Speaking at the State Department on Dec. 15, 2010 the Secretary of State unveiled a roadmap for improving U.S. diplomacy and global development efforts. The first ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) outlines sweeping reforms for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to better coordinate diplomacy and development initiatives with national security objectives. Among several recommendations, the review calls for structural changes at the State Department and developing stronger “civilian capability” to prevent and respond to international emergencies and violent extremism. Despite being welcomed by many U.S. and international aid and development groups, significant questions about implementation and funding remain largely unanswered.
Humanitarian aid and development groups from across the U.S. and around the world have welcomed some of the findings of the QDDR, but are concerned about the impartiality of U.S. government led responses to conflict driven emergencies. “The QDDR is an important step in reaffirming the efforts to modernize USAID and further elevate it as the world’s premier development agency,” said Paul O’Brien, vice president of policy and advocacy campaigns for Oxfam America. “But the document leaves open the question of how the United States will resolve situations where diplomacy and development will require different approaches and tradeoffs.”
Samuel A. Worthington, the president of the largest alliance of American aid and development organizations, InterAction, shares this concern. “The risk is that the humanitarian response itself will be politicized,” Worthington wrote in a Huffington Post blog, “with diplomatic and counter-terror imperatives trumping humanitarian principles, which mandate that impartial response to vulnerability is the most important criterion for determining the nature and scope of the response.” InterAction has created a QDDR resource page featuring in-depth analysis of the review and its findings, responses from NGOs, and more.
The two year review assessed the roles of the State Department, USAID and military in response to critical global trends impacting international affairs, such as countering violent extremism, conflict prevention and development work. After consultations with hundreds of people in the U.S. government and around the world, the QDDR recommends the State Department take a leadership role in responding to conflict-driven emergencies and that USAID focus on food and health issues. It also calls for bolstering “civilian power,” which the review defines as non-military government actors engaged in diplomatic and development activity around the world. “Even the world’s finest military cannot defeat a virus, stop climate change, prevent the spread of violent extremism, or make peace in the Middle East,” the QDDR says. “Much of the work that civilians do around the world is the work of prevention, investing proactively in keeping Americans safe and prosperous,” it adds.
In addition to boosting the roles of civilian actors across the government, the QDDR describes civil society organizations as “indispensable partners, force multipliers, and agents of positive change” in achieving the U.S.’s diplomatic and developmental goals. The QDDR says, “Non-state actors bring considerable political and financial resources to bear on collective challenges. They mobilize populations within and across states to promote growth, fundamental human values, and effective democratic government…Civil society, universities, and humanitarian organizations can often act in areas or in a manner that a government simply cannot: as neutrals or aid providers in conflict zones; as thought-leaders; and as intermediaries between states or between states and peoples.”