Fight between State and NSC is over; DoD won

Josh Rogin posted a leaked draft of Presidential Study Directive 7 (PSD-7) on Foreign Policy yesterday. The NSC drafted the report and its subject is development policy in the Obama administration. The State Department is also working on this policy and will release it as the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR). This is part of a broader fight within the Obama administration between State and NSC over control of development policy.

The PSD-7 outlines a pretty good development policy. Obama might even implement it. In his third time. The problem here is that while State and NSC have been fighting over development policy, the Department of Defense has already made it. Don’t believe me? Check out this article by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Still don’t believe me? Well, consider this: according to the FY 2011 budget request the administration largely wants to channel foreign aid  to weak states, such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan (as well as the perennial favorites, Egypt and Israel), just like Gates outlined in his article. PSD-7, by contrast, places much less weight on weak states.

I have floated this hypothesis by a number of knowledgeable people in this area and they tend to agree that DoD is setting development policy while State and NSC are bickering. So here’s my recommendation to State and NSC. You can stop your sniping over development policy. The fight’s over. DoD won.