The Prosperity Agenda

Nancy Soderberg

Description

Following the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, the Bush administration pledged more than $500 million for earthquake relief and sent American helicopters and soldiers to help. Immediately afterward, polls showed that the number of Pakistanis with a favorable opinion of the United States had doubled to more than 46 percent. The Prosperity Agenda argues that this may be the best foreign policy moment of the entire Bush administration—at the cost of what we spend in Iraq every day—and should become a model for future action.

In this provocative, ingenious book, Soderberg and Katulis make one of the most controversial arguments that foreign policy circles have seen in years: no more putting all our eggs in the basket of promoting democracy or market reforms, or even diplomacy, sanctions, or cash handouts to faltering governments. Instead, they argue, we should go right to the citizens of troubled nations and give them what they need most. People in the Congo, Iraq, Pakistan, and North Korea all have the same concerns, and the right to vote is far from the top of the list. They need freedom from war, good food and shelter, basic health care, and the reasonable hope that tomorrow will be better. It's not only the right thing to do; it's likely to do more for American interests than the policies we've been relying on for years.

Why have seven years of President Bush's "freedom agenda" failed to achieve freedom or democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else? When democracy starts to sound like a code word for advancing U.S. interests, it backfires. Latin America provides an excellent example of why freedom's march has stalled, in large part due to quality-of-life issues. A 2004 survey showed that a majority of people in Latin America would rather have a government that provided economic gains than a democracy.

The Prosperity Agenda embraces a new and compelling strategy for overcoming that problem and dealing with the world. Giving money, weapons, and loans with lots of strings attached doesn't do it. But handing out vaccines, disaster relief, and $100 laptops does. Working to improve the basic lives of people will, in the end, help defeat terrorism, increase America's leverage against its enemies, weaken dictatorships, and, most importantly, save the lives of millions.

Sujets

• Security International
• Security National
• Political Science
• Pakistán
• American politics
• United States
• Pakistan
• George W. Bush

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781620458723
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE PROSPERITY AGENDA
THE PROSPERITY AGENDA

WHAT THE WORLD WANTS FROM AMERICA-AND WHAT WE NEED IN RETURN

Nancy Soderberg Brian Katulis
Copyright 2008 by Nancy Soderberg and Brian Katulis. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Soderberg, Nancy E., date.
The prosperity agenda : what the world wants from America-and what we need in return / Nancy Soderberg and Brian Katulis.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-10529-0 (cloth)
1. United States-Foreign relations-2001. 2. United States-Foreign economic relations. 3. United States-Foreign public opinion. 4. Globalization. 5. Globalization-Economic aspects. 6. Economic development. 7. National security-United States. 8. Security, International. 9. United States-Foreign relations-Philosophy. I. Katulis, Brian. II. Title.
E902.S63 2008
327.73009 05-dc22
2008000246
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Nancy s parents, Lars and Nancy Soderberg
To Brian s wife, Kristy
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Making Up for Lost Time in Iraq
2 The Centerpiece of the Battle against Terrorism
3 Freedom Stumbles without Prosperity
4 Energy: Leading the World Where It Needs to Go
5 Winning the World Over by Eliminating Nuclear Weapons
6 The Hidden Threat of Global Poverty
7 Globalization s Impact on Prosperity
Conclusion Prosperity: A New Vision of American Power
Notes
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a book is almost always a collective effort. In this case, we are indebted to the many family members, friends, and colleagues who gave so generously of their minds and time as we wrote this book. We especially want to thank our respective institutions for their support of this project. The University of North Florida (UNF) afforded Nancy Soderberg course relief, research assistance from UNF students, and a wonderful group of supportive colleagues. John Podesta, Melody Barnes, and the Center for American Progress were generous with their tolerance of Brian Katulis s absence for various periods and for allowing both authors to draw on the talents of the center s researchers. We are particularly thankful to Peter Juul and Adam Hunter, whose brilliant research and unending patience with both of us have made this book far better than it would have been without their input.
We could not have written this book without the guidance offered to us by other center staff members and interns, including Matthew Forgotson, Michael Fuchs, Vanessa Gottlieb, Leah Greenberg, Andy Grotto, Jonathan Jacoby, Lawrence Korb, Peter Ogden, Dan Restrepo, Amanda Rios, Gayle Smith, and Carolyn Wadhams. Similarly, a number of students at the University of North Florida provided essential research as well, including Ruth Bacerra, Dane Boog, Alexandra Cohn, Antony Constantini, Christopher Ferrara, Tom Foran, Jason Kroiter, Mika Pitts, Mai Tran, Laura Verlangieri, and Katie Whitehurst. Others who contributed in significant ways include Deepti Choubey, Jake Colvin of the National Foreign Trade Council, Christopher Fox of Ceres, Jahn Jeffrey, Carlos Pascual, and Kate Vyborny. Nancy s friend and UNF colleague, Professor Pam Zeiser, lent her critical eye to the book and made it much better. Susan Estomin Chappelear and Link Nicoll offered helpful comments as well.
For this book, we interviewed people in the United States and abroad. Such a task could never have been accomplished without our network of friends and colleagues who put us in touch with the people who are the targets of our prosperity agenda. We want to thank the following people for introducing us to the people who made this book come alive. They include John Basso, Paul and Heather Booth, Elizabeth Shuler, Ashley Durmer of Citizens Energy Corporation, Jason Stearns and Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group, Jennifer Windsor at Freedom House, Juhani Grossman, Bassam Nasser, and Becky Webster. We are especially grateful to those who agreed to be profiled or quoted for this book. Nancy would also like to express a belated warm thanks to Angela Stene Mancini whom she unintentionally left out of the acknowledgments in her first book.
We are thankful to our friends and families for the support they generously gave to both of us as we wrote this book. For Nancy, her family-her parents, Lars and Nancy, and her siblings and in-laws, John and Melissa Soderberg, Sigrid and Jim Pinsky, and Lars and Jane Soderberg-has been a great source of support and a sanity check on the book (and life). Once again, Jake and Elizabeth Bistrong provided great encouragement and reminded her to take a break and have fun now and again. Nancy especially wants to thank Denise, Charlie, Kaylen, and Nick McMullin for their exquisite care of Gena during the process of writing this book.
For Brian, his wife, Kristen Katulis, read through every single line several times and made the book much better than it could have possibly been without her. Kathy and Bill Cooper, Jofi Joseph, and Kate Head all gave edits, advice, and encouragement along the way. Thanks also to Brian s parents, John and Rita Katulis; his grandmother, Madeline Katulis; his siblings, Lisa and Sean Katulis; and Sue and Bill Weed, for their support.
Eric Nelson at John Wiley Sons, whose talents and brilliance are unparalleled, pushed both Nancy and Brian to pull it all together in the mad dash to the finish line.
Finally, we are indebted to Bob Boorstin for bringing us together.
Thank you all.
Introduction
Thirty-six-year-old Adelard Mivumba lives a decent life in Goma, on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. The region s beautiful mountains, active volcanoes, Lake Kivu, and a large national park known for mountain gorillas make it a tourist destination. Businessmen from Dubai, Nairobi, and Kampala come here to buy the area s gems and minerals. Born and raised in Goma, Adelard owns a plot of land and is proud of the home he built on it. He shares his home with his wife, mother, and grandmother, and he boasts about its sitting room, bathroom, mini-corridor, two bedrooms, and kitchen. A shelter for house workers stands just outside, and a garden with fruit trees, colorful flowers, and lush green grass welcomes visitors in the front. Adelard bought the land with $5,000 that he made while working for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the region. 1
A college graduate with a degree in business and finance from a university in the Congo, Adelard got married recently. His twenty-seven-year-old wife also has a university degree; she studied public health. He has a steady job in the government tax office and is a small-time trader in minerals, bringing in about $70 a month. His wife had the good luck of landing a job with an international organization that pays her $500 a month, which gives them a monthly income that far outpaces what most people in their country make in a year. Adelard and his family live a good life, but their prosperity is at risk and his decent life is fragile.
During the last decade, the Congo has suffered from two wars that caused the deaths of 5.4 million people, making them two of the world s deadliest conflicts since World War II. 2 Goma, a town of 400,000, has been particularly hard hit. Life is not going well here, Adelard explained. War once again looms over the area where he lives. People are crying, looting, and dying. Most of them are really poor, and clean water is difficult to get. Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, nearly a million refugees fled to Goma, straining the underdeveloped area. Interahamwe militiamen-remnants of those who perpetrated the Rwandan genocide-and a separate Mai Mai rebel group hide in the forests near Goma, plotting attacks against Rwanda and at times attacking Congolese civilians. Periodic clashes break out between the militia and Congolese soldiers, bringing with them a