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Dear IRC Supporter,
Let’s get on with it. Like you, the IRC staff was deeply dismayed by the presidential election—by the prospect of watching Mr. Bush lead us for four years, by the failure of the Democratic Party to embrace a more progressive platform, by the left’s internecine bickering over the pros and cons of Al Gore vs. Ralph Nader. But politics is more than campaigning and voting. It’s also about moving new citizen agendas forward—in the local, regional, national, and international arenas. And the IRC is committed to doing just that.
With public interest in issues related to global justice on the rise both here at home and abroad, the IRC’s two programs—Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) and the Border Information and Outreach Service (BIOS)—have gone through tremendous growth spurts. Last year both IRC staff and board members decided it was time to step back, take a breath, and strategically plot out our future directions. The results of this ongoing endeavor are reflected in the new IRC mission statement, which was developed at October’s annual board of directors meeting:
The IRC is a policy studies center that works to make
the U.S. a more responsible member of the global community
by promoting progressive strategic dialogues
that lead to new citizen-based agendas.
To a greater degree than ever before, the IRC, through its FPIF and BIOS programs, is making waves—locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. In the coming year, we are certain that in both the IRC’s programs you will see the results of our new determination to “promote strategic dialogues” and “advance citizen agendas.”
Let’s do it together.
Debra Preusch
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Engaging with Policymakers
Some Things
Change, Some Things Stay the Same
The next presidential administration, and to a lesser degree
new faces in Congress, will naturally influence the issues Foreign
Policy In Focus (FPIF) will be tackling in 2001. However, the
prevailing issues confronting the next administration, and hence
the FPIF brain trust, will undoubtedly focus on the proposed
National Missile Defense (NMD) program, U.S. military intervention
overseas, and global economic governance. Additional citizen-based
agendas will be induced into the arena of our nation’s
decisionmaking circles as FPIF promotes not just criticism of
U.S. foreign policies but prescriptions for change.
According to FPIF military expert Tom Cardamone, we can expect
increased spending on weapons procurements, heightened military
readiness, and a forceful call for a comprehensive missile defense
shield that, although Bush would not admit it on the campaign
trail, could cost upwards of $300 billion dollars.” The
Star Wars lobby, backed by Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynn, a
longstanding board member at Lockheed Martin, will be working
to keep defense spending as high as possible. Meanwhile, the
U.S. Senate lost four NMD supporters who, though well-financed
by defense companies, were replaced by Democrats from Michigan,
Delaware, Florida, and Missouri. FPIF analysis will continue
to address the delicate balance between the needs of civil and
military society both within the U.S. and abroad, advocating
cuts in wasteful defense spending.
Although Senator Jesse Helms remains chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, he may be startled, and certainly dismayed,
to find Hillary Clinton sharing the bench in his committee room.
Senator-elect Clinton should be a strong voice for internationalism,
working especially to promote international women’s issues,
such as micro-loans to women in the Third World and tougher
laws against international trafficking of women. Such issues
will continue to be a focus of the FPIF women’s series.
Hillary Clinton was the only candidate to mention international
women’s rights during this year’s elections, but look
for new women senators from Michigan, Missouri, and possibly
Washington to join the effort.
America’s role as global watchdog will likely include
continued international engagement. FPIF associate Carl Conetta
noted just before the election: “What differences there
are on how America will use its power are mostly rhetorical.”
Thus, FPIF’s role as U.S. foreign policy watchdog is needed
as much as ever. While monitoring multilateral financial institutions,
increased global warming, international trade agreements, human
rights, labor rights, women’s rights, children’s rights,
and indigenous rights, FPIF will be analyzing U.S. actions and
making recommendations for forward-thinking directions for U.S.
foreign policy.
BIOS Weighs
in on NADBank Debate
For years, the border’s towns and barrios have served
as the economic interface between the U.S. and Mexico, weathering
the many impacts of crossborder trade—industrial growth
and pollution, rapid urbanization, overburdened social services—but
rarely reaping any of its economic benefits. To address this
discrepancy, in a side deal to NAFTA, the two neighbors created
the North American Development Bank (NADBank), which is charged
with financing environmental infrastructure projects in underdeveloped
borderlands communities.
Under its original charter, NADBank is limited to financing
projects in the water, wastewater, and solid waste sectors in
a 100-kilometer-wide zone on each side of the border. Officials
at the bank are now pushing to expand both the geographic scope
of NADBank operations as well as the list of infrastructure
projects the bank is allowed to fund. The bank argues that because
of difficult market conditions in these three sectors, expansion
is necessary in order to put NADBank loan capital to work more
quickly. But critics of the proposal counter that the move will
dilute attention to priority needs on the border and that the
bank needs to consider lowering its interest rates rather than
expanding its activities into other areas. Meanwhile, Mexico’s
charismatic president-elect, Vicente Fox, is arguing that NADBank
should evolve beyond its border focus and tackle economic development
projects across the entire NAFTA zone.
As it stands, NADBank offers crucial benefits to communities
whose well-being has traditionally been neglected in Washington
and Mexico City. On another level, NADBank is also a precedent-setting
binational institution that provides important lessons in binational
resolution of transboundary regional development problems in
today’s age of integrated markets and blurring economic
boundaries. And if the bank is used, as Mr. Fox has suggested,
as a mechanism to foster more even economic development throughout
the entire NAFTA zone, its significance will take on an added
dimension. With major changes in the works for the bank, BIOS
has weighed in on the NADBank debate in a series of articles,
interviews, and public comments. This coverage has helped raise
public involvement in the debate and has caused some ripples
among policymakers who wrote to thank us for our coverage—which
focused on the perspectives of border environmentalists and
city government officials—and to say they’d be using
our analysis to develop their positions.
Changing U.S.
Foreign Policy from Outside the Beltway
Back home in Albuquerque, FPIF communications director Tim
McGivern is collaborating with the Greenhouse Network to organize
a forum on the Kyoto Protocol as a follow-up to the IRC-sponsored
global warming teach-in at the Albuquerque Earth Day celebration
last April. NM Senator Jeff Bingaman will be an invited participant;
the senator discussed energy policy and the Kyoto Protocol with
McGivern and other local organizers at a recent community forum
and has been a strong advocate for alternative energy development.
Empowering Grassroots
Organizers
As the IRC engages productively with U.S. decisionmakers in
order to shape more responsible policies, we also work to strengthen
the voices and efforts of advocates, activists, and grassroots
organizations striving to make Washington a more responsible
global leader and partner.
FPIF continues to support the work of groups like Physicians
for Human Rights and the International Committee to Ban Landmines
by producing briefing papers such as “Use of Children as
Soldiers” and “The Mine Ban Treaty.” FPIF briefs
on the humanitarian crisis and U.S. military presence in Colombia
have been adopted by the Colombia Support Network, and our briefing
paper, “U.S. Military in Southeast Asia,” was distributed
by the Red Card Movement, an international coalition of peace
advocates, at the August G-8 summit in Okinawa.
On the U.S.-Mexico border, BIOS strengthens the work of social
justice advocates operating at the grassroots by producing timely
and provocative analysis of border developments—for example,
our recent coverage of community efforts in southern Arizona
to hold the Border Patrol accountable for the human rights and
environmental impacts that the agency’s massive buildup
is provoking.
Educating for
the Greater Good
Greening Borderlands
Curricula
On the bustling U.S.-Mexico border, expanded North-South trade
has sparked a growth spurt that is fundamentally unsustainable.
Water levels are dropping, transboundary pollution is spreading,
and social problems continue to overwhelm resource-strapped
local governments. Comprehensive and sustainable responses to
the many challenges facing the border will only come if tomorrow’s
leaders are carefully educated today. This year we’ve been
working hard to get BIOS materials into borderlands classrooms
and other learning environments. borderlines is part of the
curriculum this semester both at UC-Berkeley’s school of
journalism and at the planning department of the University
of Texas-El Paso. Steven Mumme, a political science professor
at Colorado State University and a leading authority on border
environmental issues, recently wrote to say: “ I want you
to know how much I appreciate using the borderlines material
for the border course I teach. The students are very positive
about the articles. They really do have an impact.”
FPIF in the
Classroom
FPIF’s latest book, Global Focus: Foreign Policy at
the Turn of the Millennium, has become one of the best-selling
academic titles at St. Martin’s Press. Over 400 copies
have been adopted for classroom use at seven different U.S.
universities. St. Martin’s tells us that the FPIF webpage
contributed more book orders than any other webpage that lists
their titles. Overall, more than 1,250 paperback and 250 hardback
copies have been sold, and St. Martin’s plans to print
an additional 1,000 copies this fall.
Making Waves
It’s no news that today’s mainstream media pays
little or no attention to the issues that matter most to progressives.
Although the Internet revolution has breathed new life into
the alternative press, public opinion is still manufactured
in the mainstream.
This year the IRC has recommitted itself to reaching out to
the “fourth estate” to feed alternative perspectives
into media coverage of U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-Mexico border
issues.
In Albuquerque, Tim McGivern co-authored a recent feature
op-ed in the Albuquerque Tribune entitled “Exposing
Clinton’s Gun Control Hypocrisy” based on the FPIF
briefing paper, “Globalized Weaponry.” Tim has also
contributed articles on national missile defense and Ralph Nader’s
candidacy to the Albuquerque Weekly Alibi. BIOS has recently
connected with reporters from National Public Radio and the
San Diego Union Tribune, and George Kourous is participating
on a panel of border advisors convened by the award-winning
Homelands Productions team, which is putting together a “Border
Stories” series for National Public Radio.
www.irc-online.org
The IRC will be paying special attention to our online presence
in the months and years to come. The Internet has rapidly become
a key tool in the arsenal of progressive activists across the
globe, and the IRC—while not neglecting those who don’t
have access to or use the Internet—wants to make sure we’re
using that tool to the maximum possible effect. Major changes
are in the works for both the FPIF
and BIOS
websites. Keep your eyes open.
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