As you may know, President-elect Barack Obama announced his security team this morning, including James L. Jones as his National Security Advisor. Below we’ve included a brief bio and some remarks he made for the House Armed Services Committee that shed some light on where he stands on Africa.

Bio

General James Jones is the former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe and the Commander of the United States European Command and also served as the 32nd Commandant of the Marine Corps. Jones retired from the United States Marine Corps in February 2007 after 40 years of service. During his final assignment, he helped the North Atlantic Treaty Organization organize discussions on energy issues and the defense of critical infrastructures, and he worked to advocate energy security as a core part of NATO’s future missions. Since retiring from the military, he has served as Chairman of the Congressional Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq and as special envoy for Middle East Security.

He is currently the Chairman of the Atlantic Council of the United States and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Jones has worked closely with government, business, and civic leaders in an effort to protect and advance U.S. and allied interests around the world. He is a leading proponent of overhauling U.S. defense, diplomacy, and foreign development programs to deal with the emerging threats of the 21st century.

General Jones is known as an able negotiator who delivers results “without resorting to confrontation.” He is said to be a close friend of Senator McCain. According to a recent report from Newsweek , Jones met President-elect Obama through Tom Daschle.

Selected Statements

“African security issues will increasingly continue to directly affect our homeland security,” Marine Gen. James L. Jones, commander of European Command, told the Senate and House Armed Services committees in statements prepared for delivery yesterday and today, respectively. “For relatively small, but consistent investments, our theater efforts in Africa will have major impacts on … challenges we face.

“Early recognition of this reality is very important,” he said.

“Violence in West Africa has created ungoverned pockets that extend across national borders and threaten to further destabilize an already fragile region,” Jones said. “Broad expanses of marginally governed areas can become havens for terrorists and criminals and have become … attractive to terrorists groups increasingly denied sanctuaries in Afghanistan and the Middle East.”

(more…)

President-elect Barack Obama just announced that he is nominating Senator Hillary Clinton to serve as Secretary of State. Here’s some background on her work around global development.

Quote Archive (from Center for U.S. Global Engagement)

Clinton, Foreign Affairs article: November/December 2007

“Gnawing hunger, poverty, and the absence of economic prospects are a recipe for despair. Globalization is widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots within societies and between them. Today, there are more than two billion people living on less than $2 a day. These people risk becoming a vast permanent underclass. Calls for expanding civil and political rights in countries plagued by mass poverty and ruled by tiny wealthy elites will fall on deaf ears unless democracy actually delivers enough material benefits to improve people’s lives.”

Clinton, Speech at George Washington University: February 25, 2008

“We need a president who understands there is a time for force, a time for diplomacy, and a time for both, who understands that we enhance our international reputation and strengthen our security if the world sees the human face of American democracy in the good works, the good deeds we do for people seeking freedom from poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, and oppression.”

Clinton, Compassion Forum: April 13, 2008

“I commend President Bush for his PEPFAR initiative. It was a very bold and important commitment, but it didn’t go far enough in opening up the door to generics and getting the costs down. And as president, I will do that.”

Presidential 2008 Campaign promises

• Invest $50 billion by 2013 to combat AIDS across the globe and increase the number of health workers in Africa by 1 million.
• Press for quick passage of legislation she introduced to invest $10 billion over five years for the goal of basic education around the globe.
• Ensure complete debt cancellation for all Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and expand HIPC to include more than 20 additional poor countries.
• Make significant progress toward spending an additional 1 percent of the federal budget on foreign assistance.

Foreign Policy Related Activities

In addition to her work with Education for All, Senator Clinton:

• Co-sponsored the successful fight in the Senate to adopt the Biden-Lugar Amendment to the FY09 Senate Budget Resolution restoring $4.1 billion in funding to the International Affairs Budget, which was cut from the Administration’s request of $39.8 by the Senate Budget Committee. The Senate adopted the amendment by an impressive, bipartisan vote of 73-23.
• Voted in favor of successful legislation to authorize $48 billion for global HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis programs (PEPFAR) for the next five years, which passed the Senate on July 16, 2008 by a bipartisan vote of 80-16 and the House on July 24, 2008 by a vote of 303-115.
• Signed the bipartisan letter to the President urging a robust increase the International Affairs budget for FY 2009 as a critical investment “in strategic tools that are essential to protecting our national security, building economic prosperity and demonstrating our moral values.”

Senator Clinton has also sponsored numerous bills relevant to international development and diplomacy including, as just a few recent examples:

• Sponsored S.3909 to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide assistance for developing countries to promote quality basic education and to establish the achievement of universal basic education in all developing countries as an objective of U.S. foreign assistance policy.
• Co-sponsored S.2465 to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide increased assistance for the prevention, treatment, and control of tuberculosis, and for other purposes.
• Co-sponsored S.RES.383 calling on the President to take immediate steps to help improve the security situation in Darfur, Sudan, with an emphasis on civilian protection.
• Co-sponsored S.1129 to provide authorizations of appropriations for certain development banks, and for other purposes.
• Co-sponsored S.2125 to promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

(from Center for U.S. Global Engagement)

-Chris Scott

This week, President-elect Barack Obama is rolling out an economic team that will serve in his administration during a time of global financial distress. Two of his appointments announced yesterday bring with them strong backgrounds on global development policy. Here are some brief bios on each of them:

Mr. Timothy Geithner, appointment for Treasury Secretary, has supported initiatives to provide vaccines for children dying of preventable diseases, worked to lessen the burden on countries with significant debt, and advocated for the U.S. to fund basic health care to immunize, prevent and treat infectious diseases in the poorest countries. He is currently the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Formerly, he served at the Treasury Department and as a senior official at the International Monetary Fund.

Mr. Lawrence Summers, appointment for head of the National Economic Council, has worked to achieve debt cancellation for developing countries and promoted policies that will make education available for African women. He served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan and as a Chief Economist for the World Bank before taking posts in the United States Department of the Treasury. He served as the U.S. treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001.

You can find more information about President-elect Obama’s economic team here.

And check out the Center for Global Development’s take on the appointments here.

-Chris Scott

On a historic Tuesday in January, as many as four million people from around the country will converge on the national mall, with tens of millions more watching from home, all with one purpose: to hear what the newly-inaugurated President has to say.

At that landmark moment, Barack Obama will set the stage for his next four years in office, and potentially dramatic changes in U.S. foreign policy. Please add your name to our petition to President-elect Obama asking him to make a clear statement in his inaugural address affirming his vision for helping the world’s poorest people:

President-elect Obama,

In your inaugural address, please make a clear affirmation of your pledge to fight poverty and preventable diseases worldwide, and support that statement with an FY2010 budget request that puts the U.S. on track to meet your historic commitments.

This January, the eyes of the nation and the world will be on Barack Obama. Let’s ask him to share the spotlight with those who are most in need.

Thank you for making a difference,

David Lane, ONE.org

President-Elect Obama has just selected former Senate Majority Leader Senator Tom Daschle as our next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Currently, Daschle is a Senior Policy Advisor with the law firm Alston & Bird, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and, critically to us, serves as National Co-Chair, of ONE Vote ‘08.

Below find relevant quotes, a summary of his experience in development, and a list of key legislation he introduced or sponsored.

Quotes

“We have a moral obligation to assist those suffering from abject poverty and disease…Investments in the development of our world’s poorest nations must be a pillar of our foreign policy going forward, no matter who is leading the next administration.”- Daschle, ONE Campaign appearance in Kigali, Rwanda, July 22, 2008

“I am encouraged by the tremendous impact that these programs have had in fighting the spread of disease across Africa… Over the last four years, 2 million more people living with AIDS now have access to lifesaving medication… Nevertheless, much work remains.” – Daschle, ONE Campaign appearance in Kigali, Rwanda, July 22, 2008

“The primary foreign policy challenge confronting the United States in the next three decades is also our country’s largest domestic policy challenge: climate change. In both arenas—foreign and domestic policy—we are in effect racing the clock, aware that the longer we delay action, the more costly the fixes at home will be, and the less able we will be to induce the kind of change necessary in China, India, and beyond.”-Daschle, “Changing the Political Climate on Climate Change” Georgetown Journal on International Affairs: Winter/Spring 2008

“We face a deadly pandemic that claims tens of thousands of lives daily and threatens stability in key regions of the world. While we have made – and will continue to make – great strides, the true solution lies in making sure that no matter who is elected to be the next President of the United States, he or she is committed to ending extreme poverty.” -Daschle, The ONE Blog, May 24, 2007

Foreign Policy Related Activities

• Senator Daschle is a longtime advocate of strengthening U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance, consistently backing foreign assistance bills throughout his career. He opposed H.R. 2606, a bill in the House of Representatives that would have capped foreign assistance at only $12.7 billion for FY 1999. He also championed the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill for FY 2004, S.1426 which substantially increased funding for the Peace Corps and foreign assistance to combat HIVAIDS.
• As co-chair of ONE Vote ’08, Senator Daschle has proven (more…)

Reuters, Roll Call and AP are reporting that former Senator Majority leader, and ONE Vote ‘08 Co-Chair, Tom Daschle has been selected by President-Elect Obama to be the next U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary.

Senator Daschle has been a leader in ONE’s presidential initiative since 2007, including leading a delegation of American leaders to Rwanda in July of this year. You can check out his many appearances on the ONE Blog here.

Much more on Senator Dasche’s background on global poverty issues to follow shortly.

-Virginia Simmons

(Senator Daschle touring a Rwandan clinic with John Podesta and Cindy McCain on a ONE delegation trip to Rwanda in July 2008.)