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The Weekly GAB – Friday, January 29, 2016
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org


Top Quote This Week

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
A Conversation with Robert M. Gates<http://www.cfr.org/united-states/robert-m-gates-civic-duty-us-national-security/p37440> | Tom Brokaw
The disproportion in what is spent on the military and what is spent on the civilian side of the toolkit is vast—and that’s easy to explain. But the reality is that marginal investments on the civilian side could yield, in my view, disproportionate benefits, but it’s going to require somebody on the hill being willing to take some leadership and understand the importance of that.


USGLC in the News


MEDIUM
Bill Lane: The Leader I'll Follow Anywhere<https://medium.com/@LizSchrayer/bill-lane-the-leader-i-ll-follow-anywhere-c831c6269f5d#.rzssf47e0> | Liz Schrayer
On behalf of the USGLC, he’s met with everyone from Secretary Condoleezza Rice to Vice President Joe Biden, and most candidates running for president. He has traveled across the country speaking at forums as we have grown the coalition. And I know he’s met with literally hundreds of members of Congress to explain why “trade AND aid” together create opportunity around the world and here at home… I’m reminded of the millions of people around the world who don’t just have a road — but a path out of poverty — thanks to the lifetime work of Bill Lane. I’m sure lucky to have been along for the ride.

Campaign 2016


BLOOMBERG VIEW
Clinton Quietly Builds Her Own National Security Council<http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-28/clinton-quietly-building-her-own-national-security-council> | Josh Rogin
Clinton, Sullivan and campaign chairman John Podesta are in regular contact with former National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Other former top officials include Michelle Flournoy, who was undersecretary of defense for policy; Kurt Campbell, who was assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific; and Nicholas Burns, who was undersecretary of state for political affairs. One source close to the campaign described the interactions as “studiously informal but regular.”


SLATE
The GOP Candidates Are Shockingly Uninformed About Foreign Policy<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/01/republican_presidential_candidates_are_shockingly_uninformed_about_foreign.html> | Fred Kaplan
Thursday night’s Trump-less debate was less blustery than the Republicans’ previous spectacles, but on foreign policy issues, the Donald’s absence didn’t make it less slight, cynical, or shruggingly uninformed. Earlier in the week, Robert Gates—a lifelong Republican who has served as secretary of defense and CIA director—said the GOP candidates’ discussion of national security issues “would embarrass a middle schooler.” If Gates tuned in Thursday night, he would have had no cause to revise his assessment.


PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL
What a President Cruz's Foreign Policy Might Look Like<http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-01-29/what-president-cruzs-foreign-policy-might-look> | T.J. Raphael
Cruz has promised to get aggressive with ISIS. "We will carpet bomb them into oblivion,” Cruz said at a FreedomWorks summit in Iowa in December. “I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we are going to find out."… Victoria Coates, Cruz's foreign policy adviser says. “He believes our nation is the greatest force for good on the planet, so preserving it and protecting it should be our priority, and that’s been a very disciplined practice of his… I’m never going to apologize for working for a candidate who wants to be too mean to the terrorists,” she says. “That doesn’t seem to me really to be a downside.” According to Coates, a hypothetical President Cruz wouldn't be too concerned about harming civilians in ISIS-held areas. “Unfortunately, we are in a situation right now where we have an administration that has zero tolerance for any collateral damage,” she says. “War is a horrible, violent, messy business. One can be as humane as humanly possibly [sic], and if one is going to successfully execute a military mission, there is going to be collateral damage. So I think what Senator Cruz is expressing is his willingness to do what is necessary to keep our country safe.”


POLITICO

Will Trump Flunk the Commander-in-Chief Test?<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/will-trump-flunk-the-commander-in-chief-test-218093> | Jeremy Herb

Trump has made a long list of curious statements on foreign policy. In a recent debate, he didn't seem to know about the "nuclear triad" — the nuclear-armed bombers, land-based missiles and submarines that make up the U.S. atomic arsenal. He has confused the F-35 fighter jet with the Long-Range Strike Bomber, and the Kurds with Iran's Quds Force. He's said he gets military advice watching television, has praised U.S. foes like Russian President Vladimir Putin and has shown no apparent interest in seeking the counsel of the party’s national security sages.


DES MOINES REGISTER
A Prescription for a Stronger, Safer America<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/caucus/2016/01/25/carson-prescription-stronger-safer-america/79312068/>

Dr. Ben Carson, Republican Candidate for President
Military might is the backbone of our diplomatic efforts. When we negotiate from weakness, we get deals like President Obama’s Iranian nuclear concession. I will withdraw from this disastrous agreement and work with regional partners to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon. Additionally, we must identify the threat of radical Islam by name and declare war on the Islamic State, counter Russian aggression through sanctions and lethal assistance to Ukraine and oppose Chinese adventurism through regional economic and military cooperation. A Carson administration will employ armed diplomacy, not unilateral disarmament.


THE MIAMI HERALD
Petty Vengeance is No Way to Run U.S. Foreign Policy<http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article56904748.html>
Christopher Sabatini, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of Public Affairs
On Jan. 8, Sen. Rubio issued a press release slamming the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson and nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico for not providing detailed explanation about the mystery of how the Cuban government came in possession of a U.S. hellfire missile… One problem, though: The State Department had provided a confidential briefing for the Senate on the matter on February 13 last year. But the senator must have missed it, as he has the 120 out of 339 roll call votes he missed last year… Raising policy criticisms is a legitimate function of the Senate, but hobbling broader and more weighty U.S foreign policy interests to those narrow policy squabbles — especially with small countries — not only makes us look small-minded and non-strategic, but also undermines our national interests. Superpowers and those who aspire to lead them shouldn’t behave that way, on either side of the aisle.

Who’s in the News


LINKEDIN

Why the Future is Bright for the World's Poorest Farmers<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-future-bright-worlds-poorest-farmers-bill-gates>
Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

When information can flow easily, when data is democratized, the cost of doing business in agriculture goes way down, just as transaction costs go way down when financial transactions are digital. The excessive time and money farmers, agribusinesses, and cooperatives spend managing the risk of doing business with unknown partners is a drag on efficiency. When these partners can know each other easily—can function as nodes in a single marketplace—agriculture will thrive. It’s not as easy as the above paragraphs may make it seem. Building a digital agriculture system that actually accomplishes these goals will take innovation and investment. But the point is that before it wasn’t possible, and now it is. The added variable of digital technology has changed the agricultural development equation.


THE BOSTON GLOBE

An Age of Horrors - And Hope<https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/01/25/despite-world-horrors-live-age-miracles/EYLuLdeWuM8NzwDnkvNo6H/story.html>
Michael Elliott, President and Chief Executive at ONE

The refugee crisis that is forcing Europe to reassess its commitment to unity; the intractable violence that permeates parts of the Middle East; the screeching slowdown of the Chinese economy, with all that it implies for those nations that have ridden the coattails of the greatest infrastructure investment binge in history; the nervousness of financial markets, spooked by the collapse of oil prices and the slowdown in emerging markets… Still, with that background looming like the mountains of the Graubunden do over Davos, it’s worth remembering that we live in an age of miracles. We’ve halved the deaths of those who die before they are 5 in less than a generation, and can halve it again. Scores of millions more African children are in schools now than were 20 years ago. Polio is nearly eradicated; malaria is on the retreat. In perhaps the most astonishing figure of all, Bono, my organization’s cofounder, reminded the Davos crowd that 10 years ago, when he and others founded (RED) to engage the corporate sector in the fight against HIV/AIDS, just 700,000 people were on life-saving antiretroviral drugs. Now more than 15 million are.

Development & Diplomacy

THE HUFFINGTON POST
Taking Lessons from Silicon Valley to End Extreme Poverty<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-mei-chang/taking-lessons-from-silic_b_9081804.html>
Ann Mei Chang, Director at U.S. Global Development Lab at USAID
We must apply the insights of innovation communities like Silicon Valley to find new, more effective ways to reach the very poor. Over the almost 25 years I worked in Silicon Valley, I saw how the world's most powerful innovation ecosystem not only continuously reinvented itself, but also transformed how we live -- with inventions like the world wide web, smartphones, and social networking. The technologies themselves are only the tip of the iceberg; even more powerful is the underlying ingenuity, incentives, and discipline that has made them possible. I'm confident that by harnessing such approaches, we can help the remaining 700 million people who still live on less than $1.90 a day lift themselves out of poverty.

FOREIGN POLICY
The House That Bush Built<http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/25/the-house-that-bush-built/>
Michael Miller, former Republican Policy Director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID
Bush’s vision for defeating global AIDS and malaria is more than a humanitarian success story — it is a foreign policy success story that has profoundly redefined our relationship with sub-Saharan Africa. This success likely has broader implications for America’s standing in the world that are still not fully understood or appreciated. Certainly, President Obama is viewed positively in Africa, in no small part because of his African heritage, but there can be no doubt that he stands firmly on the foundation laid by President Bush. The fact that the president singled out malaria as worth his and Congress’ special attention in his final year is significant. Although sometimes viewed as a kid brother to the United States’ global AIDS program, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the progress against malaria in the past decade has brought us close to a true milestone of human history.

Politics & Foreign Policy

NPR
Obama’s Upbeat Message About Ending Malaria Omits Discouraging Signs<http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/01/17/463146954/obamas-upbeat-message-about-ending-malaria-omits-discouraging-signs> | Susan Brink
Since 2000, the rate of new malaria infections around the world has dropped by 37 percent — and death rates have fallen by 60 percent, according to the WHO. Even better, last year the WHO reported that nine of the 97 countries where malaria once circulated have eliminated the disease, according to WHO… But there are discouraging signs in the global fight against malaria… Newly reported cases of resistance to malaria drugs, and some signs that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides, are worrisome. If resistance spreads, it could derail more than a decade of improvement in controlling malaria. Some 3.2 billion people live in parts of the world, many in sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria continues to be a threat.


FORBES

Americans Overestimate Spending on Foreign Aid [Infographic]<http://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/01/25/americans-overestimate-spending-on-foreign-aid-infographic/#37737d597241> | Niall McCarthy

How much of the federal budget gets spent on foreign aid every year? When the American public were asked this question in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, the average guess was 31 percent. Only 3 percent of respondents correctly stated the real amount – just one percent or less. 15 percent of people thought it was over half.


FOX NEWS
Senators Seek Foreign Aid Cut if Ex-Gitmo Inmates Escape Host Country<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/27/senators-seek-foreign-aid-cut-if-ex-gitmo-inmates-escape-host-country.html> | Catherine Herridge
In the case of Ghana, the country earlier this month accepted two detainees from Guantanamo Bay, part of the Obama administration’s latest wave of transfers out of the prison camp. But the senators, in a letter Wednesday to key committee leaders, warned that Ghana may be ill-equipped to handle the prisoners. “The [Ghana] prison system is plagued by decay and mismanagement,” Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; and Steve Daines, R-Mont., wrote in the letter. They said they’re concerned about the government’s “capacity to hold, monitor and ensure these terrorist detainees do not reengage in terrorism against the United States and our allies.” In the letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the senators asked that an upcoming appropriations bill include language cutting aid to Ghana by $10 million per detainee “in the event either of these detainees escapes from confinement or reengages in terrorism” while in their custody.

THE HILL
African Leaders Urge Passing of Electrify Africa Act<http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/267089-african-leaders-urge-passage-of-electrify-africa-act>
Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, and Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Both are co-founders of the African Energy Leaders Group.
In order to better leverage U.S. resources towards implementing the objectives of the Electrify Africa Act, we encourage Congress to follow this legislation with a strong reauthorization of OPIC that includes the flexibility to align with the national realities and priorities of the countries you wish to help and considers the full range of energy options available to them. In this regard, we must work together to identify an appropriate balance between poverty alleviation and environmental protection. We applaud the efforts of all those who have championed the Electrify Africa Act, and urge the House of Representatives to pass this legislation without delay. From our perspective, this bill would codify access to electricity in Africa as a long-term U.S. foreign policy priority, for the benefit of millions of Africans and for U.S. companies doing business on the continent.

MOTHER JONES
Tens of Millions Wasted on “Ghost” Schools, and That’s Just the Tip of the Iceberg<http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/ghost-schools-afghan-waste-corruption-fraud-war-sexual-assault> | A.J. Vicens
Several major audits that were released to the public during the last few months of 2015. One discovered and attempted to correct an ongoing problem of USAID medical facilities for which GPS location data was inaccurate, which caused problems with the inspections of some of those buildings. Another recent case involved 11 audits of a now-closed Pentagon business-development unit that spent millions of dollars on private living and security services. That same group, known as the Pentagon's Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, airlifted Italian goats into Afghanistan as part of a failed $6 million project to boost the country's cashmere industry. There was also the allegation of the $43 million compressed natural gas filling station that should have cost no more than $500,000.


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