Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
DefenseNews.com
March 6, 2008 By William Matthews
For months, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called for creating a cadre of U.S. civilian experts who can set up and run foreign governments so the U.S. military won't have to. Gates met like-minded advocates over breakfast with the House Foreign Affairs Committee March 6.
The defense secretary and the committee members dined a day after the House passed legislation to create a Readiness Response Corps of civilians who can deploy to trouble spots such as Iraq and Afghanistan to manage reconstruction and stabilization projects.
Similar legislation has stalled in the Senate.
Rep. Howard Berman, the acting Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said he invited Gates to Capitol Hill to discuss "the persistent imbalance between U.S. funding for defense and diplomacy."
That's a subject Gates himself has broached.
In a striking speech in November, Gates called for "strengthening our capacity to use soft power," which he defined as non-military power wielded by agencies such as the Agency for International Development and the U.S. Information Agency.
Such agencies withered during the 1990s, he said.
According to Berman, there are just 6,600 professional Foreign Service officers in the State Department today. As Gates has pointed out, that's fewer than the number needed to man a single aircraft carrier battle group.
In a statement issued after the private breakfast, Berman noted that the 2002 National Security Strategy calls diplomacy and development as important as defense, but said they are not funded equally.
Gates has asked for a $515 billion defense budget and expects to ask for $170 billion in war funding for 2009.
The State Department, Agency for International Development and other international affairs agencies are seeking a collective total of $39.5 billion for 2009.
Gates has called for greater spending on diplomacy and international development - although not at the expense of the defense budget, said a Gates aide who attended the breakfast.
"The gap in civilian capacity has over-burdened the military, which has assumed tasks best performed by civilian experts," Berman said.
No quarrel on that point from Gates. The defense secretary wants to see more people from a range of government agencies and from the private sector contribute to reconstruction and stabilization, the aide said.
The breakfast was characteristic of a collegiality Gates has brought to the secretary of defense's office.
Berman invited Gates to breakfast, and Gates agreed to go as "part of his regular outreach to the Hill," the aide said. "More relaxed breakfast and lunch settings have been useful" to the secretary.
Committee members seemed flattered that Gates came. Several said it was "a pleasant surprise to have the defense secretary call upon them," the aide said. They had grown accustomed to dismissive treatment by Gates' predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.
Said Berman, "Years ago, the U.S. secretary of defense came before the Foreign Affairs Committee regularly. Reinstating this custom will help Congress and the Administration work more closely together to restore some balance between what has come to be known as 'hard power' and 'soft power.'"
March 6, 2008 By William Matthews
For months, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called for creating a cadre of U.S. civilian experts who can set up and run foreign governments so the U.S. military won't have to. Gates met like-minded advocates over breakfast with the House Foreign Affairs Committee March 6.
The defense secretary and the committee members dined a day after the House passed legislation to create a Readiness Response Corps of civilians who can deploy to trouble spots such as Iraq and Afghanistan to manage reconstruction and stabilization projects.
Similar legislation has stalled in the Senate.
Rep. Howard Berman, the acting Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said he invited Gates to Capitol Hill to discuss "the persistent imbalance between U.S. funding for defense and diplomacy."
That's a subject Gates himself has broached.
In a striking speech in November, Gates called for "strengthening our capacity to use soft power," which he defined as non-military power wielded by agencies such as the Agency for International Development and the U.S. Information Agency.
Such agencies withered during the 1990s, he said.
According to Berman, there are just 6,600 professional Foreign Service officers in the State Department today. As Gates has pointed out, that's fewer than the number needed to man a single aircraft carrier battle group.
In a statement issued after the private breakfast, Berman noted that the 2002 National Security Strategy calls diplomacy and development as important as defense, but said they are not funded equally.
Gates has asked for a $515 billion defense budget and expects to ask for $170 billion in war funding for 2009.
The State Department, Agency for International Development and other international affairs agencies are seeking a collective total of $39.5 billion for 2009.
Gates has called for greater spending on diplomacy and international development - although not at the expense of the defense budget, said a Gates aide who attended the breakfast.
"The gap in civilian capacity has over-burdened the military, which has assumed tasks best performed by civilian experts," Berman said.
No quarrel on that point from Gates. The defense secretary wants to see more people from a range of government agencies and from the private sector contribute to reconstruction and stabilization, the aide said.
The breakfast was characteristic of a collegiality Gates has brought to the secretary of defense's office.
Berman invited Gates to breakfast, and Gates agreed to go as "part of his regular outreach to the Hill," the aide said. "More relaxed breakfast and lunch settings have been useful" to the secretary.
Committee members seemed flattered that Gates came. Several said it was "a pleasant surprise to have the defense secretary call upon them," the aide said. They had grown accustomed to dismissive treatment by Gates' predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.
Said Berman, "Years ago, the U.S. secretary of defense came before the Foreign Affairs Committee regularly. Reinstating this custom will help Congress and the Administration work more closely together to restore some balance between what has come to be known as 'hard power' and 'soft power.'"