today there are more than 110,000 UN peacekeepers serving in 20 missions addressing 17 conflicts around the world. The annual cost of these operations for FY 2008 is approximately $7 billion, roughly $5 billion less than it costs the United States to occupy Iraq for a month. Studies done by the Rand Corporation and the U.S. Government Accountability Office demonstrate that UN peacekeeping operations are extremely cost-efficient and effective. As of June 30, 2008, however, the United States owed $1.9 billion to the United Nations, much of it for peacekeeping missions that this country has voted for at the Security Council.

Will you support completely paying off U.S. arrears to the United Nations and paying this country’s full share to support peacekeeping in FY 2010 appropriations?

(2) Update on Civilian Response Corps

The civilian response corps received $55 million in the FY 2009 supplemental funding bill, which was signed into law by President Bush on June 30, 2008. This funding represents the most direct financial support for this program from Congress so far. FCNL has been lobbying Congress to authorize and fund this program, and we welcomed the official launch of the new initiative by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week.

While the House of Representatives passed the bill to authorize the civilian response corps in March, the Senate still has not authorized this program. FCNL continues to lobby the Senate and to urge appropriators in both chambers to provide adequate funding for the civilian response corps in the FY 2009 and FY 2010 appropriations bills.

(3) Additional Resources

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Honored by U.S. Global Leadership Campaign

"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 importantly, relative to the responsibilities and challenges our nation has around the world."

~ Secretary Gates, July 15, 2008

Last November, Secretary Gates publicly called for increased spending on U.S. nonmilitary tools, adding his name to a growing list of senior military officials who have called for greater spending on diplomacy, development, and civilian post-conflict reconstruction tools. Gates was honored two weeks ago by the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign for his support of these approaches. See his remarks.

The Cost of Reaction: The Long-Term Costs of Short-Term Cures

The United States is the largest provider of bilateral aid in the world. Unfortunately, as the Center for American Progress points out, U.S. foreign assistance is too often “crisis-driven” humanitarian and military assistance doled out after conflict has turned deadly. Greater U.S. investments in long-term poverty reduction assistance would help prevent conflict from turning deadly, and save lives and treasure.

(4) New Resources at FCNL.org

New Nuclear Warhead Deemed Dead

Two weeks ago, the Senate administered the last rites for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). The Senate Appropriations Committee passed an annual spending bill that rejected all funding for the new weapon.

Pentagon’s “New” Cluster Bomb Policy Treads Water

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon said that the U.S. military would continue to use and export even the most unreliable cluster bombs over the next decade. This policy decision comes shortly after 111 countries, including major NATO allies, agreed to a global treaty banning cluster bombs.