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The Weekly GAB – Friday, March 4, 2016
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org

USGLC in the News

THE WASHINGTON POST
Letter to the Editor: Ethiopia Needs Even More Aid to Stave Off Disaster<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ethiopia-needs-even-more-aid-to-stave-off-disaster/2016/02/26/9a8f5f40-db32-11e5-8210-f0bd8de915f6_story.html>
George Ingram, Chair Emeritus of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition
While it’s true that humanitarian agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, are meeting the immediate needs for nutritional assistance, the consequences of a shortfall could be devastating for more than 18 million people… Today, thanks to the generosity of the United States and our international partners, another disaster may have been staved off for the moment. But tomorrow, unless new resources are found to maintain our response, that will not be true.

Campaign 2016

WAR ON THE ROCKS
Open Letter on Donald Trump From GOP National Security Leaders<http://warontherocks.com/2016/03/open-letter-on-donald-trump-from-gop-national-security-leaders/>
Coordinated by Dr. Eliot Cohen, former Counselor of the Department of State, and Bryan McGrath, Managing Director of The FerryBridge Group
Mr. Trump’s own statements lead us to conclude that as president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world. Furthermore, his expansive view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors poses a distinct threat to civil liberty in the United States. Therefore, as committed and loyal Republicans, we are unable to support a Party ticket with Mr. Trump at its head. We commit ourselves to working energetically to prevent the election of someone so utterly unfitted to the office.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
A Better, Not Bigger, Military Budget<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/29/opinion/a-better-not-bigger-military-budget.html?_r=0> | Editorial Board
Before any infusion of new funds, the Pentagon, which has wasted billions of dollars on misguided programs, needs to prove it can be a better steward… Mrs. Clinton has advocated the idea of “smart power,” which relies on a range of tools, diplomatic as well as military, to keep the nation safe. She has said she would name a commission to study military spending. Mr. Sanders wants a “robust military” but opposes spending increases. America needs a strong and technologically advanced military, but politically driven excessive investment in the Pentagon has too often meant short shrift for the State Department and its diplomatic missions, as well as cuts in domestic programs that hurt the most vulnerable citizens. It is crucial for the next president to get that balance right.

VOX
One of the GOP's Biggest Hawks Explains Why He'd Vote for Clinton Over Trump<http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11141308/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-max-boot>
Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
Since World War II, there's been (to some extent) a bipartisan consensus. Free trade, American global leadership, the need to work with democratic allies and defend them — that's been the bedrock of American foreign policy in the post-1945 world. It's been responsible for us winning the Cold War and the greatest expansion of freedom in human history. That's something I think Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio understand. It's clear that Donald Trump doesn't understand the first thing about it. In fact, Donald Trump would destroy American foreign policy and the international system as it's been built up since World War II. Donald Trump does not have a serious foreign policy thought in his head. He has no ideas, he only has impulses — and those impulses change every 30 seconds.

Who’s in the News

THE HILL
Big-Hearted, Self-Serving and Right<http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/271229-big-hearted-self-serving-and-right>
Senator Tom Daschle, former Senator from South Dakota, and Senator Bill Frist, former Senator from Tennessee
Under PEPFAR, launched under former President George W. Bush and enhanced under President Obama, with bipartisan support in Congress over more than a decade, 9.5 million men, women and children, mainly in Africa, are receiving lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs. Some 68 million have gotten HIV testing and counseling, 5.5 million orphans and vulnerable children have received care and support, and 190,000 new healthcare workers have been trained. In addition, our study found that in PEPFAR countries, political instability and violence have fallen 40 percent (compared to just 3 percent in equivalent non-PEPFAR countries), while economic growth has increased — and so has America’s reputation.

CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY
A Bipartisan National Security Agenda for an Election Year<http://www.cnas.org/commentary/bipartisan-national-security-agenda-election-year#.VtSDB_krLcu>
Michèle Flournoy, Co-founder and CEO, and Richard Fontaine, President of the Center for a New American Security
The hard reality is that the country – and the world – can’t afford to wait a year for bold action. An America that is visibly leading, globally present, and setting the agenda is the best antidote to turmoil and strife. It also raises the chances that the next president, whoever the candidate, will be better positioned to protect and advance America’s security. Surely our leaders can agree on that…Our national leaders should undertake a number of major steps that will both enhance America’s security and prosperity and set up the new presidential administration for foreign policy success. In spite of the deep political divisions in this most political of years, there exists a national security agenda that should garner the support of Republicans and Democrats, in the administration and Congress.

THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
USAID’s Public-Private Partnerships: A Data Picture and Review of Business Engagement<http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2016/02/usaid-public-private-partnerships-ingram-johnson-moser>
George Ingram, Brookings Institution; Anne Johnson, Georgetown University; and Helen Moser, Center for Strategic and International Studies
In the past decade, a remarkable shift has occurred in the development landscape. Specifically, acknowledgment of the central role of the private sector in contributing to, even driving, economic growth and global development has grown rapidly. The data on financial flows are dramatic, indicating reversal of the relative roles of official development assistance and private financial flows. This shift is also reflected in the way development is framed and discussed, never more starkly than in the Addis Abba Action Agenda and the new set of Sustainable Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals, which the SDGs follow, focused on official development assistance. In contrast, while the new set of global goals does not ignore the role of official development assistance, they reorient attention to the role of the business sector (and mobilizing host country resources).

POLITICO
Albright: World ‘Looking At Us As If We’ve Lost Out Mind’<http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/madeleine-albright-2016-election-donald-trump-220117> | Nick Gass
Fresh off a trip to the Middle East last month, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Wednesday that she had a hard time explaining the state of American politics — and particularly the rise of Donald Trump — to her hosts… Recounting her recent visits to Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Albright commented that people were asking her, "What is going on in America?"

Development & Diplomacy

CNN
U.S. Dispatches Emergency Aid for Ethiopian Drought<http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/03/politics/ethiopia-us-disaster-assistance-drought/> | Nicole Gaouette
The Obama administration is sending disaster response teams to northern Ethiopia to try to address a humanitarian emergency and avoid a national security risk to the U.S. should the drought there spiral out of control. The U.S. is concerned that conditions could lead to instability, that a situation where there's a lack of food and jobs could encourage young people to join extremist groups while refugees flows destabilize population centers. Rep. Ed Royce, the California Republican who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that thanks to Ethiopia's "efforts to confront extremism, al-Shabaab has not expanded footholds in the Horn of Africa" and commended its contributions to peacekeeping missions.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial: Helping Women in Africa Avoid H.I.V.<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/opinion/helping-women-in-africa-avoid-hiv.html?mtrref=undefined&assetType=opinion&_r=0> | Editorial Board
Research now moves to a ring that would be effective for three months and to one that would also release contraceptive drugs — a potential incentive to get young women to use the device consistently. That research cannot proceed fast enough. Of course, new drugs and devices can only help so much. Poverty, a lack of education — 80 percent of young women in sub-Saharan Africa have not completed secondary school and a third cannot read — and social and cultural customs that keep women subordinate to their male partners, with little control over their sex lives, all contribute to women’s high infection rates. Investing in educating and empowering women in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world must remain an important part of the fight against this disease.

PROJECT SYNDICATE
Defeating Meningitis in Africa<https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/menafrivac-meningitis-vaccine-africa-by-chris-elias-2016-03>
Chris Elias, President of Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Africa’s progress in fighting meningitis A is one of the best-kept secrets in global health. Thanks to the development and deployment of a low-cost vaccine, the lives of hundreds of thousands of children have been saved, and communities that might otherwise have been devastated by the illness are thriving. The Meningitis Vaccine Project stands as a powerful example of what is possible when African leaders and experts from across the spectrum of global health work together. Strong, temporary partnerships, with a focused goal, can have truly catalytic effects.

Politics & Foreign Policy

THE WASHINGTON POST
As Europe Falls Apart, America Clowns Around<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/as-europe-falls-apart-america-clowns-around/2016/02/29/82489aa4-dd40-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html>
Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Post
The American taste for quick and easy solutions didn’t begin with this campaign cycle. President George W. Bush tried to divide the world into good and evil, with us or against us, and the world did not fall into line. President Obama acted as though pulling back from the arc of conflict would end the conflict. “The tide of war is receding,” he proclaimed as he announced the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. Again the world failed to cooperate. In fact, there are no answers without patient, determined U.S. commitment, diplomatic and economic and military, through international institutions when possible and around them when necessary. Such efforts will succeed sometimes and fail sometimes, at which point the only option will be to regroup and try again. None of which makes for appetizing sound bites.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Libya Will Need American Help to Defeat Islamic State, General Says<http://www.wsj.com/articles/libya-will-need-american-help-to-defeat-islamic-state-general-says-1456776041> | Yaroslav Trofimov
Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, the commander of U.S. special-operations forces in Africa, estimated that American military involvement would be needed in Libya even if a unity government were formed. “Our assessment, purely looking at it through the [special-operations forces] lens, is that our partners need our advice and assistance. They need our training and a certain amount of equipping in order to be successful. That is the gap,” he said in an interview in Dakar, Senegal.

BBC
What Difference Will Obama’s Plan to Bring Power to Africa Make?<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35669088> | Neil Ford
Power Africa describes the first kWh people gain access to as the "the most valuable" because it provides at least a single source of electric light and the ability to charge mobile phones and radios. With its commitment to providing "cleaner power generation", many of the on-grid ventures backed by Power Africa also involve renewable energy. In some cases, it is directly funding generation projects, such as the 152 MW Sarreole wind farm in Senegal. More often, it will supply technical support and dedicated advisors It has already helped Ghana to tap its newly discovered gas reserves for thermal power production by providing regulatory advice. New projects will be identified as more of the funding is made available. It may be that a single grand scheme cannot solve Africa's power problems but Power Africa can help provide local solutions, one at a time.

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