The budget for foreign affairs, in constant dollars, is today 41 percent below its level of the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, the world grows increasingly interdependent and diplomacy is as involved with economic and social issues, notably export promotion and business support, as it is with national security. Financial markets are intertwined. The United States is the world's largest trading nation. Exports account for a third of our economic growth and have provided a million new jobs in recent years.
Overseas markets are pivotal for American agriculture.
So the timing is bad for a decline in America's diplomatic readiness. American foreign policy now seems more complicated, less manageable, than it was during the Cold War. Then the Soviet threat was a yardstick against which to measure each issue. Whether the challenge arose in the Congo, Cuba, Central America, Afghanistan, Vietnam, the Middle East or Angola, we knew what we had to do. Advanced American technology, and American military and economic power were relevant to the task.