Foreign Policy

Venture capital (VC) in pure capitalist sense means investing money for profit and seeking innovative  business opportunities that has huge potential in the market. The investments are guided by serious analysis of outcomes. The same concept can be used in the social sector. The idea would be to reward good ideas or sustainable initiatives by investing limited foreign aid money to gain a much bigger and sustainable impact in developing countries. It is a partnership between developed world and low income countries. We can call this venture social investment or VSI.

Jason Pack’s op-ed on January 4, 2013, entitled “Another missed opportunity on Benghazi,” misstated my remarks at a hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on December 20, 2012. Mr. Pack quoted me as referring to the Libyan government as “a coalition… which includes some of the most evil jihadist elements imaginable.” I actually stated that, “The fact is, this is a government that is a coalition that includes, or at least countenances, some of the most evil jihadist elements imaginable.”

Yet again the Obama Administration has missed an opportunity to turn a crisis into a sincere reassessment of the unsustainability of America's current policies. And I'm not talking about the president’s compromises to avert the fiscal cliff, but rather his December 30 statement about the Benghazi attack. Obama followed Secretary Clinton in adopting the recommendations of the Pickering report. He acknowledged that there were “severe problems” in security at American embassies abroad stating that “we are going to fix this” by ceasing to rely on the security forces of host nations – especially those with weak central governments. The Senate Homeland Security Committee’s Report -- released just before the New Year -- concurs with these assessments blaming the State Department for being cognizant of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi but failing to close down the special mission and for outsourcing security to Libyan militias.

It was a surprise to those of us in the military to hear comments on the Navy’s combat readiness in the 2012 presidential election debates when Gov. Mitt Romney noted that, at 285 ships, the U.S. Navy is “smaller than at any time since 1917.” President Obama sharply retorted, “We also have fewer horses and bayonets.” Regardless of one’s politics, the issue is not about counting ships. It is about the Navy’s readiness and capability to perform the vital missions required to ensure our own security and that of the world.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been dead for three years now due to Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is resolved to stay. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has rightfully refused to enter into formal peace talks with Israel as long as illegal settlement activities continue in the Israeli-occupied territories. 

I was standing outside a Timorese refugee camp on the day Carlos Caceres pulled me aside with a frightening message – “The militias know who I am and where they can find me.”  I was shocked by what this United Nations worker had told me—at the time a participant of a Congressional staff delegation — and yet inspired that he was willing to put his life on the line to protect hundreds of thousands Timorese forced from their homes by militia violence.

The list of adjectives used to describe U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice during recent weeks has been long, often colorful and somewhat biting thanks to the views of some of my fellow Republicans. As a conservative who worked directly under Susan's leadership for more than two years at the National Security Council, I was left wondering if the recent public discourse was actually about the same person. One matter that is without doubt, however, is that our nation will not benefit from her tremendous skills and abilities as secretary of State.



First, let me address the apparent contradiction of Susan working with a conservative. In short, there wasn't any. I was asked to join the NSC as a visiting fellow from the Center for Strategic and International Studies by National Security Advisor Tony Lake precisely because of the Clinton administration's disastrous failures in Somalia and Rwanda and the need for fresh thinking.

As Washington works to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, it is imperative that policymakers not lose sight of other issues that will have just as much impact on the future of our nation’s economy. Lost in the shuffle of all the noise is a trade deal that’s currently being negotiated that will have wide ranging implications for America’s ability to compete and succeed in the global economy.

As the U.S. Congress begins to focus on trimming the defense budget it should take a close look at how NATO is organized. Its outdated structure has become a costly anachronism for Americans and Europeans. It is time to update NATO to make it fit today’s realities, not those prevailing at the end of World War 2.
 
It helps to recall that it was the North Atlantic Treaty signed in 1949, that committed the allies to each other’s defense. The Alliance’s military structure (the “O” in NATO) was designed over the next year to overcome the inability of shattered European states to defend themselves. Because American military power was all that stood between a potential invasion of Europe by the Soviet Union, America slid naturally into the position of assuming the Alliance’s leadership.

Though the country is focused on partisan gridlock over the fiscal cliff, bipartisanship still exists in Washington. President Obama has signed into law the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal Act of 2012, a bill that demonstrates that the national interest is served when members of both parties work together. With this measure – which promotes freer trade with Russia while holding accountable Russian officials that violate human rights –both parties have found common ground on the need to encourage a strong, vibrant, and more open Russia.