UN Dispatch

Ban to Burma

UN Dispatch at 7/3/2009 11:53AM

Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is en route to Burma/Myanmar to press for the release of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Evelyn Leopold, a long time United Nations correspondent, previews the tri...

Meat your new IAEA chief

UN Dispatch at 7/3/2009 10:18AM

Posting will be light today, but I wanted to flag this news: Yeterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors elected Japan's Yukiya Amano to be the next Director General of t...

Ban Ki Moon saying useful things in the New York Times

UN Dispatch at 7/2/2009 4:50PM

I have an embarrassing crush on Ban Ki Moon. You really can’t blame me. He raps! He married his high school sweetheart!...

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Wonky Idea of the Week*: What’s the best way to spend money on national defense?

John Boonstra at 2/4/2008 4:55PM

The record-setting $3.1 trillion budget that President Bush today proposed for FY2009 includes the highest level of military spending, adjusted for inflation, since World War II. In addition to the Department of Defense’s base budget of $515 billion, emergency allowances to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan expand this number to over $600 billion. Presidential candidates, particularly Republicans Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Mike Huckabee, have advocated increasing defense spending even beyond President Bush’s astronomical commitments.

The military is obviously an integral component of national security, but, in a provocative article in The Bulletin Online, Gordon Adams challenges the notion that beefing up defense spending is necessarily the best way to make America more secure:

The reality is we're overspending on the military and underspending on diplomacy and foreign assistance. Yes, the military is adaptable, capable, and flexible, but the military is now encroaching on territory that belongs to our diplomats and assistance and development programs. And while many analysts and political commentators believe that U.S. leadership in the world can be measured by an enormous defense budget, projecting military power as the leading edge of our international engagement has brought about a rising hostility to U.S. foreign and security policy.

Pushing for diplomacy does not score the political points of advocating a more robust military, particularly in wartime, and neither Republicans nor Democrats want to be seen as weak on national security. Soldiers, however, cannot fulfill the crucial role of diplomats, and, as Adams emphasizes, engaging with the world only militarily can have serious repercussions to America’s image.

Brookings Institution scholar Lael Brainard stresses that, in addition to pursuing diplomacy, the US shoul strengthen its image in the world by improving the system of providing aid to developing countries:

Helping the poor gain access to shelter, medicine, sustenance, education, and opportunity does more than make Americans feel good: it makes the world feel good about America. When the United States leads in helping lift the lives of the poor, we enhance our own influence and authority in the world community—building support for U.S. interests in other areas.

Brainard contends that a sound national security policy “must place development on par with defense and diplomacy” and supports creating a special Cabinet-level position in charge of development assistance. At least one of you agrees in this strategy for improving the country’s image in the world, urging the next president to commit 1% of the US GDP to foreign aid. This will do more than help alleviate world poverty; it will make the
US a stronger country and a safer place to live.

*The bloggers at On Day One will focusing each week on a "wonky" idea that our readers might find interesting. Agree with the wonks, or disagree--we're just a conduit for ideas and discussion!

I think the notion that "Where Goods Do Not Cross Frontiers, Armies Will" is relevant. Michael Shermer's article

http://www.michaelshermer.com/2004/02/where-goods-do-not-cross-frontiers...

lists arguments for why "the solution to war — that is, to move a society from a warlike existence to a peacelike existence — is not to be found in a particular type of government or religion or ideology or worldview; it is in a particular type of social process called trade."

If this is true, then military spending should be redirected to spending that increases trade between countries.

JE (Unverified) at 2/6/2008 10:26PM

Good call JE,

It took Europe 2 world wars before they figured this out and created the European Coal and Steel Community, an alliance among France, Germany, Italy and the BeNeLux countries to combine their coal and steel industries (two key industries for war). This eventually became what we now know as the European Union. These days the idea of a war among European powers is laughable.

Unfortunately it took them 2 of the worst wars in history to get to that point. I'm don't want to see other regions have to go through that before they can prioritize non-violent economic competition over death and destruction.

Our military budget is ridiculously high. Even if you redirected a tiny fraction of the money somewhere else, it could have a tremendously positive effect

Kenny B. (Unverified) at 2/15/2008 2:13PM

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nana (Unverified) at 3/24/2009 4:54AM

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nana (Unverified) at 3/24/2009 4:58AM

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