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Mali: An Early Test of U.S. Military Policy in 2013

By Anna Jensen-Clem

In keeping with this week’s theme of President Obama’s second term military policies, we turn to a brief analysis of the situation in Mali. Humanosphere has a list of resources for those of you who aren’t familiar with the current political turmoil happening there. Essentially, in conjunction with a coup in March 2012, several terrorist and rebel groups overtook the northern (desert) part of the country; al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has been active in North Africa (Mali, Algeria, Niger, and Libya, among others) for several years. After the coup, AQIM pushed out existing Tuareg rebel groups and took over most of the northern territory. They have since moved south and imposed their own interpretation of sharia law, causing a massive human rights and refugee crisis. In late August, PBS ran a brief story about human rights abuses perpetrated by AQIM, and many of these practices continue today.

The situation is extremely confusing; the New York Times reported Wednesday that “officials in Washington still have only an impressionistic understanding of the militant groups . . . and they are divided about whether some of these groups even pose a threat to the United States.” French troops arrived earlier this month to assist government forces and eliminate the terrorist threat, but so far the United States hasn’t committed any troops, nor has it expressed any intention of doing so. In fact, when he was asked about a response to the situation, the top U.S. general in Africa said only, “now what?”

Now, what does this all mean from a policy perspective? Why am I writing about this at all? In short, because the U.S.’s response to this problem is a microcosm of the Obama Administration’s handling of military power. Although it seems unlikely that the United States will commit large numbers of ground forces, as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has made use of its existing intelligence networks in Mali to assist French forces. Relying on small groups of highly-trained special forces, large-scale established intelligence networks, and a 21^st-century version of Kennan’s containment policy, the Obama Administration has been slow to take direct military action against AQIM forces in West Africa. In fact, the Washington Post reported last year that special forces “have played an outsize role in the Obama administration’s national security strategy, [and] are working clandestinely all over the globe, not just in war zones.” A large-scale ground war would be extremely costly, both financially and in terms of lives lost; Mali is larger in area than France and the desert in the north is barren and treacherous. Al-Qaeda and Tuareg forces know the area intimately, and sending in ground troops could prove disastrous.

It remains to be seen whether those groups pose a direct threat to U.S. security, but their actions have already precipitated a large-scale health and refugee crisis. Whichever road the Obama Administration chooses, humanitarian aid should play a major role, not only in Mali, but in neighboring countries who are absorbing thousands of refugees despite their own political and economic instabilities. It is this confluence of small, highly-trained military forces, extensive intelligence networks, and humanitarian aid in lieu of a massive ground assault that should and will guide the United States’ interactions in the Sahel over the coming months.

Senator Richard Lugar Wins 2012 Commitment to Development Award

Senator Richard Lugar, long-time champion of US engagement with global development issues, is the 2012 winner of the Commitment to Development “Ideas in Action” Award, sponsored by the Center for Global Development and The FP Group, the publishers of Foreign Policy. The Commitment to Development “Ideas in Action” Award honors an individual or organization that has made a significant contribution to changing the attitudes, policies, and/or practices of the rich world toward the developing world. Members of the selection committee will present this year’s award to Senator Lugar during a public event January 29^th, 2013.

“For four decades Senator Lugar has deployed his remarkable statesmanship to overcome partisan divides and enact smart US policies that support widely shared global prosperity,” said CGD president Nancy Birdsall.

Most recently, through his work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Lugar helped create the foundation for a strong US development strategy, introducing legislation that promotes accountability and transparency in US foreign assistance programs.

Senator Lugar championed US efforts against global hunger, sponsoring legislation that would re-orient US foreign assistance programs to focus on promoting food security and rural development in countries with large, chronically hungry populations.  He has also dedicated his time and energy to understanding how the international financial institutions could reform to better meet the needs and evolving standards of the post-financial crisis world.

Senator Lugar is the senior senator from Indiana and currently the most senior Republican in the Senate, having served for six terms. Prior to serving in the senate, Senator Lugar served in the US Navy, on the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners, and as mayor of Indianapolis. He was defeated in the GOP primary this year and will step down from the US Senate in January 2013.

Previous winners of the Commitment to Development Award include: the European ministers of international development who constitute the Utstein Group (2003); Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair Campaign (2004); then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (2005), then-U.S. Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) (2006), Global Witness (2007), the ONE Campaign (2008), Diego Hidalgo Schnur (2009), Publish What You Pay (2010), and former president of the International Center for Research on Women Geeta Rao Gupta (2011).

A Generation of Global Citizens: Craig Kielburger’s Keynote Address

By Nina Carduner

Award winning Canadian activist for children’s rights, Craig Kielburger gave the closing keynote speech of this year’s Global Washington conference. He opened with his own favorite moment from today’s agenda: the fast-pitch session, in which eleven organizations gave a two-minute presentation of their priorities and activities.  “It was an extraordinary moment,” Kielburger said. He then went on to talk more about his work in advocating for the rights of children, in North America and across the world.

Kielburger’s first inspiration came when, as a 12 year-old boy, he read a newspaper article about a 12 year old laborer boy killed in Pakistan. He organized his friends in school; they started a small group called Free the Children, and worked to make a difference for children across the globe. They quickly ran into their first barrier: since they were all children, most non-profit organizations did not take them seriously. In fact, one group they called said that if they really want to help, they could go find their parents’ credit cards. This early experience has fueled his work to empower children all over the world to feel they can make a difference.

Empowering youth has been a consistent theme for Kielburger. The importance of his work was underscored when, as a teenager, he received an extraordinary call  from the Dalai Lama, who invited Kielburger to a conference and a diverse group of international voices to discuss and answer one question: “what is the single greatest challenge facing our world?”

Every answer from poverty to climate change was dismissed as simply a matter of will to solve. After days of discussion and deliberation, the group came up with the answer. They decided that the world’s single greatest challenge was a lack of political will. Kielburger challenged the attendees of today’s conference to ask themselves, “how do we raise a generation so that every single person in the world can recognize that they, too, have be part of this movement toward social change?”

One of Kielburger’s current projects to answer this question is a multi-location event called We Day, where 20,000 children and youth of all ages convene to be inspired by change makers, popular musical acts, celebrities, and world leaders. Each attendee earns a ticket for this special event through local and global service. Essentially, although tickets are free, the attendees must donate time, energy, and enthusiasm to a cause of their choice. To date, We Day has been a regular event in Canada and various parts of the world. Seattle will be the first stop on We Day’s US tour in March, 2013.

In closing, Kielburger told the story of a Quechua word “minga,” which is the coming together of people for the collective good. When he learned this word on a trip to Ecuador, he couldn’t answer a local woman who asked him for an equivalent word in English. To that effect, he emphasized the need for “mingas” in families, schools, and around to world, but we also need mingas in the non-profit world to move “from silos to impact.”

As a final theme to an inspiring day of dialogue, interaction, and connection, Kielburger encourage the audience to continue their work. “It’s time to raise a generation of global citizens.”