Militarization was the name of the game in Donald Trump’s White House, often at the expense of diplomacy.
New president, new game plan.
Joe Biden is working on his budget proposal, and Democratic legislators are pleading for more money allocated to diplomatic and foreign aid.
The plan, proposed by Sens. Murphy and Van Hollen and Reps. Bera and Cicilline, is asking for $12 billion more for the State Department and other foreign aid, which would amount to a 20% in these programs’ budget. The reason? To get a diplomatic lead on China, rather than focusing exclusively on a military lead. China has doubled its diplomatic budget in the past decade, and as it is a rising superpower, it is more important now than it has ever been for the U.S. to engage in more diplomacy and expand aid to allies if it wants to stay on top.
This is a part of globalization.
We don’t need to have the biggest and baddest weapons anymore but, as the hegemon, the U.S. has the responsibility to keep global peace.
Utah needs China, and we need China on our good side. Selfish or not, we need to keep up our trade, both in terms of imports and exports. Utah exports over $1.3 billion worth of products and imports over $2.7 billion in product each year. Diplomacy is important. Diplomacy keeps our economy afloat, and militarization does not.
Erin Howey, North Salt Lake