Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 14 views

    Policy Memo Sample

    Uploaded by

    chebbahmaera68
    The document proposes that the President-elect mandate a joint FY2010 international affairs and national security budget to address the inadequate funding and resources for civilian foreign policy agencies like the State Department and USAID. It argues that combining the 050 and 150 budget functions into a single budget process would promote collaboration across agencies and drive substantial investment in civilian international programs to rebuild U.S. foreign policy capabilities, while balancing increases in defense spending. The joint budget initiative would lay the foundation for long-term reforms to strengthen the U.S. government's ability to engage globally and sustain American influence worldwide.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Policy Memo Sample

    Uploaded by

    chebbahmaera68
    14 views2 pages
    The document proposes that the President-elect mandate a joint FY2010 international affairs and national security budget to address the inadequate funding and resources for civilian foreign policy agencies like the State Department and USAID. It argues that combining the 050 and 150 budget functions into a single budget process would promote collaboration across agencies and drive substantial investment in civilian international programs to rebuild U.S. foreign policy capabilities, while balancing increases in defense spending. The joint budget initiative would lay the foundation for long-term reforms to strengthen the U.S. government's ability to engage globally and sustain American influence worldwide.

    Original Title

    policy memo sample

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document proposes that the President-elect mandate a joint FY2010 international affairs and national security budget to address the inadequate funding and resources for civilian foreign policy agencies like the State Department and USAID. It argues that combining the 050 and 150 budget functions into a single budget process would promote collaboration across agencies and drive substantial investment in civilian international programs to rebuild U.S. foreign policy capabilities, while balancing increases in defense spending. The joint budget initiative would lay the foundation for long-term reforms to strengthen the U.S. government's ability to engage globally and sustain American influence worldwide.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    14 views2 pages

    Policy Memo Sample

    Uploaded by

    chebbahmaera68
    The document proposes that the President-elect mandate a joint FY2010 international affairs and national security budget to address the inadequate funding and resources for civilian foreign policy agencies like the State Department and USAID. It argues that combining the 050 and 150 budget functions into a single budget process would promote collaboration across agencies and drive substantial investment in civilian international programs to rebuild U.S. foreign policy capabilities, while balancing increases in defense spending. The joint budget initiative would lay the foundation for long-term reforms to strengthen the U.S. government's ability to engage globally and sustain American influence worldwide.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    POLICY MEMO

    TO: The President-Elect’s National Security Transition

    FROM: David Shorr, The Stanley Foundation


    Vikram Singh, Center for a New American Security

    RE: A Unified International Affairs and National Security Budget to Increase


    American Effectiveness Worldwide

    The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and Stanley Foundation recently concluded an
    eight-month initiative focused on the anemic condition of the United States’ civilian international
    affairs agencies. There is nearly universal support among national security professionals for
    serious action to remedy this condition. Defense Secretary Gates continues to call for more
    resources for the civilian elements of national power and the Project on National Security Reform
    is expected to recommend a doubling of State Department and USAID funding and a minimum
    manpower increase of 50%. Yet this widely recognized need for stronger civilian agencies has
    not been paired with the political will to mandate and underwrite them. 94% of supplemental
    funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been for the Department of Defense.

    The essence of the problem is inadequate financial and human resources to sustain US political
    influence in a fast-changing world. Just when US relations with the rest of the world are in a deep
    slump, our capacity to turn things around remains at historic lows. America needs foreign policy
    infrastructure investment, and not just for special initiatives or boutique programs.

    The complete findings of the CNAS – Stanley project are in four reports available at
    http://www.stanleyfoundation.org/articles.cfm?ID=492. This memo, however, proposes a single major
    policy initiative to give immediate impetus and lay the foundation for the rebuilding of America’s
    international affairs capabilities. The President-elect should require his new national security and
    budget teams to prepare a joint FY2010 international affairs and national security budget.

    The Obama Administration will, and should, consider specific measures to redress organizational
    weaknesses in the US government’s foreign policy apparatus, particularly post-conflict
    reconstruction, long-term economic development, and public diplomacy. It is critical to
    recognize, though, that these are all symptoms of a systemic civilian capacity deficit. Since this
    is a matter of the overall effectiveness of US foreign policy, the push for budgeting across
    interagency stovepipes must come from the top. In other words, whatever other reforms are
    undertaken, a presidential mandate for a joint FY2010 budget is vitally important to initiate the
    process of rebuilding organizational infrastructure.

    The joint budget for international affairs and national security— starting with the combining of
    the 050 and 150 budget functions for FY2010 and expanding in subsequent years—would at first
    be a tool to force cross-department balancing. Without mandating changes in normal budget
    processes within agencies, an integrated White House review will promote collaboration across
    overlapping budget areas. It will drive:

    • Substantial investment in strengthening the State Department and USAID, to bolster


    their overstretched headquarters bureaus and overseas missions.
    • Significant growth in their work forces.

    • Steady balancing of the relative increases in defense and international affairs spending
    seen in recent years.

    Detailed budget proposals and implementation plans are available from other initiatives and
    organizations, such as the Foreign Affairs Budget for the Future report from the American
    Academy of Diplomacy and the Stimson Center. We suggest that a combined international affairs
    and national security budget is the only lever that can spur more-than-marginal added investment.

    This initiative should not be contingent upon, nor await, other reforms to the foreign policy
    apparatus. A number of related mechanisms will be needed to implement this budgeting
    discipline, and we urge that they be incorporated into the structures that the new administration is
    establishing for national security planning and decision making:

    • As these joint budgets are prepared, presented, and enacted, they will need substantial
    White House staff support from the NSC and OMB. Implementing such a joint budget
    will require a single dual-hatted NSC and OMB Director for international affairs and
    national security and integrated reviews of all agency budget submissions.

    • Intensive cooperation will be needed among DoD, DoS, and USAID budget offices to
    help their principals fulfill the president’s mandate.

    • The budget must be treated as a single package from the beginning to the end of the
    process. The principals on the president’s national security team must hew to shared
    positions all the way through to the final appropriations bills.

    • While reforms of the congressional budget process may ultimately be needed, the
    administration should meanwhile consult as widely as possible with the budget,
    authorizing, and appropriating committees. Congress will likely split up such a
    combined budget upon receipt, but the cross-leveling achieved by this new White
    House process will still be reflected in the budget bills for the agencies.

    Despite being a global power, the United States does not really seem to have its finger on the
    global pulse. In an era of stakeholder proliferation, every international problem confronting the
    United States involves not just national governments but a range of actors from the private sector
    and powerful NGOs to criminal and terrorist networks. To have any chance of shaping world
    events, Washington must be able to engage this panoply of actors around the globe.

    Having drawn down US civilian capabilities faster than defense in the 1990s and increased them
    more slowly than defense since 2001, the American government has crippled its ability to have
    insight into, and relationships with, the actors on whom future peace and prosperity hinge. Just as
    the United States needs to invest in education and science to ensure that the American work force
    can compete and thrive in the globalizing world, it must likewise transform our government to be
    competitive in the effort to sustain America’s global power in the 21st century.

    You might also like