Prevent War Email List Archive
This email list provides updates and information about work to build a more peaceful world and the peaceful prevention of deadly conflict, including analysis, summaries of articles, and links to the latest information on FCNL's website. List subscribers receive two emails a month.
Jul 15, 2011
Congress will soon consider the annual legislation that sets policies and funding for tools to help prevent war. On July 20, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to mark up the 2012 Foreign Relations Authorization bill. This legislation guides U.S. foreign policy and authorizes funding levels for the State Department, USAID, and contributions to international organizations like the U.N. Then on July 27, the House State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up the annual spending bill for diplomacy, development, and international cooperation. In this tense budget environment, it is likely that many programs within these bills may be cut, perhaps severely. It is critical that you make your voice heard now to ensure that critical prevention tools that FCNL is lobbying hard to sustain, like the Complex Crises Fund, the Civilian Response Corps, and U.N. funding, are not slashed.
Jul 1, 2011
Next week the Senate will debate and vote on authorizing the war in Libya. Now is the time to ask your senators to vote against S.J.Res. 20, which would authorize a war of regime change in Libya.
Jun 10, 2011
Last week, the House voted 226-194 to de-authorize the U.S. Institute of Peace. USIP advances U.S. interests by helping prevent and mitigate deadly conflict in places like Iraq, and by educating the U.S. public on peacebuilding and conflict resolution. USIP is the only congressionally mandated and funded national institution dedicated specifically to building better tools for peacebuilding and prevention of deadly conflict. It is an essential partner of the U.S. government and the conflict prevention community.
Speaking on the House floor, the amendment’s sponsor Rep. Chip Cravaack (MN) argued that eliminating USIP would represent a savings for U.S. taxpayers. This is flawed logic. Defunding USIP will have no impact on the federal budget deficit, as its funding is a tiny fraction of the international affairs budget, which represents just 1% of the entire budget. Furthermore, investing in civilian efforts to prevent deadly conflict, such as USIP, will help the U.S. save lives and treasure in the long-run by preventing wars rather than fighting them. FCNL recently sent a letter to the entire House of Representatives, arguing that “the cost of funding USIP each year- just $42 million - is miniscule compared to the cost of the U.S. responding to crises after they erupt."
May 20, 2011
Climate wars are not a thing of the future: increasing water scarcity, desertification, climate refugees, melting in the Arctic, and other impacts of climate change are already causing violent conflict around the world. For example, in Kenya, as rising temperatures and drought have diminished scarce resources like water and grazing land, long-standing tensions have exploded into outbreaks of violence.
Use FCNL’s brand new flyer to educate others in your community about this important issue. The flyer offers three examples of ways that climate change has already caused violent conflict and three things Congress can do now to prevent climate wars. Read more about FCNL’s work on climate change and deadly conflict in Alex’s blog post or last year’s policy brief, “Global Warming Heats Up Global Conflict.”
May 6, 2011
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will soon introduce legislation that would halve U.S. contributions to the United Nations unless the international body meets strict requirements that would undermine its effectiveness. The bill also requires the U.S. to oppose the expansion of existing U.N. peacekeeping missions and the creation of any new U.N. peace operations, which would restrict the Security Council’s important peacekeeping missions in places like Sudan or Haiti. Further, the bill would cut off funding to vital U.N. organizations, such as UNICEF and the World Health Organization, since it would suspend funding to any U.N. agency that would not sign a “transparency agreement.” Read more about this anti-U.N. legislation here.
Apr 22, 2011
Last week, Congress passed a budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, and we sent out a special edition of the Prevent War to let you know how funding for peaceful prevention fared. Thank you for your lobbying on the 2011 budget- we had several successes!
Apr 12, 2011
Early Tuesday morning, the House Appropriations Committee released details of the deal struck by Congressional leadership to fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2011. The budget, which is expected to come to a vote later this week, cuts about $40 billion in discretionary spending, but increases the Pentagon budget by $5 billion over 2010 levels. For the accounts that fund civilian tools to prevent deadly conflict, there is both good and bad news.
Apr 8, 2011
April is Genocide Prevention month, marking a series of commemorative anniversaries for the Holocaust and the Rwandan, Armenian, Bosnian and Cambodian genocides. After each of these horrific events, the U.S. and the international community vowed “never again.” Yet today, the U.S. is still not well-equipped to carry out its commitment to help prevent genocide. Over the past decades the international community, including the U.S., has largely stood by and watched as mass atrocities were perpetrated in Srebrenica and Darfur. Years of underinvestment in civilian tools like diplomacy, development, and international cooperation have crippled the U.S.’ ability to help prevent atrocities across the world. Leadership and pressure from Congress is needed now to ensure that the policy gaps and capacities in the US government are filled and maintained beyond any one administration.
Mar 25, 2011
This week, FCNL was excited to host Getry Agizah, Coordinator of Kenya’s Friends Church Peace Team. Since forming in response to Kenya’s post-election crisis of 2007/2008, the Friends Church Peace Team has sought both to help communities heal from the violence and to build lasting peace.
Mar 11, 2011
The budget season is in full swing on Capitol Hill, as Congress scrambles to agree on federal funding levels for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year and considers the President’s budget requests for fiscal year 2012. In our last message, we wrote that the House version of the budget for the remainder of 2011 completely eliminated funding for the Complex Crises Fund and the U.S. Institute for Peace. Thanks in part to your letters, the Senate version of the bill restored most of the funding for these essential tools to prevent deadly conflict.
