An Unprecedented Smart Power Discussion with Three Cabinet Secretaries
By Liz Wing on 10/01/2010 @ 02:00 PM
No Limits Foundation attended the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) conference on global leadership and development this week. USGLC brought together three cabinet secretaries for a panel discussion on national security and international development. On the panel were: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and CEO of Millennium Challenge Corporation Daniel Yohannes. It was one of few occasions where the respective cabinet secretaries could sit down for a frank talk on the state of our foreign policy and development plans, and making development one of our core pillars to foreign policy.
Among all those present, they all agreed on one very key principle:
Development (building critical infrastructure, building schools for girls and boys and helping communities sustain on their own) is key to a sustainable future and a safe and secure world. Investing in countries so that they can be more prosperous and less likely to harbor terrorism is a smart, efficient approach to foreign policy. Hillary often refers to it as "smart power".
Secretary Gates said: "without development we will not be successful in Iraq or Afghanistan." He followed up with, "development is cheaper than war." And Secretary Geithner noted: "development and security are inextricably linked."
In order to hold other countries accountable, we must hold ourselves accountable as well. As moderator Frank Sesno remarked, Hillary Clinton is the first Secretary of State to say that accountability starts at home and to put her statements into action. For example: this year's Trafficking in Persons report ranks the U.S. for the first time in history. She has also ordered a quadrennial review, which she hopes to be very successful in identifying what is working and what is not. And early in her tenure she ordered a complete scrub of the State Department's work in Afghanistan and Pakistan to identify weaknesses and make changes to make them more efficient.
It is remarkable that there is agreement among the Secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury that there must be a transition in America's foreign policy to support and invest in development. We were on the right track in the 70s and had a strong development strategy, but we have been taken off-course in recent decades. We must work to get back on track. I am on board, and I am thankful for the strong team we have to drive us.
To watch the video or read the full transcript, click here.
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