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The Weekly GAB Friday, January 5, 2018
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
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Who's in the News

THE NEW YORK TIMES
I Am Proud of Our Diplomacy

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Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State

I am proud of what our State Department and Agency for International
Development teams around the world have accomplished this year, and
our progress will continue in 2018 and beyond. To that end, we have
undertaken a redesign of the State Department to strengthen our
teams' ability to deliver on our mission. Our redesign
doesn't involve simply shifting boxes on an organizational
chart. Our changes must address root problems that lead to
inefficiencies and frustrations. By making changes like streamlining
our human resources and information technology systems, better
aligning personnel and resources with America's strategic
priorities, and reforming duplicative processes, we are giving our
people more opportunities to flourish professionally and spend more
time confronting the global problems they have dedicated their careers
to solving.

THE WASHINGTON POST
Unlike Obama, Trump Will Not Be Silent on Iran

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Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States

Today, the Iranian people are once again rising up to demand freedom
and opportunity, and under President Trump, the United States is
standing with them. This time, we will not be silent. More broadly,
the president declined to certify the previous administration's
nuclear deal with Iran, which flooded the regime's coffers with
tens of billions of dollars in cash - money that it could use to
repress its own people and support terrorism across the wider world.
We have already issued new sanctions on Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the president is weighing additional
actions to punish the regime for its belligerent behavior and assault
on its own citizens.

CNN

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: 'I Intend to Be Here for the Whole
Year' |

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Laura Koran and Elise Labott

Suggesting reports of his political death have been greatly
exaggerated, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CNN on Friday that
he plans to remain in his position through 2018. "We had a very
successful -- in my view -- year 2017, pivoting our policies and
helping our partners understand those policies," Tillerson told CNN's
Elise Labott in a wide-ranging interview. "We're now into the
implementation and execution against those policies." "I think we're
going to have a very productive 2018," he added. "The State Department
gets stronger every day, understand what we're trying to do. And I
look forward to having a very, very successful 2018."

TIME
Bill Gates: What Gives Me Hope About the World's Future |
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Nancy Gibbs

Q: What's the argument you make to the unemployed worker in Ohio
about why the government should be spending money on foreign aid? Bill
Gates: The development aid we provide helps stabilize the world and
lifts these countries up so they can be self-sufficient. And our aid
is less than 1% of the U.S. budget. So the question is, in helping to
stabilize 95% of the world and prevent epidemics that would come and
hit the U.S., is it a priority to spend 1% of the budget for those 95%
and keep 99% of the budget for us who are a bit less than 5% of the
world's population?

THE HILL

Pearl Harbor History Is Reminder of Importance of Our Foreign Service

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Kenneth Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation

If America is going to continue to play its role as a global leader,
obtain information about those planning to attack our homeland and
protect our citizens who are living all around the world, it needs a
fully staffed professional foreign service and a fully funded State
Department. The size of the cuts being discussed will inevitably
result in systematically degrading our diplomatic collection and
protective systems by closing consulates and eliminating political
reporting positions in embassies all over the globe. As a result, we
will not have the assessments of emerging radical fundamentalism or
other threats that language-trained officers might provide about the
new Al Qaeda or ISIS and allow us to prevent whatever would be the
next 21st century equivalent of Pearl Harbor.

THE HUFFINGTON POST
How Secretary Tillerson Can Right the State Department

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Jacob J. Lew, former Deputy Secretary of State for Management and
Resources (2009-2010), and Thomas R. Nides, former Deputy Secretary of
State for Management and Resources (2011-2013)

From 2009 until 2013, we were in charge of management at the
Department of State. It was a new position created by Secretary
Hillary Clinton, housed right next to her office and given the highest
department rank aside from the secretary herself. She recognized the
need to streamline how the department uses its resources to get the
most out of its diplomats and development experts, and to match
resources to policy objectives. Secretary Tillerson talks about doing
the same. But every indication suggests otherwise. Republicans and
Democrats alike from John McCain and Bob Corker to Ben Cardin voice
concern about an absence of transparency and no sign of a sound plan
for reform.

Development & Diplomacy

REUTERS
U.S. Suspends at Least $900 Million in Security Aid to Pakistan |

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Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay

The United States said on Thursday it was suspending at least $900
million (664.31 million pounds) in security assistance to Pakistan
until it takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani
network militant groups. The U.S. State Department announced the
decision, saying it reflected the Trump administration's
frustration that Pakistan has not done more against the two groups
that Washington says use sanctuaries in Pakistan to launch attacks in
neighbouring Afghanistan that have killed U.S., Afghan and other
forces. The department declined to say exactly how much aid would be
suspended, saying the numbers were still being calculated and included
funding from both the State and Defense departments.

DEVEX
White House Adviser to Be Nominated for Top Job at MCC |

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Adva Saldinger

The Trump administration has named its nominee to lead the Millennium
Challenge Corporation. Cairncross, deputy assistant to the president
and senior adviser to White House chief of staff, is a lawyer who has
had a long history of working for the Republican Party. He has served
as the chief operating officer of the Republican National Committee
and deputy executive director and general counsel to the National
Republican Senatorial Committee. Cairncross appears to have little
prior experience working on global development issues, which comes in
contrast to some of the administration's other picks for top aid
posts, including Mark Green at the U.S. Agency for International
Development, and Josephine Olsen, who was nominated to be the next
Peace Corps chief earlier this week.

AXIOS
Scoop: U.S. Freezes Funds to U.N. Relief Agency, Diplomats Say |

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Barak Ravid

The Trump administration has frozen $125 million in funding for the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to
Palestinian refugees, according to three Western diplomats who were
informed of the move. They said the funding, one third of the annual
U.S. donations to the agency, was supposed to be transferred by Jan. 1
but was withheld. Why it matters: A funding freeze could be seen as a
slap against the organization - which the U.S. and Israel
consider to be biased against Israel and too politicized - and
an attempt to pressure the Palestinians to return to peace talks with
Israel.

THE HILL
Rand Paul Introducing Bill to Eliminate Aid to Pakistan |

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Max Greenwood

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday said he would soon introduce
legislation that would eliminate U.S. aid to Pakistan and set the
money aside for domestic infrastructure projects. In a video address
posted online, Paul blasted Islamabad for what he said was its
willingness to harbor terrorist groups within Pakistan's borders while
continuing to take billions of dollars in assistance from Washington.
"I've been fighting to end Pakistani aid for years. But now we have a
breakthrough," Paul said. "President Trump has publicly called to end
their aid, and is currently holding up over $200 million of it. I want
to end all of it."

DEVEX
Trump Nominates Josephine Olsen as Peace Corps Chief |

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Michael Igoe

President Donald Trump nominated Josephine Olsen to be director of the
Peace Corps on Wednesday. Olsen is currently a visiting professor at
the University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work, but has
spent decades in a variety of roles at the Peace Corps, including as
acting director in 2009. Beginning in 1966, Olsen served as a Peace
Corps volunteer in Tunisia, country director in Togo, regional
director in North Africa, the Near East, Asia, and the Pacific, chief
of staff, and then deputy director - a post she held from 2001
to 2009.

Politics & Foreign Policy

CQ
Stopgap Spending Hampers U.S., U.N. Humanitarian Efforts |
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Rachel Oswald

With Congress contemplating yet another stopgap spending measure, the
Pentagon can be expected to renew warnings about the the security
dangers that come with the government operating on autopilot for so
many months. But continuing resolutions also harm the U.S.
government's extensive humanitarian efforts around the world,
causing ripple effects across private and and international
organizations such as the World Food Programme, the United Nation's
main relief organization. U.S. funding gaps can cause such
organizations to slow, scale back and even end efforts to provide
food, medicine, and shelter to the world's neediest people.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Koreas Will Meet for Talks Next Week in Small Breakthrough

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The rival Koreas will sit down for their first formal talks in more
than two years next week to find ways to cooperate on the Winter
Olympics in the South and to improve their abysmal ties, Seoul
officials said Friday. While a positive sign after last year's
threats of nuclear war, the Koreas have a long history of failing to
move past their deep animosity. The announcement came hours after the
United States said it will delay annual military exercises with South
Korea until after the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea,
next month.

THE WASHINGTON POST
How Far Is Trump Willing to Go On Iran Amid Widespread Protests? |

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Carol Morello and Anne Gearan

The protests spreading across Iran are presenting President Trump with
a test of his vow to adopt a tougher posture in dealing with the
country than his predecessor did, as well as his
administration's willingness to seek regime change. The
demonstrations, which started last week over frustrations about the
economy but quickly shifted to political grievances, came two and a
half months after Trump unveiled a new strategy to counter Iran and
reverse what he sees as the Obama administration's lax approach.
Later this month, Trump will have a chance to move beyond strong
rhetoric when he is decides whether to certify that Iran is complying
with the 2015 nuclear deal.


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