All three of these resources are shrinking to the point where it is admittedly a challenge to do routine foreign policy work, much less aggressive prevention efforts. The State Department has a hard time getting enough funding to keep its embassies open, much less embark on bold new initiatives. These six obstacles add up to a very large mountain that is blocking creative change within the Executive Branch. They combine to limit American leadership within the international community as well. Development assistance has to be a significant part of the answer to this challenge.
Development is the antidote of despair.
It creates hope and opportunity. This has always been true. But we have tried in recent years through our strategic planning process to highlight and treat societal problems that can lead to conflict. Let me give you a few examples. In South Africa, our democracy and governance programs played a key role in the peaceful transition from apartheid to a non-racial democracy.