Diplomacy & Development: Best Friends For Life (or BFFLs in government speak)

Best Friends For Life

As Republicans gear themselves up to take over the House, the debate around the States’ finances, and the terror of Government spending is starting anew.  Unsurprisingly, among the potential targets for cuts in funding is the area of development and foreign aid.  As Barak mentioned in a previous article, domestically we’ve a pretty mixed up opinion when it comes to issues of foreign spending, and this flawed understanding is something legislators don’t hesitate to take advantage of.

I definitely wouldn’t argue that we’re doing everything right where foreign aid is concerned, historically we’ve a pretty shaky record in the area of aid.  Yet the type of results we tend to expect in the amount of time we’re willing to commit also tends to be fairly absurd.  It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that what we need isn’t less spending, or even more spending, but more effective spending, unfortunately we have a hard time agreeing on just what that means.

A few days ago Secretary Clinton spoke on the release of the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review or in government terms “QDDR” (oh how I hate acronyms).  The review aims to shape future changes in US policy in the areas of development and diplomacy, by among other things utilizing “civilian power” and getting agencies like the Department of State and USAID to work cooperatively.  If successful in bringing about any actual policy change, QDDR could nip some of the foreign aid spending rhetoric in the bud before our incoming legislators have a chance to go too far in gutting funding.

The Importance of Rule of Law & an Independent Judiciary

As much as I’m sure there’s little value in getting into a discussion over the value and or dangers of universal health care in the United States, a recent court ruling regarding President Obama’s controversial health care bill brings up some interesting questions regarding the US judiciary system.  Typically when assessing the quality of democracy and or “freedom” in a developing state, one of the core questions asked is on the quality of rule of law and the relative independence of the judiciary.

There isn’t too much disagreement on just what is meant by “independent judiciary,” but what follows is one of the core components of an independent judiciary as defined by freedom house: Continue reading »

Talk amongst yourselves

Tom Friedman is ready to throw in the towel on US efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

I understand the problem: Israeli and Palestinian leaders cannot end the conflict between each other without having a civil war within their respective communities. Netanyahu would have to take on the settlers and Abbas would have to take on Hamas and the Fatah radicals. Both men have silent majorities that would back them if they did, but neither man feels so uncomfortable with his present situation to risk that civil war inside to make peace outside…

The most valuable thing that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could do now is just get out of the picture – so both leaders and both peoples have an unimpeded view of their horrible future together in one state, if they can’t separate…

America must get out of the way so Israelis and Palestinians can see clearly, without any obstructions, what reckless choices their leaders are making. Make no mistake, I am for the most active U.S. mediation effort possible to promote peace, but the initiative has to come from them.

Man’s got a point.

DADT repeal fails

From First Read:

“Ultimately, Majority Leader Harry Reid called for the vote without having reached a procedural agreement with moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who supports repeal but wanted greater openness for the process of amending and passing the bill. Collins voted aye on the measure, but other Republicans who support repeal but had voiced similar procedural concerns — Sens. Scott Brown and Lisa Murkowski — voted no. One Democrat, newly-elected Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, broke with his party to vote no.”

Got that?  More than 60 percent of the Senate thinks a policy is bad but if the way they hold the vote isn’t quite right, then it’s not worth it. Do we elect Senators to pass policy or do we elect them so they can follow rules that they make up for themselves?  Because one sounds a lot more important than the other.  If these people really thought equality in the military was an important issue, why would they let the amendment process of the bill keep it from happening? If you don’t think gay people should serve, fine, but then come out and say it.

More Senate logic:

Collins said on the Senate floor that she was “perplexed and frustrated” that the bill would fall victim to “politics.”

“I just do not understand why we can’t proceed on a path… that will allow us to get the 60 votes to proceed,” she said.

I don’t understand either Susan.  But there are apparently 60 of you who want to pass this bill, and you literally have the power to ensure that only 50 are needed so I’m blaming “politics” and you.

Busted

The US Government is accusing AED, “a nonprofit organization working globally to improve education, health, civil society and economic development” of serious financial misconduct and conflicts of interest:

The U.S. government Wednesday took the unusual step of banning an American firm from being awarded new federal contracts due to evidence of “serious corporate misconduct” uncovered in an investigation of the company’s work on aid programs in Pakistan and Afghanistan…

The investigation revealed evidence of collusion between vendors and AED, resulting in overpayment for certain goods, the report said. The investigation also discovered that AED had inappropriately hired relatives of a person hired by USAID to oversee the program.

This is quite a big deal. AED’s operating budget is about $400,000,000 and I doubt it can survive without USG funding. The optics of this aren’t real good at the moment, either. Congress always loves to bash USAID and there’s never a better time to do it then when it needs to look like it’s doing something to control “wasteful government spending”.

Update: The rumor mill reports that the Chief of Party for the project will be charged with embezzlement and has fled to Russia. Developing…