Strengthening Diplomatic Security Not the Same as Strengthening Diplomacy Posted by David Shorr

Having looked closely at the State Department budget, Walter Pincus sees a heavy tilt toward diplomatic security -- wryly noting "the security of our diplomats has become almost as important as the diplomacy they practice." This is a very important point. Aside from the problem of physically walling off our emissaries from the very people we want them to engage, there are important resource trade-offs. Speaking as a big proponent of bigger budgets for diplomacy and development, this is not what I had in mind.

In fact, a year ago when a colleague and I wrote a policy proposal in this area, we emphasized precisely how progress should be measured: 

• 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.

To paraphrase Pincus, the key thing was exactly to have more people "practicing diplomacy." One of the things I like about the recent bipartisan letters to President Obama from Senators and House members is the way they link these budgets to the overall international challenges our country faces. In that spirit, the resources need to be viewed as investments in the basic infrastructure of foreign policy (here's a report that specifies how to do so).

Which brings me to a related issue that I view with a slight touch of ambivalence. Gordon Adams reports the positive news that Congress is augmenting the State Department's budget and authorities to respond more flexibly to crises (and not have to get its money from the Defense Department). This is great, just as long as Congress understands the overall job of strengthening the civilian agencies is far from done. So the next time Walter Pincus follows the money for the DoS / USAID budget, I hope he sees it much more evenly spread.

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