http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/20/1989‘Just Security’: US as Global Partner, Not Global Boss
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Insisting that U.S. foreign policy of the past six years has clearly failed, a left-leaning Washington think tank is calling for the adoption of a comprehensive new approach to international relations called “Just Security” in which the U.S. would act “as a global partner, not a global boss.”
Among other features, “Just Security” calls for reducing U.S. military spending by a third, or some 213 billion dollars; carrying out a “rapid” withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq; and seeking sharp cuts in the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals as a first step toward realising the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s goal of banning nuclear weapons.
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Indeed, since George W. Bush became president in 2001, U.S. military spending has increased to over 600 billion dollars, an amount that is roughly equivalent to the combined military budgets of the rest of the world’s countries. At the same time, Washington has used its “global war on terror” to increase its military presence around the world and its sales of arms to other countries.
Yet, according to the report, “Just Security: An Alternative Foreign Policy Framework”, these measures have actually undermined, rather than enhanced, global security.
“U.S. military interventions, directly or through proxies, have thrown entire regions into a downward spiral of conflict,” the report asserts. “In the Middle East and Africa, in particular, the U.S. emphasis on military rather than diplomatic solutions has prevented regional peacemaking from moving forward.”
“With its emphasis on fighting wars, the Bush administration has insisted on focusing just on security,” according to the report. “We must focus instead on a just security, because there can be no real security without justice.”
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