I read two great articles today. The first one was an OPED in the New York Times by GEN Zinni entitled Peace-Building That Pays Off. Hats off to Essential Reading for Marines for highlighting the article. Some key quotes:
"The Institute of Peace is like the Marine Corps or special forces for foreign affairs and peace-building. When others are fleeing conflict around the world, you’ll usually find institute staff members going in. "
This is quite an endorsement from a teufelhunden.
"Congress would be hard-pressed to find an agency that does more with less. The institute’s entire budget would not pay for the Afghan war for three hours, is less than the cost of a fighter plane, and wouldn’t sustain even 40 American troops in Afghanistan for a year. Within the budget, peace-building is financed as part of national security programs, and is recognized as an important adjunct to conventional defense spending and diplomacy. The institute’s share of the proposed international affairs budget, $43 million, is minuscule: less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the State Department’s budget, and one-hundredth of 1 percent of the Pentagon’s."
Now obviously you can make numbers say whatever you want them to. However, $43 million is really nothing in the grand scheme of things. You could probably turn off the escalators in the PGON for a month and save that much money. My point is that their are myriad other funding cuts that could be made. My personal experience with USIP has only been positive. If you are here in DC they host great events that challenge and spark rigorous debate. Just recently they hosted the Navy's NGO conference.
My final question would be, if USIP goes away, who gets their gorgeous building?
"The Institute of Peace is like the Marine Corps or special forces for foreign affairs and peace-building. When others are fleeing conflict around the world, you’ll usually find institute staff members going in. "
This is quite an endorsement from a teufelhunden.
"Congress would be hard-pressed to find an agency that does more with less. The institute’s entire budget would not pay for the Afghan war for three hours, is less than the cost of a fighter plane, and wouldn’t sustain even 40 American troops in Afghanistan for a year. Within the budget, peace-building is financed as part of national security programs, and is recognized as an important adjunct to conventional defense spending and diplomacy. The institute’s share of the proposed international affairs budget, $43 million, is minuscule: less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the State Department’s budget, and one-hundredth of 1 percent of the Pentagon’s."
Now obviously you can make numbers say whatever you want them to. However, $43 million is really nothing in the grand scheme of things. You could probably turn off the escalators in the PGON for a month and save that much money. My point is that their are myriad other funding cuts that could be made. My personal experience with USIP has only been positive. If you are here in DC they host great events that challenge and spark rigorous debate. Just recently they hosted the Navy's NGO conference.
My final question would be, if USIP goes away, who gets their gorgeous building?
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