National Security and Foreign Policy

Through his career as a social entrepreneur, Alan has traveled to more than 30 countries meeting with leaders in government, business, and the social sector. His work has taken him to all corners of the globe, including China, India, Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, Northern Ireland, Israel, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Egypt, and South Africa. He understands the importance of a global perspective in addressing the issues that the citizen s of Massachusetts care about.

Alan approaches America’s role in the world in the 21^st century using the following Guiding Principles:

• The global issues we confront – climate change, clean energy, nuclear proliferation, the scarcity of basic resources, extreme poverty, failing states, pandemics, terrorism – are deeply interrelated. They cannot be solved by military means alone, nor by unilateralism. The United States needs to continue to lead and work in concert with our allies. The United States must adopt a new Grand Strategy that emphasizes the importance of using all aspects of national power – economic, military, political, and our principles, founding ideals, and our citizens – to meet our global objectives.
• The world has long been – and will continue to be – inspired by American ideals. Each citizen who travels abroad has the potential to be an ambassador who can communicate those ideals to the rest of the world, as well as bring a global perspective back home with them.
• Many of the international institutions that guide our global system – the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, and International Monetary Fund – date from the period immediately following World War II. We need to reform and update them by introducing a culture of entrepreneurial, innovative thinking that allows us to better respond to the challenges and opportunities of the 21^st Century. We also need a similar period of creative thinking to develop new institutions that meet the times we live in.
• We must confront the challenge of climate change and recognize it as an existential threat to our very life on the planet. It is an environmental issue, an economic issue, an energy issue, and a national security issue. It also represents an opportunity to embrace clean energy, free ourselves from Mideast oil, and launch a new, green jobs revolution that will drive our economic prosperity.
• We must embrace the ideal of a world free of nuclear weapons and develop a global system to monitor and stop all other entities from acquiring them.

Alan Khazei recognizes that we need to move from a twentieth century national security system that was designed to fight the Cold War with large land based armies, to a 21st century national security system that embraces military reform and is prepared to fight the conflicts of the future. A US Senator’s top priority must be to keep America safe from international threats. Alan Khazei will do this by supporting:

• America’s continued military strength.
• Strong diplomatic and intelligence operations.
• Worldwide investments and assistance for health, education, and democracy.
• Partnerships with other nations around the world that share our values.

To achieve these goals, we need to shift away from writing blank checks for antiquated weapon systems designed for the conflicts of the past, and continuing obsolete Cold War polices and approaches. Alan opposed President Bush’s Iraq War and the 2009 troop increase in Afghanistan because our top priority should have been, and must continue to be, to destroy Al Qaeda and terrorists and around the world. Instead of having the US repeatedly engaging in long and costly Middle East wars, Alan will promote military reform and investments in Special Forces, as well as smarter, faster, more maneuverable weapons systems designed to win the conflicts of the 21st Century.

Alan Khazei agrees with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and President Dwight Eisenhower that “The United States should spend as much as necessary on national defense, but not one penny more.” In the Senate, Alan will apply this approach when considering the Americans lives put at risk in military actions and the financial cost of the United States massive armed forces.

Start With the Facts The United States maintains troops at more than 560 bases and other sites abroad American military spending accounted for 43% of the world total in 2009, followed by China with 6.6%, France with 4.2%, and the UK with 3.8% The total cost of the Iraq War is estimated to be more than $3 trillion and we are spending more than $100 billion a year in direct costs in Afghanistan, with the ultimate cost estimated to be more than three times that.

Alan’s Plan

The War in Afghanistan

Alan is pleased that President Obama announced that we will begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, that our mission will change from combat to support, and that the President set a definite end date for our war in Afghanistan. However, he would like to see a more rapid withdrawal of our forces so that we can bring this war to an end sooner and bring all of our troops home. Our brave men and women have accomplished the original mission which was to defeat Al Qaeda. With the killing of Osama Bin Laden, our CIA confirming that there are only 50 to 100 Al Qaeda members left in Afghanistan, the continued corruption of the Karzai regime, and the historical difficulty that all great powers have had in Afghanistan -- from Alexander the Great, to the British, to the former Soviet Union – it is time to transfer our effort from counter-insurgency to counter-terrorism.

Nuclear Weapons Proliferation

As a founding signatory of the Global Zero compact, Alan strongly supports the vision of moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons. As Senator, Alan would make this issue a top priority and work to galvanize a citizen movement to accomplish this goal. He will also call for multilateral negotiations, including with Russia, for deep reductions in our nuclear arsenals.

It is unacceptable that the United States has waited so long to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and Alan believes its ratification should be a top priority for the administration and the Senate. As a Senator, Alan will work to motivate citizens to support and advance the treaty.

Alan is strongly opposed to building new nuclear weapons systems. Instead, to assure our national security, Alan strongly supports efforts like the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, initiated by Senators Nunn and Lugar, to greatly reduce the dangers posed by nuclear stockpiles and other materials in Russia and the former Soviet states. Unless we fully fund these programs and work to control nuclear material, it is virtually inevitable that terrorists will eventually gain access to a nuclear weapon. This is the single greatest security threat we face. As Senator, Alan will push the appropriations process to ensure these critical programs are sufficiently funded. This is the most cost-effective way to protect our security.

Alan will use his proven track record of bringing people together – at the grassroots and in the legislature – to help solve the nuclear proliferation challenge. We must convene leaders at summits and at negotiating tables to eliminate nuclear weapons from their arsenals, institute treaties for the permanent elimination of such weapons, and improve structures that monitor attempted nuclear proliferation among governments and non-gonverment entities. Alan will build on the grassroots organizing method that successfully restored funding for AmeriCorps to fuel a broad-based coalition of organizations and citizens who embrace the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons from all countries’ defense arsenals.

Foreign Aid Reform

Alan also will seek reforms in how US foreign aid is delivered. Today, the aid we provide is hampered in many ways by outdated, inefficient, and wasteful regulations. In the US Senate, Alan Khazei will bring the same focus on reform and efficiency to our foreign policy that he will to our domestic programs. As proposed by the Center for Global Development, foreign aid reforms can save billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money while making our aid more effective at the same time. For example:

• US agriculture subsidies currently cost US taxpayers more than $15 billion each year. Most subsidies favor a small number of large factory farms, not the traditional small farmer. In fact, the US government paid more than $1.3 billion in subsidies between 2000 and 2006 to individuals who do no farming at all. Here in the US, there is little evidence that these enormous subsidies reduce costs at the supermarket or give us a safer or more stable food supply. Internationally, these subsidies make it harder for farmers in developing countries to provide the food and financing that their countries need.
• End the requirement created in 1936 that 75% of all US food aid be transported on US ships. This policy does little to boost American shipping industries while often delaying crucial food aid and increasing shipping costs.
• Do not allow US food aid to be re-sold by local organizations. As CARE International noted: “Purchasing food in the U.S., shipping it overseas, and then selling it to generate funds for food security programs is far less cost effective than the logical alternative—simply providing cash to food security programs.
• Remove Congressional earmarks in foreign aid accounts.