Part One: U.S. strategy in the 21st century: leadership through hegemony
Chapter IV: Funding for U.S. International Policy
Overcome your opponent by calculation.
Li Tsang, ancient Chinese military thinker
Marinka, the bitch, keeps count of every penny.
From a conversation between two Russian girls
Current U.S. strategic theory was … born
of a marriage between the scientist and the accountant.
The professional soldier was jilted.
Richard Pipes
All discussions of national interests, national security, and foreign policy goals are empty talk if the costs of implementation and the sources of funding are not determined in advance. Marx said somewhere that ideas inevitably discredit themselves as soon as they become detached from real interests. To an even greater degree, the very interests or goals discredit themselves as soon as they become detached from funding. A telling example is the experience of foreign policy implementation in the USSR and in Russia today.
The USA appears to be the only country in the world where detailed calculations are done for every activity needed to secure national interests or implement the national security strategy. These calculations are performed by government agencies, legislative bodies, and specially created ad hoc groups (like the Overseas Presence Advisory Panel established in 1999 on the Secretary of State’s initiative). Every U.S. citizen may participate through his/her congressional representative. This participation is guaranteed by the law and facilitated by the fact that detailed budget information is published and disseminated free of charge, in particular, through the Internet (http://www.gpo.gov/usbudget).
For an analysis of the structure and mechanism of the funding of U.S. international activities, we will examine a number of documents: 105th Congress Report. House of Representatives First Session 105-94. (For purposes of brevity, let us label this document as Act 1997.); Foreign Policy Reform Act, May 9, 1997; U.S. Department of State, Strategic Plan, September 1997 (SP 1997); United States Strategic Plan for International Affairs, First Revision—February 1999 (SP 1999); Summary and Highlights. International Affairs (Function 150) (Summary); Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Request, February 7, 2000; The Budget-in-Brief—Fiscal Year 2001, February 7, 2000 (BiB). (Note: All these documents were downloaded from the Internet.)
The 21st Century: The World Without Russia
(Philosophical-sociological Essay)