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3 Cheers for Smart Power!
By maudeaster on 2009-01-26 08:33:04
President Obama's early visit to the State Department last week gave a boost to the smart power approach for dealing with
international conflicts - building shared interests through negotiations and addressing root causes of conflict through
development. George Mitchell, Obama's new special envoy to the Middle East peace process, voiced the potential promise
of this new approach to the US role in the world: Countering past pessimism about the possibility of peaceful conflict
resolution, Mitchell pointed out, "Conflicts are sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings." So far, so
good -- but the devil is in the details -- and in the funding. As Defense Secretary Gates points out repeatedly, it is absurd for
the US to have more people playing in military bands than diplomats. He advocates an increased budget for diplomacy,
knowing the government right now spends 50 times more on the military than on the State Department. Nicholas Kristof,
NY Times columnist, recently pointed out that the cost of one C-17 military cargo plane ($510 million) would pay to hire
and train 1,100 foreign service officers annually. Afghanistan is a perfect example of a need for this shift in national
resources. Even Gates and other military leaders admit that the Afghanistan conflict cannot be resolved militarily -- that
regional diplomacy and development are the needed keys to security for the Afghan people. Richard Holbrooke, Obama's
new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will need a lot of smart power resources to involve all of Afghanistan's
neighbors in stabilizing the situation and will need major development dollars to foster the economic cooperation in the
region essential to relieving despair-caused violence. As a peace activist, it is sweet to hear military leaders speak out for this
shift in our approach to the world. General Anthony Zinni said it well: "It is time to repair our relationship with the world
and begin to take it to the next level - a level defined not only by our military strength, but also by the lives we save and the
opportunities we create for the people of other nations."
