Foreign Policy

The mandatory across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequester are weakening America’s ability to effectively carry out foreign policy and are also highlighting the existing flaws in how the U.S. spends foreign affairs dollars.
 
Because the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are mischaracterized as non-security agencies under sequester – despite their central role in U.S. foreign policy – the sequester will cut U.S. international affairs funding by 5 percent this year.

For years American companies interested in doing business in Europe have faced various barriers to enter and operate in the EU market. Astronomical tariffs were to blame in some cases, but a major impediment has certainly been the different and complex regulatory regime.

For all those U.S. firms that have encountered a difficult regulatory environment in Europe, but also those that were previously deterred as a result of the tariff and non-tariff barriers, the news that the United States and the European Union would formally launch free trade negotiations this year should be ’music to their ears’ and  ’a wake up call’.

Fifty-three Senators were either bleary-eyed or blindly catering to the gun lobby late Friday night when they voted to perpetuate a dangerous lie regarding the Arms Trade Treaty being negotiated this week at the U.N. My bet is on the latter. They passed an amendment introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) that inaccurately claims that the treaty would threaten Second Amendment rights. That is simply not true.  



This Friday, the Foreign Ministers of the Americas are gathering in Washington D.C. at the august headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS). There are a good number of these meetings throughout the year, and we could be forgiven for not noticing. But this one is different and we should pay attention. The stated reason for the meeting is to “strengthen” the Inter-American Human Rights (IACHR) system”, the jewel of the OAS. In fact, this gathering is the culmination of a process in which the hemisphere’s most egregious human rights violators seek to do the exact opposite – weaken the region's human rights structures.



Thursday in Washington we talk a lot about what doesn’t work, but finally there is a good story about one government agency investing in reform and delivering results. Wednesday, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) released a progress report on its three year old reform effort, USAID FORWARD, which in the words of Administrator Rajiv Shah has the ultimate goal of putting “ourselves out of business.”


The two of us are strong believers in the power of U.S. development and the important role these programs play in protecting our security, advancing our economic interests, and in demonstrating our values to the world. As the head of one of America’s largest non-profits and as a senior executive at one of our country’s greatest companies, we both know the importance of the bottom line – getting cost-effective results on our investments.



How can the United States of America – the country that provides the most foreign aid assistance towards the development of people and nations around the world – be losing favor globally? Does it even matter?
 
That’s the question that senior diplomats, politicians, foreign policy analysts, and thought leaders are trying to answer after Gallup and Meridian International Center released the new Global Leadership Track data on March 13. The findings of this fourth annual U.S. Global Leadership Project show that median approval of U.S. leadership across 130 countries surveyed was down from 46 percent in 2011 to 41 percent in 2012.

Amid the clamor around the presidential visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank stands an important voice President Barack Obama should hear. It does not belong to the leaders or elites. It is young, shackled, and locked up behind bars. It is the voice of invisible children who hold the power to shape the future in the region.

Instead of enjoying universal safeguards, these leaders of tomorrow are bound, blindfolded, and convicted. Since 1967, Palestinian children have been living under Israeli military law and prosecuted in military courts. Current estimates suggest that every year 500-700 children, some as young as 12 years old, are detained, interrogated and imprisoned within the Israeli military court system where ill treatment is widespread and systematic and fair trial guarantees are seriously lacking.

Yoani Sanchez was first denied permission to travel abroad in 2008, when she received an award for her blog, Generación Y, where she frequently publishes bold commentary critical of Cuba’s government.
 
Back in 2009, when she was still unable travel abroad, Sanchez sent a letter calling on the U.S. Congress to allow Americans to freely travel to Cuba. She wrote that abolishing our “long obsolete travel restrictions” would make the “anachronistic travel permit that we Cubans need to enter and leave our country… even more ridiculous and could bring more results in the democratization of Cuba than the indecisive performance of Raul Castro.’

Erbil, Iraq -- The last time I visited Domiz camp in northern Iraq was in October, when the Syrian refugee population there was about 17,000. People were frantically trying to prepare for the coming winter. There were shortages of food, fuel, warm clothing, and medical care for cold-weather illnesses. Every refugee I spoke to expressed concern about their children, in particular, making it through the winter.

This week, my Refugees International colleague and I made our return to Domiz. The cold weather has long since passed, but Iraq’s long, hot summer will begin soon, and that will bring its own hardships.

As President Obama begins his first presidential visit to Israel, his official discussions will be dominated by national security issues including Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, Syria’s continued civil war, the unrest in the neighborhood, and restarting the stalled Middle East peace process.
 
The U.S.-Israel commercial relationship is often overshadowed by national security concerns. Yet, there has been no time in history that our countries have been more connected economically than today.  This aspect of our alliance is significantly contributing to America’s economy and security. While Israel represents just 3 percent of the population of the Middle East, it accounts for a full 25 percent of U.S. exports to the region.