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Quaker Lobby Urges Presidential Candidates to Embrace 'Responsibility to Prevent'

"The financial crisis and $700 billion bailout, the continuing demands of the wars inIraq andAfghanistan, and runaway military spending are placing intense pressure on the U.S. budget. The next president and Congress can save money and make the world more secure by investing in preventing conflicts before the turn into shooting wars," said Bridget Moix, the co-author of a new FCNL study, "The Responsibility to Prevent." "There is now growing bipartisan support for investing more in diplomacy and development assistance, and strengthening cooperation with the international community. But that will require new spending priorities inWashington."

Trevor Keck, co-author of the new report, expressed concern at recent statements by both presidential campaigns that implied the financial crisis might lead a future president to cut back on plans to expand U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance. "Right at this moment the current Secretaries of State and Defense and most of the foreign policy establishment are saying the U.S. must fill the 1,000 empty desks in U.S. embassies around the world, train a new generation of foreign service officers, and expand development aid. To abandon these plans would be penny wise and pound foolish," said Keck.

FCNL's new report, which was included with the letter, proposes a plan to build robust U.S. civilian agencies that can better prevent wars. Among other measures, it calls on the next administration and Congress to invest more money and personnel in diplomacy, development assistance, and multilateral peacebuilding tools. This includes increasing the U.S. diplomatic presence in global hot spots, doubling funding for development programs that reduce poverty and mitigate conflict, and paying down nearly $2 billion in U.S. debt to the United Nations.

"The current financial crisis demonstrates all too clearly the costs of late reaction rather than early prevention," said Moix, who serves as Legislative Secretary with FCNL. "The next administration should take the lesson to heart in reshaping our foreign policy priorities and investments."

Copies of the letter and the report are available http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=3425&issue_id=130

The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby inWashington, is a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government. For more information, visit http://www.fcnl.org.

SOURCE Friends Committee on National Legislation