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The Weekly GAB Friday, February 1, 2019
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=2eVTTjhPZxm4DKaCEKs8Ug

Who's in the News

CNN BUSINESS

Melinda Gates: Why Women's and Children's Health Is at Risk Around the
World

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5dGgvtoi5deSvRrcNwPqqQ

Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Imagine all the people in New York City. And Los Angeles and Chicago.
Plus London and Paris. And Berlin. That's how many people are alive
today because of four global health funds you've probably never heard
of. With money from donor governments, foundations and the private
sector, these funds deliver vaccines, drug treatments, contraceptives
and other lifesaving health supplies to people who need them... With
politicians around the world turning to the rhetoric of isolationism,
I worry governments that have been reliable donors, including my own
country the United States, will stop investing and let the funds run
low. This could squander the opportunity to make historic progress in
the fight against disease through sustained investment in the global
health funds.

THE DES MOINES REGISTER

Veteran's View: Don't Pit Border Security Against Diplomacy, Foreign
Aid

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=izZl6DAnmhXd51YgY4k_mg

Jeff Dow, Coast Guard Veteran

With four in five Americans worried about the situation at our
southern border, our nation's policymakers are right to focus on
this critical issue. Something has to change to address the
humanitarian issues both at the border and in these countries that so
many are fleeing... It's evident our current system is broken.
Yet as policymakers consider increased resources for our dedicated
Border Patrol officers and improvements to the legal system for
processing those who arrive at our southern border, we cannot ignore
the root causes of migration... Instead of putting border security
funding at odds with foreign aid, America should use them together as
two powerful tools.

THE WASHINGTON POST
I Was Ambassador to Afghanistan. This Deal Is a Surrender.

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=oBlVg4yRO2tnEsnqrnmb8g

Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan,
Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon

Now the United States is negotiating directly with the Taliban. A
framework agreement was announced on Monday calling for a cease-fire
that could lead to the full withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Taliban
would commit to not harboring terrorist organizations that could
threaten U.S. security... The framework was reached without the
involvement of the Afghan government... This current process bears an
unfortunate resemblance to the Paris peace talks during the Vietnam
War. Then, as now, it was clear that by going to the table we were
surrendering; we were just negotiating the terms of our surrender...
It does not have to go like this.

Development & Diplomacy

THE ATLANTIC

Colombia's Radical Plan to Welcome Millions of Venezuelan
Migrants |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=0Tdcrjc-aPUmnJTM2mwz-g

Dylan Baddour

Thus far, Colombia has opened its doors as millions of people have
flocked to its border. Politicians here know there is no way to keep
these migrants out, so instead of railing against its neighbor or
raising the drawbridge, they have focused on integrating those who
arrive, efforts that have been commended by aid agencies. But with
almost 1.5 million Venezuelans here, equivalent to about 3 percent of
Colombia's population, and more arriving every day, the country
may soon be entirely overwhelmed. The difficulty is shared the world
over by countries bordering troubled states... While news coverage
often focuses on the impact of migration on the United States and
Europe, it is these neighboring countries that bear the brunt of the
exodus... And like those countries, without ample foreign aid,
Colombia is near the point where it will not be able to cope.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Fighting Central American Corruption Will Help Prevent Migration More
Than Any Border Wall |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=wbSa7cS_3m8iu6nJEjOfRA

Editorial Board

We should all be concerned about the conditions under which our
neighbors live, of course. But here's a self-interested reason
why Americans should care about what's happening in Guatemala:
Because the corruption that CICIG worked so hard to uproot is tied to
the conditions that have sent so many migrants fleeing north to escape
violence and economic squalor. These are the "push"
factors that have created the humanitarian predicament at the
U.S.-Mexico border that have become one of President Trump's
favorite talking points... The way to reduce illegal immigration is to
fight violence, gangs, corruption and hopeless poverty by increasing
humanitarian aid and support for building democratic and legal
institutions in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where most of the
migrants are coming from.

NPR
Opinion: Here's Why U.S. Aid to Palestinians Needs to Continue

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=tWGzjyvvF6NB4XBVv8cuiw

Dana Stroul, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Daniel B.
Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel

Is U.S. assistance to the Palestinians an indulgence we can do
without? Will its elimination leave Israelis, Palestinians and U.S.
interests better off? Unless Congress and the Trump administration act
quickly, we are about to find out... the Anti-Terrorism Clarification
Act, which exposes the Palestinian Authority to legal action in U.S.
courts if it accepts any U.S. assistance funds, comes into force on
Feb. 1... The ATCA's passage last year prompted Palestinian Authority
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah... to inform Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo in a late-December letter that the Palestinian Authority will
no longer accept any U.S. assistance... Thus far, there has been
minimal debate in Washington over the implications of these
developments on stability in the West Bank and Gaza and the
inextricable link to Israel's security. Nor has there been a sober
reckoning of the very real implications for U.S. influence... Funding
for Palestinian assistance programs has always flowed with bipartisan
support because it was determined to reinforce Israel's security and
provide a measure of U.S. leverage and influence.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
A New Home for Extreme Poverty: Middle-Income Countries |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5a-QOgBBW18KSpxsg9SXoQ

Rohini Pande, Vestal McIntyre, and Lucy Page

The share of the world's population in extreme poverty -
subsisting on less than $1.90 a day, adjusted for inflation and cost
of living across countries - has plummeted from 42 percent in
1981 to 10 percent in 2015... But decline of poverty in those
countries has fed an erroneous belief in the West that economies
rising into middle-income status are on track to end extreme poverty
and no longer need assistance - and that major donors need to
focus on the fragile and conflict-ridden countries left behind... Aid
doesn't reach the majority of the poor because the middle-income
countries they live in either never received much or have outgrown
eligibility.

THE WASHINGTON POST

A U.S. Law Is About to End Security Aid to the Palestinians, and
Israel Is Not Happy |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=EIKO97Ur3CKaiBhK82jAfA

Loveday Morris

U.S. security funding to the Palestinian Authority is set to dry up by
midnight Thursday unless a fix is found to circumvent a law designed
to help American victims of terrorist attacks secure damages. The
funding cutoff would end more than a decade of assistance in a move
that Israel is concerned could backfire and hurt its security. The
Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act, passed unanimously by the House and
Senate last year, comes into force on Friday, leaving the Palestinian
Authority open to huge lawsuits if it accepts U.S. funds. The
Palestinian Authority has said it will therefore forgo receiving U.S.
financing, including the $60 million that Washington provides in
security assistance... The central concern is that the end of U.S.
funding to the Palestinian security forces, including to a training
program in Jordan, would erode the security capabilities of the
Palestinian Authority and threaten its security coordination with
Israel.

USA TODAY

Foreign Policy Hawk Elliott Abrams Joins Trump Administration as
Venezuela Envoy |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=icAVFIChpr7Uul5z8xDQLg

Deirdre Shesgreen

Elliott Abrams, a foreign policy hawk who worked in both the Reagan
and Bush administrations, joined the Trump administration on Friday as
a special envoy for Venezuela, as the U.S. ramps up pressure on
embattled President Nicolas Maduro to step down... As an assistant
secretary of State in the Reagan administration, Abrams was a fervent
supporter of U.S. efforts to arm the Nicaraguan rebels. In 1991,
Abrams pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress about
that covert operation... Abrams later served as deputy national
security adviser to then-President George W. Bush, where he shaped the
administration's Middle East policy. Before Friday, Abrams was a
senior fellow for Middle Eastern issues at the Council on Foreign
Relations, a prominent think tank.

FOREIGN POLICY
Investing in Low-Wage Jobs Is the Wrong Way to Reduce Migration |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5I_CLrW7aqtDLm5_Ghij1w

Jennifer Gordon

Amid today's global immigration crises, wealthy governments are
seeking ways to keep out newcomers. Border security measures
(typically more sophisticated than U.S. President Donald Trump's
wall) are often first on the list. But other ideas are gaining
adherents as well. In the European Union and elsewhere, policymakers
are betting that investment and trade will reduce migration from less
developed countries. Put money into export-oriented jobs where the
would-be workers are, the theory goes, and fewer will leave in search
of opportunities elsewhere... Today there is no consensus in economic
theory or empirics that supports the idea that increasing foreign
investment and trade will decrease emigration, at least in the short
term.

Politics & Foreign Policy

THE WASHINGTON POST

Senate Rebukes Trump's Plan to Withdraw U.S. Forces from Syria,
Afghanistan |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=W4473mFi0dtlSIskMk4kPg

Karoun Demirjian

The vast majority of Senate Republicans backed Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell on Thursday in a rebuke of President Trump's rationale
for withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, voting to
declare that the Islamic State's presence and activity in both
countries continue to pose a serious threat to the United States. The
measure, presented as an amendment to a greater Middle East policy
bill, is a striking reprimand of the president from a GOP that has
become increasingly comfortable expressing its opposition to
Trump's foreign policy through votes on the Senate floor...
However, the measure divided Senate Democrats, with many arguing that
rebuking Trump was not worth the cost of greenlighting endless war.

BLOOMBERG
Malpass Is a Trump Finalist for World Bank President, Sources Say |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Rc__CE9VN6X2h_KPEhRxyg

Jennifer Jacobs, Saleha Mohsin, and Andrew Mayeda

A Donald Trump loyalist, Treasury Undersecretary David Malpass, is a
finalist to be the president's choice for the next World Bank
president, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump is
still interviewing candidates for the job, but several other people
the White House has considered are now seen as unlikely to win
Trump's recommendation unless he changes course. They include
Ray Washburne, head of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation,
Mark Green, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
Robert Kimmitt, a former senior U.S. Treasury official, and Pepsico
Inc. Chairman Indra Nooyi, the people familiar with the matter said...
Malpass's division of Treasury normally manages the U.S. process
to appoint a World Bank president, and he has publicly advocated for
the bank to cut lending to China, one of its largest borrowers.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Sen. James Risch Is Set to Be the Referee Between Trump and the GOP |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=H7MZ0hNuujhfMMxQCSXNcw

Josh Rogin

At the center of the battle over the Trump administration's
foreign policy now sits a soft-spoken Trump ally from Idaho whose
foreign policy ideology doesn't fit any traditional label. But
newly minted Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James E.
Risch is positioning himself as a referee with significant power. Now
with five former GOP presidential candidates, including new members
Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C),
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to be the premier
platform in the internal Republican foreign policy battle as well as
the fight over President Trump's national security policy writ
large. Everyone wants to know how Risch will use his perch to
influence the future of Republican and U.S. foreign policy...
Risch's "transactional" nature does not imply a lack
of foreign policy principles; they just don't fall in line with
a particular camp... "My philosophy is this: No. 1, we should
not be the world's policeman," Risch said. "But that
does not mean we shouldn't engage and engage at an appropriate,
robust level when American interests are at stake."

BLOOMBERG

'Never Trumpers' Can Get State Department Jobs with Pompeo
There |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=RHQvDMrdx17pZs_wDgeJjA

Nick Wadhams and Jennifer Jacobs

Not long ago a record of criticizing President Donald Trump was a sure
way to ruin your chances of getting a job in his administration.
That's no longer true in Michael Pompeo's State
Department. Recent months have seen Secretary of State Pompeo hire at
least three previously vocal Trump critics for senior advisory roles,
tossing aside a cardinal rule from the first two years of the
administration when "Never Trumpers" were essentially told
not to bother applying... State Department officials say they are just
going after the best talent. More skeptical observers say the moves
reflect a harsher reality: The administration has little choice given
the unprecedented rate at which it's churned through senior
officials. So many conservatives with foreign policy expertise spoke
out against Trump before his election that banning all of them means
he'd have few qualified candidates to choose from.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Reports of Belt and Road's Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=qc_f9rhiAIx8K_7hEJOvFg

Nadège Rolland, National Bureau of Asian Research

With the vast, ambitious investment project known as the Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI), China meant to pull the world closer, making itself
the political and economic center of gravity for more than 60
countries within the project's sweep. But domestic and
international opposition to the initiative has mounted in the five
years since President Xi Jinping announced its start... Instead of
expanding its "circle of friends" and gaining influence,
China seems to have done the opposite, spurring a group of disgruntled
countries to band together to resist its predatory practices... It
would be premature, however, to write off BRI. The project remains the
core of China's foreign policy strategy... This course
correction does not alter BRI's fundamental vision and
objectives but rather follows a well-known Leninist precept: "If
you strike steel, withdraw; if you strike mush, advance."

THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Why China and North Korea Will Love Trump's Shutdown Deal |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=_i4QJICzAMekY4YWC5-bDQ

Tom Rogan

President Trump's overt shutdown submission to Democrats, agreeing to
open the government in return for a simple bipartisan border
conference in Congress, will meet warm favor in China and North Korea.
Fair or unfair, the president will be perceived by those nations as
someone who blinks when the negotiations get tough. For U.S. foreign
policy interests, that's a huge problem... After all, Xi Jinping and
Kim Jong Un (and Kim Jong Un's hard-liner chief adviser, Kim Yong
Chol) have now seen that Trump is willing to blink on the most
personal of his political ambitions: a great wall at the U.S.-Mexican
border... To remedy this situation, Trump must now be willing to
cancel talks with China and North Korea.

THE HILL
Time for Congress to Take More Leadership in Our Foreign Affairs

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=RA49blneY8TvI7RlDr3GJg

Louis Lauter and Colin McElhinny, Center for Strategic and
International Studies

Although foreign policy remains a relative oasis of bipartisan comity,
the ability of the legislative branch to meet institutional
obligations, from debating use of military force to ratifying treaties
and authorizing State Department programs, has eroded substantially in
recent decades. The injection of young talented members with a range
of national security experiences in the new freshman class creates a
unique foundation to elevate the role of Congress in foreign affairs
for many years to come... The key step is developing and sustaining
experienced cadres of junior members. The national security committees
are the primary venue to develop these skills, but they offer few
opportunities for junior members to do meaningful work.


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