Charlie Wilson on the Foreign Service

In a scene near the end of the movie "Charlie Wilson's War," after the mujaheddin victory over the invading Soviet military, congressional appropriators turn down my request for funds to rebuild Afghanistan's schools, roads and economy. If we had done the right thing in Afghanistan then -- following up our military support with the necessary investments in diplomacy and development assistance -- we would have better secured our own country's future, as well as peace and stability in the region.

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The lesson here is about more than the good manners of reciprocating a favor. It takes much more to make America safe than winning on the battlefield. Had we remained engaged in Afghanistan, investing in education, health and economic development, the world would be a very different place today. The aftermath of a congressional committee's decision so long ago has turned out to be a warning that America is not immune to the problems of the very poorest countries. In today's world, any person's well-being -- whether he or she is in Kandahar, Kigali or Kansas -- is connected to the well-being of others.

Yet, as we commit troops to the "war on terror," America's civilian institutions of diplomacy and development continue to be chronically undermanned and underfunded. We spend 1 percent of the federal budget on these critical elements of our foreign policy, compared with 22 percent on the military and weapons.

While I have always believed in and fought for a strong defense, I know that we cannot rely on the military alone to keep us secure. As the situations in Afghanistan and Georgia suggest, our future threats are likely to come from states that cannot meet the basic needs of their people. We can avoid the need to spend so much on our military -- and put so many of our soldiers in harm's way -- simply by investing more in saving lives, creating stable societies and building economic opportunity. This strategy won't resolve the conflict in Georgia today, but it could help America prevent similar crises in the future.

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Wilson has this right. It is one of the reasons I support a national Foreign Service Academy on the order of West Point, as well as a national Intelligence Academy. Both of these areas are vital to our national defense and our national interests abroad and they should receive as high a priority as the military.

However, I think Wilson misses an important element in his evaluation. Building schools, roads and hospitals by themselves won't solve the problem. We need to elevate the standard of living of these people through expanded trade. Anarchists and anti-free traders can rail all they want, but the global standard of living has gone up as globalization has increased. People who are engaged in trade with each other are much less likely to attack each other. We need to build on that; when we go in and build schools etc. we should also have teams identifying trade items and helping establish trade contacts between US companies and the host nation. (I am sure that is done in some form already but I see it as a core function) $1,000,000,000 a year spent on helping Bangladesh sell shirts is a lot cheaper than $10,000,000,000 spent on bullets and bombs.