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The Weekly GAB Friday, July 7, 2017
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=mMSXTbRb_HfP20yOiz49LA

USGLC in the News

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Trump's Proposed Cuts to International Affairs Budget Would Be
Disastrous

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=iZj0665l5-g4wgPNfg0Y9g

John Waszczak, a retired Raytheon Missile Systems Program Manager,
attended the USGLC's 2017 State Leader's Summit

The president's budget for fiscal year 2018 slashes our State
Department's budget by 32 percent...These are unprecedented cuts
to our country's development and diplomacy programs at a time
when the global challenges of terrorism, civil unrest, disaster relief
needs, food shortages and human trafficking continue to rise. I
attended the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition conference in
Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 13. Over 500 members of the USGLC
gathered to hear from congressional, business and military leaders
regarding the impact of these cuts. The following day, attendees met
in small groups with 200 members of Congress to discuss these impacts
and request their support to reject disproportionately large cuts to
the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development
budgets.

ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Hispanic Chamber Works for Vital US-Mexico Trade

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=VBgUWXO8RutXW6EYK6ONsQ

Lea Márquez Peterson, President and CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber
of Commerce and a member of the USGLC's Arizona State Advisory
Committee

Per the United States trade representative, Mexico is the
nation's third-largest goods trading partner, with $531 billion
in total (two-way) goods traded during 2015. Trade with Mexico is one
of the largest growth opportunities for Arizona businesses. Last week,
I traveled to Washington, D.C., on behalf of our chamber to
participate in meetings related to global trade. The U.S Global
Leadership Council (in which I serve on the state council) held its
national conference and hosted bipartisan congressional leaders who
spoke about the importance of trade to our nation's economy. The
conference also included notable global corporations such as Walmart,
Boeing and Amazon.

Who's in the News

THE HILL
Why Foreign Aid Is Just as Powerful as Diplomacy and Defense

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=MmPOLkwTrsSy0XtLRusyJA

Andrew Natsios, former USAID Administrator

Since the Bush administration created the doctrine of the three
D's - Defense, Diplomacy and Development - after
9/11, diplomacy and development have often been conflated as part of
policy-makers arsenal of soft power tools. Confusing the two very
distinct, but equally important, disciplines does a disservice to both
and has often compromised their effectiveness. Because diplomats and
soldiers sometimes use development assistance to achieve their
objectives, they often see aid programs as instrumental rather than
ends in themselves. While aid programs should be coordinated with U.S.
diplomacy and defense strategies, they should not be subordinated to
them.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
American Retrenchment Is a Golden Oldie

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=bsbooGBmDRnR_Vjo9Xdo9w

James Dobbins, Senior Fellow at the RAND Corp., Former U.S. Ambassador
and Assistant Secretary of State

Isolationism is a recurring temptation of American foreign policy.
Responding to new and unforeseen challenges, however, the U.S. has
repeatedly resisted that temptation and risen to the demands of global
leadership. Is it different this time? Certainly the official rhetoric
from the Trump administration is more fervent. And Mr. Trump's
election is a sign that American dissatisfaction with the existent
global division of labor is widespread. President Trump and his
administration will be tested soon. The test could come in Syria or on
the Korean Peninsula, or in some wholly unanticipated place and some
entirely unexpected way. Then, when allies' support and
international solidarity will be at a premium, Americans will find out
whether their century of pre-eminence has ended.

TIME
'America First' Should Not Mean 'Poorest Last'
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=XTFpiZ1jerTDd1vmg-8WuQ

David Miliband, President and CEO, International Rescue Committee

The first official famine in the world in six years, in South Sudan,
brings home the stakes of the debate about the U.S. budget. The
world's newest nation has been one of the top recipients of U.S.
humanitarian aid since its birth - and that lifeline is now
under threat as the U.S. Congress begins to deliberate the Trump
Administration's 2018 budget proposal. On a recent trip to the
region, I met with some of the one million refugees who have fled this
country to Uganda over the past year alone, and some of the remaining
7 million dependent on international aid for survival. They had a
simple question: Does America care?

THE DES MOINES REGISTER

Bipartisanship Is Not Dead: Leaders Have Come Together to Fight For
World's Poor

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=4uSPKSu-KeoDYhalGfgXtg

David Ray, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, CARE

The daily news is filled with stories of partisan rancor in
Washington, where working "across the aisle" seems harder
than ever. But...they have been able to come together to help tackle a
major challenge facing the world today: chronic hunger and food
insecurity. It's no coincidence that some of the most unstable
and volatile regions are often also the most food insecure, which is
why food insecurity has been cited as a destabilizing threat to U.S.
national security by U.S. intelligence officials. Communities can be
tipped into conflict and governments toppled when food prices spike or
food shortages set in, as we've seen in recent years in places
such as Haiti and Tunisia.

Development & Diplomacy

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
State Department Workers Cite Numerous Concerns in Survey |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=75yguGYh8S40DiHw4GROxw

Felicia Shwartz

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson commissioned a survey of employees
and officials of the State Department and U.S. Agency for
International Development, which found concerns among many of them.
Here is a sampling of comments made by employees in response to survey
questions and questions from the study's interviewers, according
to a report on the research seen by The Wall Street Journal: 1)
"Militarizing of diplomacy continues. [there are] more military
folks in non-[Department of Defense] offices & [Department of State]
budget is cut while DOD is increased by $54 [billion]...It will be a
short political win over long-term strategy." 2) "If USAID
loses its independence, I worry we will not be able to effectively
assist other countries in promoting democracy and economic growth, our
approach to improving U.S. national security and prosperity."

POLITICO
Tillerson's New Deputy Quietly Wins Over State Dept. Staffers |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=n6WtMM9wd6aFr6rRrTG6aQ

Nahal Toosi

John Sullivan, the new deputy secretary of state, is quickly winning
over State Department employees by taking otherwise ordinary steps in
what seem like extraordinary times. The 57-year-old has repeatedly
stated his admiration for the foreign service, even as President
Donald Trump has proposed gutting it. He talks to career officers
- and says he wants to meet all of them, even as Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson grows increasingly isolated from his staff.
Sullivan has also pushed the boundaries of the Trump
administration's ethos by reaching out to Democrats as well as
Republicans to help him prepare for his new job.

VOICE OF AMERICA
Trump Drops Plan to Change How Food Aid Shipped

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=jZULN50-hzAkdaAEtO8d2g

President Donald Trump's administration has dropped plans for an
executive order that would require all U.S. food aid to be transported
on American ships after members of Congress protested, congressional
and aid sources said Friday. Reuters reported Thursday that Trump was
considering issuing an order that would have increased to 100 percent
the current requirement that 50 percent of such aid be transported on
U.S.-flagged vessels. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stopped short of confirming
information about the order but said he had discussed the issue with
Trump and that he understands that the shift would have increased the
cost of food aid and caused more people to starve.

POLITICO

Trump Administration Wants to Rally World to Stop 'Four
Famines' |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=gemkWGlY-_xkK2oi1qkFMw

Nahal Toosi

President Donald Trump has long insisted that other countries should
share more of the financial burden in tackling global emergencies.
Now, a crisis involving four potential famines in Africa and the
Middle East may test whether foreign governments will heed his
demands. In the coming days, the White House is planning to rally
other governments to do more to prevent the calamity, several Trump
administration officials told POLITICO. The officials declined to
offer details, but one likely forum for the president to make such a
push is next week's G-20 summit in Germany.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
In a Remote Village, Witnessing Miracles |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=wpnC6vLHQ-stGruogzmovw

Nicholas Kristof

The dirty little secret of foreign aid is that it's hard. You
can build a school, but it's hard to ensure that teachers will
show up. You can build a well, but what happens when the hand pump
breaks? You can provide safe birthing kits, but what if a nurse sells
them on the black market? Look, helping people is complicated. But
I'm a strong advocate of more aid because sometimes aid is
transformative. When properly done, clubfoot treatment is
straightforward, succeeds 95 percent of the time and inexpensively
changes a life like that of this 11-month-old girl. "Now
she'll go to school," said Chesca Colloredo-Mansfeld,
executive director of MiracleFeet. "She's going to stand
on her own two feet for the rest of her life."

Politics & Foreign Policy

ASSOCIATED PRESS
US Warns Qatar Crisis at Impasse; Tillerson to Visit Kuwait |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=mfHBMrcsrrp1JAocT5FVFw

Josh Lederman and Matthew Lee

The Trump administration is being drawn further into the crisis
engulfing Qatar and many of its Gulf Arab neighbors, a diplomatic
tussle that it wanted to avoid. Despite numerous U.S. appeals for
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to resolve
their issues with Qatar on their own, the State Department said
Thursday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would visit the region
next week in a bid to mediate a solution. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert
said Tillerson would visit Kuwait, which has been trying to broker an
agreement, on Monday after stops in Ukraine and Turkey. She said
Tillerson would meet with Kuwaiti officials, but his presence in the
region leaves open the possibility that he may try to shuttle between
the neighboring countries to forge a resolution.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
What Can Trump Do About North Korea? His Options Are Few and Risky |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Fx_eUAV1p5JrBrLeuKokOQ

David Sanger

With North Korea's launch on Tuesday of what the administration
confirmed was an intercontinental ballistic missile, the country has
new reach. Experts said the North Koreans had crossed a threshold
- if just barely - with a missile that could potentially
strike Alaska. Mr. Kim's repeated missile tests show that a more
definitive demonstration that he can reach the American mainland
cannot be far away, even if it may be a few years before he can fit a
nuclear warhead onto his increasingly powerful missiles. But for Mr.
Trump and his national security team, Tuesday's technical
milestone simply underscores tomorrow's strategic dilemma.

FOREIGN POLICY
Tillerson Ready to Let Russia Decide Assad's Fate |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=BdydpeBS0e-OzUZw-Fs2PA

Colum Lynch and Robbie Gramer

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the U.N. Secretary General
Antonio Guterres during a private State Department meeting last week
that the fate of Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad now lies in the hands
of Russia, and that the Trump administration's priority is
limited to defeating the Islamic State, according to three diplomatic
sources familiar with the exchange. Tillerson's assurances to
Guterres signaled the Trump administration's increasing
willingness to let Russia take the driver's seat in Syria,
throwing geopolitics to the wayside to focus on defeating ISIS. He
also signaled that U.S. military action against Assad's forces
in recent months is intended to achieve only limited tactical
goalsdeterring future chemical weapons attacks and protecting U.S.
backed-forces fighting the Islamic State in Syrianot weakening the
Assad government or strengthening the opposition's negotiating
leverage.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
EU, Japan Outline New Trade Deal |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=emMzf9CRlBTDXKohxOpP6Q

Emre Peker, Laurence Norman, and Alastair Gale

The leaders of Japan and the European Union said Thursday they had
agreed terms of a broad, new trade deal, a convergence that comes on
the eve of a Group of 20 leaders meeting where U.S. President Donald
Trump is expected to clash with his counterparts on trade. The
political agreement, which remains far from implementation, is another
sign of major world economies seeking to adapt to Mr. Trump's
"America First" policies and would represent a significant
opening of the once heavily-protected Japanese market. Japan is
seeking to pursue new export opportunities following Mr. Trump's
withdrawal from the pending 12-nation regional Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade pact.


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