*Topicality/Definitions Democracy Promotion Includes Military Intervention
Human Rights Assistance Should Not be Conflated with Democracy Assistance
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- *Status Quo Democracy Promotion*
- Department of State Democracy Assistance Programs: HRDF
- Department of State Democracy Assistance Programs: MEPI
- Lots of Agencies Provide Foreign Assistance
Human Rights Assistance Should Not be Conflated with Democracy AssistanceHUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTION NOTALWAYS CONSISTENT WITH DEMOCRACY PROMOTION Elisa Massimino, President Human Rights First, 2010, House Hearing: Human Rights and Democracy Assistance: Increasing the Effectiveness of U.S. Foreign Aid, June 10, [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg56888/html/CHRG-111hhrg56888.htm] In our view, it would be a mistake to view assistance designed to advance respect for human rights as a subset of democracy assistance, as the discussion draft seems to suggest. Human rights and democracy are inextricably connected. Only when human rights are respected can democracy be secured. Yet it is also possible and sometimes it is critically important to advance human rights objectives through affirmative assistance in nondemocratic countries or in countries where the strategy to promote democracy is unclear. In those countries, support can be provided to human rights defenders to enhance their efforts to document violations, advocate for international bodies, and raise public awareness. That is critically important if we are going to build a civil society to advance human rights and democracy.
USAID Major Distributor of US Democracy AssistanceUSAID LARGEST SOURCE OF DEMOCRACY ASSISTANCE IN THE WORLD Thomas Carothers, Vice President Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2010, House Hearing: Human Rights and Democracy Assistance: Increasing the Effectiveness of U.S. Foreign Aid, June 10, [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg56888/html/CHRG-111hhrg56888.htm] USAID is by far the largest source of democracy assistance, well over $1 billion a year. In fact, USAID has devoted more resources, more energy, and more time to democracy assistance than any organization in the world in the last 25 years. USAID has done many valuable things in this domain, but time is short, so I will cut to the quick. DEMOCRACY ASSISTANCE IS AN EXAMPLE OF STATE DEPARTMENT MISSION CREEP Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 67 Despite its culture that resists taking on program operations, the State Department has experienced substantial “mission creep” over the years with respect to policy-driven economic assistance programs that provide political support for allies, enhance regional stability, combat proliferation, support democracy, and confront terrorist organizations and international crime. State, working with the Congress, is responsible for setting the strategic goals for these programs, choosing the countries that receive assistance, and setting the overall funding levels.
Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 70 The State Department and USAID implement a number of programs to promote democracy and governance around the world. One of the largest is the State Department’s Human Rights/Democracy Fund (HRDF), administered by State’s Department of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL). HRDF was established in 1998 to give the State Department a way to “respond rapidly and decisively to democratization and human rights crises and deficits.” The mission of HRDF is to support “innovative programming designed to uphold democratic principles, support democratic institutions, promote human rights, and build civil society in countries and regions of the world that are geo-strategically critical to the US.” HRDF is funded with ESF dollars and has grown from $7.8 million in FY 1998 to nearly $70 million in FY 2007. Department of State Democracy Assistance Programs: MEPIMEPI MAJOR PROGRAM FOR FUNDING DEMOCRACY PROGRAMS IN THE MIDEAST Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 70 The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), established in December 2002, supports “democratic reform and vibrant, prosperous societies in the Middle East and North Africa,” through political, economic, and educational reform and the empowerment of women. MEPI makes small grants to non-governmental groups and citizens as a way to build a grass roots movement that increases the strength of civil society in the Middle East and North Africa. Through FY 2009, MEPI spent over $530 million on more than 600 projects in 17 countries and territories. MEPI is managed by the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) and funded by ESF resources. Lots of Agencies Provide Foreign AssistanceMANY US FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS ADMINISTERED OUTSIDE OF USAID AND STATE DEPARTMENT Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 61 One of the core realities of US engagement in the twentieth and twenty-first century is the growth of international activity in virtually every federal agency. Many of these programs are part of US foreign assistance, though they are planned and budgeted outside the International Affairs budget and are largely beyond the reach of the Secretary of State. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), more than 25 other US agencies have foreign assistance programs of some type. The General Accounting Office (GAO) estimated that in FY 1998, non-150 agencies spent roughly $7.6 billion on programs ranging from criminal justice to control of nuclear materials. GAO noted that assistance programs for the former Soviet Union in the 1990s involved 23 departments and agencies carrying out 215 aid projects funded out of 11 different budget accounts. A 2006 Congressional Research Service (CRS) review of US foreign assistance programs found that the funds and programs administered by State and USAID constituted only 55 percent of total aid disbursements in FY 2005. US PROVIDES ASSISTANCE THROUGH ESF AND THROUGH TARGETED PROGRAMS Gordon Adams & Cindy Williams, International Affairs Professor American University & Research Scientist-MIT, 2010, Buying National Security: how America plans and pays for its global role and safety at home, p. 66 This chapter reviews these programs. The largest economic assistance program linked to US national security goals is the Economic Support Fund (ESF), but the United States also provides significant policy-driven assistance through separate programs for Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, to support democracy, stem the flow of narcotics and combat international crime, confront terrorism, prevent the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and remove landmines. Budgets in this category rise and fall in response to major international events and changes in US interests, though funds focused on the Middle East have been consistently high over recent decades. Funding for such economic assistance accounts for roughly 23 percent of overall US foreign assistance.
Charles Flickner, Former Staff for Senate Budget Committee, 2007, Security By Other Means: foreign assistance, global poverty, and American leadership, ed. L. Brainard, p. 235 Many more federal actors other than USAID and the State Department are active in foreign assistance. Former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios characterized the deployment of foreign assistance as “’constipated’ and splintered among too many federal agencies.” It appears that any effort to expand the authority of the director of foreign assistance over foreign assistance programs at the Treasury and Defense Departments and at other federal agencies will be deferred until aid programs managed by the State Department and USAID are effectively coordinated. Under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, Congress allowed an increasing percentage of foreign assistance to be undertaken by domestic and autonomous overseas agencies. The Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Labor Departments have become more actively engaged in foreign aid programs previously within the domain of the State Department or USAID. President Bush has convinced Congress to establish independent federal agencies or autonomous programs created specifically to bypass the State Department and USAID. Funding of foreign assistance by the Department of Defense also has increased significantly during his term and now includes a massive police training program in Iraq. Directory: assets assets -> Northern territory of australia assets -> Number: caveat in the [Will/Will and Codicil/Estate of] assets -> Invitation for Bid Calact/mbta for Standard Floor and Low Floor Rural Duty Vehicles ifb no. 12-03 November 14, 2012 assets -> 12 Step Retreats For Everyone in Twelve Step Recovery Ratner Fellowship assets -> 12 Step Retreats For Everyone in Twelve Step Recovery Ratner Fellowship assets -> Sigaccess annual Report assets -> Central Government is expected to ask the seventh pay commission to consider merging 50% dearness allowance assets -> List of accessible executive records assets -> Emergency telephone numbers Call toll-free from anywhere in France Download 2.51 Mb. Share with your friends:
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