Foreign Policy

I appreciated the confident position Sachs takes on the issue of global development, poverty, population growth, etc. His book is ambitious, stressing the importance of non-fossil fuel energy sources and creating market incentives for their implementation, securing the sustainability of our water and land resources, capping the world population by incentivizing voluntary fertility reductions, and a reappraisal of foreign policy, particularly by the U.S.


One day’s pentagon spending would prvide enough funds to ensure ant malaria bed nets protection for every sleeping site in Africa for five year. 274

His book is particularly critical of the Bush administration and it’s foreign policy of conditional and belief laden aid, and its. In his chapter on Rethinking Foreign Policy he argues that the U.S. has overestimated the necessity for military in securing U.S. interest when the greatest challenges facing the world are “political, economic, and environment and are unsolvable by military means”(272). When one considers that in 2007, the U.S. spent about as much money on its military as the entire world combined (572 billion) and that development and humanitarian aid only amount to around 2.4% (14 billion) of this military expenditure, one can’t help but feel like something’s wrong . It doesn’t take much to realize that greater investment in the latter would do more for U.S. foreign relations and good will than another unilateral military intervention. Further, fighting a war against terrorism has done nothing to address the root of the problem. What’s needed is for these resources to be reallocated to fight the root cause of this violence, including instability and hostility due to diseases, water and food shortage.

I felt Sach’s argument was particularly strengthened when he drew to memory the outcomes of the U.S.’s more recent military conflicts and the futility its military prowess had in yielding desirable outcomes. It’s true that the U.S.’s military interventions have primarily taken place in the developing world, and it’s likely that this trend will continue. It’s also evident that the outcomes of Vietnam and Somalia are manifesting themselves in Afghanistan and Iraq. It should be clear by now that a militaristic perspective on the world has done nothing but fan global dismay for the U.S.

Overall I have to say I’m with Sachs, very much in support of multilaterism, of a shift in military funds to development and humanitarian aid, and a reappraisal of foreign policy.