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The Weekly GAB Friday, December 15, 2017
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
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USGLC in the News

THE HILL
A Retreat in American Diplomacy

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=rLvLWH-qNZ8VDpete5PTCQ

Liz Schrayer, USGLC President and CEO

As the administration moves ahead on next year's budget and on a
redesign proposal that could shrink America's footprint around
the globe, I am certain there is room to improve and reform. There are
specific actions we can take to ensure driven results, effective aid,
and diplomacy. It would be wise to heed the counsel of lawmakers
questioning these personnel moves, along with the Senate
Appropriations Committee's feedback on the proposed 32 percent
cut to our civilian forces. They called it "an apparent doctrine
of retreat."

COLORADO POLITICS

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ed Anderson of Monument Lauded for International
Leadership |
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=IyJQmuZk0HZl9TwM1oAVEw

Joey Bunch

Retired Army Lt. General Ed Anderson of Monument was honored in
Washington last week by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. More
than 900 people attended the event at the Walter E. Washington
Convention Center to honor the 200 retired three- and four-star
generals and admirals who serve on the U.S. Global Leadership
Coalition's National Security Advisory Council. "After 39
years with the U.S. Army, I have a deep appreciation for our
nation's diplomats and development workers," Anderson said
in a statement. "Whether maintaining peace, bolstering stability
or reducing poverty they represent the best of America's values.
At the same time, their work in fragile states and volatile regions
helps to mitigate security threats and keep American boots off the
ground. Scaling back investments in their vital work is not an
option."

Who's in the News

CNN
It's Time for Congress to Override Trump's Foreign Policy Powers

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Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Congressman David E.
Price (D-NC)

The House and Senate rejected President Trump's foreign affairs budget
nearly in its entirety -- though funding diplomacy and development at
minimally adequate levels will still require a bipartisan budget
agreement before the end of the year. If America's role as a global
economic leader, a guarantor of security for our allies and a defender
of human rights and democracy is to survive, Congress must do more.
Funding bills, for example, will need to be more carefully crafted to
safeguard key priorities and provide leverage against authoritarian
abuses.

THE HILL
A Moment for Foreign Aid Reform

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Robert Mosbacher Jr., Chairman, Mosbacher Energy Company and former
President, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and Dr.
Mark Dybul, Co-Director, Center for Global Health and Quality and
Professor, Georgetown University Medical Center

When the Trump administration first presented its "skinny
budget" blueprint for fiscal 2018 earlier this year, the
proposed cuts to global health and development were viewed by the
development community as more than just a cost-saving exercise, but
rather an undercutting of institutional capacity and a retreat from
the longstanding and bipartisan commitment to U.S. leadership in a
rapidly changing world. The development community's response was
no fewer than five major reorganization and reform proposals -
really, counter-proposals to the administration - laying out a
range of major changes that would be better for development. This
combination of threat and response has brought us to an unexpected
moment: the administration, the development community, and Congress
more or less agree that significant reforms are needed. We recognize
that the particulars are very important, and the parties are far
apart, but this convergence is the best opportunity for reform we have
had in decades.

DEFENSE ONE
The Pentagon's Next Terrorism Threat (and Solution): Kids

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Dr. Kristin M. Lord, President and CEO, IREX

As the war on ISIS wanes in the Middle East, military commanders
seeking to prevent the spread of violent extremism face a potential
threat they can't fight or kill away: the youth population boom.
They also have a powerful weapon in the fight against extremism: once
again, youth. As national security experts are consumed by immediate
threats like the ISIS war and North Korea, we risk missing one of the
biggest strategic disruptions the United States and its allies have
faced in decades: More people between the ages of 15 and 24 live in
the world today than ever before in human history, and that age cohort
is likely to grow steadily for the next generation or more.

DEVEX
Q&A: Mark Green on Why He'll Champion Innovative Finance at USAID |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=-EWI5gNo-DIoTyJN4N1mnw

Catherine Cheney

A new development impact bond aims to save the lives of as many as
10,000 mothers and newborns in India over five years. But when United
States Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green
announced the DIB at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad,
he noted the potential for impact was not only on maternal and child
health, but also on USAID's approach to development. In response
to a question from Devex, he said it reflected how USAID is trying to
partner with, rather than merely contract with, the private sector to
take on development challenges through a business lens.

Development & Diplomacy

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Amid Low Morale, Tillerson Says Changes Coming to State Dept |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=sy_QTc6mw0SPhNdxGDc-EQ

Josh Lederman

Seeking to reassure American diplomats amid low morale, Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson unveiled changes Tuesday to the State Department
that he said would help workers perform better and position the United
States to advance its interests overseas. At a town hall meeting with
the diplomatic corps, Tillerson conceded that there are deep concerns
about his planned overhaul and that progress on key foreign policy
priorities has been slow. "Do we have any wins to put on the
board? No. That's not the way this works," Tillerson said.
"Diplomacy is not that simple."

CNN
Diplomat Blasts Tillerson in Stinging Resignation Letter |

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Nicole Gaouette and Elise Labott

A rising star at the State Department has written a blistering
resignation letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, saying that
under his leadership, the agency's influence has withered and morale
among staff has plummeted, in part because of the "stinging
disrespect" shown by the Trump administration. In the letter, obtained
by CNN and first reported on by Foreign Policy, Elizabeth Shackelford
wrote on November 7 that if Tillerson is unable to show the leadership
required to lead the agency and reverse an exodus of diplomats like
her, "I would humbly request that you follow me out the door."
Shackelford, who served in South Sudan, Kenya and Poland, wrote that
under Tillerson, the State Department is being "diminished" and its
influence around the world undercut as the administration increasingly
relies on the military at a time of perilous foreign policy
challenges.

BLOOMBERG
White House Ratchets Up Yemen Pressure as Crisis Worsens |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5syjp0QLVdZIsMlCwEOYtQ

Nick Wadhams

The U.S. is ramping up pressure on Saudi Arabia to ease its blockade
of Yemen amid fears that the crisis is slipping further into
catastrophe and people will lose access to clean drinking water,
President Donald Trump's foreign aid chief said. A Saudi-led
coalition's blockade of the Arab world's poorest nation is
preventing fuel used to pump water from getting to Yemen's
people, Mark Green, the head of the U.S. Agency for International
Development, said in an interview. While the Trump administration has
courted Saudi Arabia's government and continues to provide
support for airstrikes over Yemen, Green's criticism reflects
increasing frustration over the course of the conflict.

DEVEX

Rep. Yoho: Now Is the Time for Reforms to Make Foreign Aid More
Effective |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=38NFZn2q6lcc6i4ABlpZzg

Adva Saldinger

With the United States facing increasing budget pressures down the
road, now is the time for reforms to make foreign aid more effective
Congressman Ted Yoho told an audience of development professionals on
Wednesday. What's needed, he said, is more accountability and
efficiency, giving more funding to what's working, increasing
private sector engagement and working to wean countries off aid and
into trading partners for the U.S. Yoho cited both the Millenium
Challenge Corp. and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. as examples
of agencies that have good models and should be emulated.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
What Will U.S. Foreign Aid Look Like in the Age of Trump? |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=ZNqbGDJlbI6R8TqCm-tzVQ

Shashank Bengali

As the Trump administration slashes the State Department's
payroll and turns U.S. foreign policy inward, worries have spread
through the U.S. Agency for International Development, which directs
most of the government's development assistance worldwide.
Foreign aid accounts for about 1% of the federal budget, which
President Trump regards as too much. He has proposed cutting USAID
funding by more than one-third. USAID Administrator Mark Green
acknowledges that in the current political climate the agency must be
"as effective and efficient as we possibly can." Green, a
Republican former congressman from Wisconsin who has also served as
U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, spoke to The Times following the recent
Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India, where he was part
of the U.S. government delegation led by Trump's daughter
Ivanka.

Politics & Foreign Policy

THE WASHINGTON POST

Trump Allies Say Tillerson Has 'Not Learned His Lesson'
and Cannot Continue in Job for Long |

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Josh Dawsey and Anne Gearan

The episode highlights the deep distrust between the White House and
Tillerson and suggests how difficult it will be for the relationship
to continue. While Trump and Tillerson have clashed on several policy
issues - including negotiating with North Korea, the U.S.
withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and planning to move the U.S.
Embassy to Jerusalem - much of the distance between them seems
personal and probably irreversible, White House officials said.
Tillerson, one White House official said, "had not learned his
lesson from the last time," when Trump publicly rebuked his top
diplomat on Twitter over the wisdom of talking to North Korea.

POLITICO
Trump Ex-Im Bank Nominee Will Likely Be Blocked |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=63KpSsLVb4CnHMueSqB_mg

Zachary Warmbrodt

Scott Garrett, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Export-Import
Bank, will likely be blocked by bipartisan opposition after he
struggled to convince lawmakers that he should run an agency he once
tried to kill in Congress. Garrett's fate was all but sealed Tuesday
when Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he would oppose the former
congressman's confirmation when it comes up for a vote at the Senate
Banking Committee on Dec. 19. The panel has 12 Republicans and 11
Democrats, and all the Democrats are expected to oppose Garrett.

NEW YORK MAGAZINE
Can Nikki Haley Save the World? |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=ffOD5CWiaMtSYroCjy0hNQ

Andrew Rice

Once a fierce critic of Donald Trump's divisive policies, Haley
is now ambassador to the United Nations, perhaps his most presentable
emissary to the world: the diplomatic face of a profoundly
undiplomatic presidency. One former adviser to George W. Bush calls
her "the most normal thing the president has done in foreign
policy." Haley doesn't seek to reconcile these
contradictions. She just breezes past them, on her way to a more
important destination. In an administration filled with political
neophytes, many of them plucked from Trump's business Rolodex or
the ideological fringes, Haley is the rare figure -
Vice-President Mike Pence is perhaps the only other - who
possesses both a personal power base and the ambition to use it. Her
intention to run for president one day is widely presumed by everyone,
from her friends to the man she serves - for now.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Tillerson Offers Olive Branch to North Korea If It Abandons Nuclear
Weapons |

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Carol Morello

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday urged North Korea, for the
second time this week, to enter negotiations and give up its nuclear
weapons. Speaking at the United Nations Security Council in a session
called for foreign ministers, Tillerson said the United States asks
that any talks be preceded by a "sustained cessation of North
Korea's threatening behavior." Tillerson did not repeat an
assertion he made Tuesday that there are no preconditions to having
talks. He said the ultimate goal must be the "complete,
verifiable and irreversible abandonment of its nuclear weapons
programs."


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