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The Weekly GAB Friday, March 30, 2018
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
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USGLC in the News

THE NEWS & OBSERVER
To Keep NC Healthy, Protect Global Health Programs
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=REAmZ0_Vq9B8wq4PHTlWJA

Christopher A. LeGrand, President of DAI Global Health, and Board
Chairman of the Triangle Global Health Consortium

U.S. investments in global health programs not only save lives around
the world, they help keep North Carolinians healthy here at home
- which is why everyone in the Tar Heel State should be alarmed
by the Administration's latest budget request. Under the
proposal, America's global health programs would be cut by 23
percent, part of a broader 30 percent cut to funding for the State
Department, USAID and other development agencies. Also concerning is
the recent news that the CDC division for global health protection
could be forced to withdraw from 39 countries if Congress
doesn't provide new resources. At less than 1 percent of the
federal budget, the cost of failing to control outbreaks and the loss
of life far outweighs the cost of prevention through the work of our
health and development professionals around the world.

DEVEX
What the Budget Bill Says About the Future of US Aid |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=kuj11CCNgl-YvxPWXQhfqA

Adva Saldinger and Michael Igoe

On Friday, United States President Donald Trump signed -
reluctantly - a massive spending bill that the U.S. development
community has hailed as a rebuke of the administration's
proposals to slash foreign affairs funding. Development advocates who
had been working closely with members of Congress for the better part
of a year to protect U.S. investments in global health, food security,
humanitarian assistance, and other priorities broadcasted messages of
gratitude to lawmakers, particularly those on the appropriations
committee and subcommittees that hold sway over U.S. budgets.
"Congress is on the record once again saying that America
can't afford to withdraw from the world," said Liz
Schrayer, the president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Global
Leadership Coalition. "Overall, it is a stunning rejection of
what the Senate originally called a doctrine of retreat."

Who's in the News

THE BOSTON GLOBE
A Foreign Policy in Asia That Works at Home

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=paJK5aumgUuV5ITnqaysZQ

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

Effective, lasting diplomacy requires more than showmanship.
Diplomatic breakthroughs don't happen overnight; instead, they
are the result of time-consuming, painstaking negotiations conducted
by experienced diplomats, in close consultation with our allies. If it
occurs, a summit will be only the beginning, not the culmination, of
talks to freeze and ultimately denuclearize North Korea. It is also
critical that we negotiate from a position of maximum strength. While
our diplomats are talented and hard-working, we currently lack an
ambassador to South Korea, our envoy to North Korea recently retired,
and many posts in the diplomatic corps are vacant. To achieve our
national goals, we need a State Department operating at full capacity.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
10 Tips for Negotiating With Kim Jong Un

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=jVX5Igv7xFVB36MhEym4Dw

Robert B. Zoellick, former World Bank President, U.S. Trade
Representative and Deputy Secretary of State

The news that President Trump plans to sit down with Kim Jong Un
offers a perfect example of his style: Mr. Trump surprised his
world-wide audience, put himself at the center of attention, and took
a big risk, probably impulsively. Now the drama has shifted to whether
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim will actually meet. And if so, when and where?
Haphazard diplomacy with North Korea presents a real danger, so
someone around Mr. Trump had better be preparing for a complex
negotiation. Here are 10 steps to get started.

TIME

H.R. McMaster Worked for Me. His Retirement From the Military Reveals
a Lot About President Trump
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=SDgJatohNqiXkBWJr2g-ow

Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander

Going forward, I suspect and hope we will see more of H.R. McMaster.
His intellect and depth of experience will be valuable assets for the
private sector, and hopefully he will eventually return to government
in an administration more in line with both his sensible, centrist
views and, perhaps more importantly, with his rational personality. In
shifting to John Bolton, we go from a centrist to a neo-con; from a
calming personality who builds teams to a harsh ideologue who drives
them into the ground; and from a practitioner of smart power to a
theorist of hard power. The drums of war are beating louder, and in
the Pentagon they are taking a deep breath and preparing for conflict
not only on the banks of the Potomac in the interagency but also, more
dangerously, around the world. We are poorer for the departure of H.R.
McMaster. He deserved a better ending to his short, strange voyage.

Development & Diplomacy

THE WASHINGTON POST

More Than 200 Former Diplomats are Alarmed at the State of American
Diplomacy |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=PKjFtXfR29NwEq_51BxY5w

Carol Morello

More than 200 former U.S. ambassadors and veteran diplomats have
signed a letter expressing alarm over the slide in U.S. leadership in
the world and urging senators to grill Mike Pompeo about his plans to
reverse the corrosion of the State Department if he is confirmed as
secretary of state. The letter is addressed to the Republican chairman
and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which
is expected to hold confirmation hearings for Pompeo next month. The
letter does not mention Trump or Tillerson by name, but says
Pompeo's nomination is an opportunity to focus on "the
urgent need to restore the power and influence of American
diplomacy."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
US: Won't Pay Over 25 Percent of UN Peacekeeping Anymore |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=NPp4X2kmQHHCmqSrrtxmHA

Jennifer Peltz

The United States will no longer shoulder more than a quarter of the
multibillion-dollar costs of the United Nations' peacekeeping
operations, Washington's envoy said Wednesday.
"Peacekeeping is a shared responsibility," U.S. Ambassador
Nikki Haley said at a Security Council debate on peacekeeping reform.
"All of us have a role to play, and all of us must step
up." The U.S. is the biggest contributor, assessed about 28.5
percent of this year's $7.3 billion peacekeeping budget. Citing
a 25 percent cap in a U.S. law, Haley said it will be the limit
"moving forward." The U.S. Mission to the U.N. later said
her remarks apply to the current peacekeeping budget year.

BROOKINGS
Building a Robust US Development Finance Institution |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=etXHGTbJP_1-da8gPqdjYQ

George Ingram, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development

Congressional leaders-Senators Bob Corker and Chris Coons and
Representatives Ted Yoho, Adam Smith, and Ed Royce-have
introduced bills to meet the long-discussed need to upgrade U.S.
development finance capabilities. The nearly identical House and
Senate versions of the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to
Development (BUILD) Act would create a new U.S. International
Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) as the successor to OPIC with
expanded authorities and tools. The new entity would be provided with
key new capabilities-the ability to make equity investment, a
doubling of the contingent liability ceiling to $60 billion, and an
extended operating authority (seven years in the House bill and 20
years in the Senate bill in place of the recent year-to-year
lifeline).

ASSOCIATED PRESS
UN Food Agency Boss Warns of Migrant Crisis |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=F126ULn1pIOVTTKAMtLK2Q

Rod McGuirk

The head of the United Nations food agency warned Monday that the
relocation of Islamic State group members from the Middle East to
Africa could trigger a massive new European migrant crisis. David
Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, said many of
the militants who fled Syria amid the collapse of the Islamic State
group's self-described caliphate had ended up in the greater
Sahel region, a belt of semi-arid land spanning east-west across
Africa and home to 500 million people. Islamic State militants are now
collaborating with other extremist groups, including al-Qaida,
al-Shabab and Boko Haram, to create "extraordinary
difficulties" across the Sahel, Beasley said in an interview
with The Associated Press.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
'Conflict Is More Profitable Than Peace' |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Xq26Nwm_ngfCpADYnvrASg

Nicholas Kristof

Central African Republic ranks No. 1 as the hungriest country,
according to the latest Global Hunger Index. A quarter of the
population has been forced to flee fighting, and the Red Cross warned
that humanitarian conditions were "rapidly deteriorating."
Yet the United Nations says that its humanitarian plan for CAR is only
2 percent funded. This country also embodies a larger truth: For
thousands of years, humanity's greatest challenge was poverty
and disease, but increasingly it may be conflict. Yet President Trump
has slashed assistance for U.N. peacekeeping, and his ambassador to
the U.N., Nikki Haley, boasted in a tweet that the administration was
"only getting started" cutting back on peacekeeping.

MIAMI HERALD

Trump Didn't Want to Give Haiti $11 Million for Cholera. So
Congress Found Another Way |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=eHTf0LhZmNurJ0YJP4YuIw

Jacqueline Charles

Included in the $1.3 trillion spending package that was passed by
Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday is $10 million
to help Haiti fight cholera. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who unsuccessfully
tried to get the Trump administration last year to turn over $11
million in unspent Haiti peacekeeping money to the United
Nations' cholera plan, led the charge on getting the
appropriation for small, locally based projects in communities
severely impacted by the deadly waterborne epidemic. The disease has
killed more than 9,000 people and sickened more than 1 million since
2010.

Politics & Foreign Policy

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

Can Jim Mattis Hold the Line in Trump's 'War
Cabinet'? |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=JIWZVHHkk2L_i4pmxHhK_g

Robert F. Worth

A year into Trump's tenure, Mattis has become a quietly central
figure in an administration of near-constant purges. He may be the
lone cabinet member to have survived with his status and dignity
intact, and in the process his Pentagon - perhaps the one
national institution that is still fully functional - has
inherited an unusually powerful role in the shaping of American
foreign policy. The removal of Tillerson and the national security
adviser, Gen. H.R. McMaster, has further reduced the core of the group
once known as the "committee to save America,"
underscoring Mattis's unique position and putting even more
weight on his relationship with the president.

FOREIGN POLICY
Bolton Expected to 'Clean House' |
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=ilAiO-ZTJXoeq9H0bIB-Mg

Jana Winter, Elias Groll, and Colum Lynch

Incoming National Security Advisor John Bolton and people close to him
are expected to launch a massive shake-up at the National Security
Council, aiming to remove dozens of current White House officials,
starting with holdovers from President Barack Obama's
administration, according to multiple sources. Those targeted for
removal include officials believed to have been disloyal to President
Donald Trump, those who have leaked about the president to the media,
his predecessor's team, and those who came in under Obama.
"Bolton can and will clean house," one former White House
official said. Another source said, "He is going to remove
almost all the political [appointees] McMaster brought in."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Diplomats Ousted: US, Europe Punish Russia Over Spy Case |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=9RHw8hV_Y4jbltmirJVOKA

Josh Lederman

The United States and more than a dozen European nations kicked out
Russian diplomats on Monday and the Trump administration ordered
Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the West sought joint
punishment for Moscow's alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in
Britain. Warning of an "unacceptably high" number of
Russian spies in the U.S., the Trump administration said 60 diplomats
would be expelled - all Russian intelligence agents working
under diplomatic cover, the U.S. said. The group includes a dozen
posted to Russia's mission to the United Nations who the
officials said were engaged in "aggressive collection" of
intelligence on American soil.

POLITICO

Trump Wants 'Out' of Syria 'Very Soon,'
Contradicting Top Officials |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=khErJEe4AScpoNgLESPH-g

Michael Crowley and Nahal Toosi

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States will end
its military presence in Syria "very
soon"-contradicting his secretaries of state and defense,
who have said U.S. troops should stay in the Arab country for the
foreseeable future. Trump's view runs contrary to the crux of a
detailed speech on Syria by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom
Trump has since fired, as well as multiple comments by Secretary of
Defense James Mattis. Both men have argued that the U.S. must remain
involved in the country...CIA director Mike Pompeo, whom Trump has
tapped to succeeed Tillerson, and Trump's incoming national security
adviser John Bolton have both also suggested that the U.S. has
interests in Syria that extend beyond militarily defeating ISIS.


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