a new approach

“Until we face the development challenge and make clear that we’re ready to help on the development challenge, I’m afraid we are not going to have real resolution to this crisis.”

With those words, Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University professor and special adviser to the UN secretary-general, effectively summed up what’s wrong in Darfur, Sudan — and what’s wrong with U.S. foreign policy. Sachs was speaking specifi cally about the U.S. sanctions against the Sudan, designed to aid in ending the bloody confl ict in the Darfur region, that has led to the deaths of over 200,000 Sudanese, and the displacement of millions more. The U.S. has long practiced being the global ‘top cop’ (when, of course, it serves our country’s interests); but that stance isn’t making the world safer or stronger. During this administration, (it could be argued, like never before), the arrogance — and foolishness — of that position has become glaringly obvious. If the U.S. sincerely wants to avert some of the contempt it has engendered around the world since the Bush administration’s series of misfi res in global diplomacy, then the approach must shift from crisis management to crisis prevention.

Darfur, like many regions of the world, is impoverished — starving for sustenance in the face of shortages of food, water and assorted other maladies. As the crisis rages on, and as the catastrophe that is the Iraq War simultaneously plays out on the evening news via apocalyptic video footage from Baghdad, America must emphasize an economic and health-driven initiative to avert bloody wars in ravaged parts of the world. The ridiculous amount of debt Third World countries owe to the Group of Eight countries (United States, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Russia and the U.K.), only adds to the tragedy. It’s hypocritical to watch a country starve, rip itself apart through war, comment on how tragic it is, and then continually sap it for whatever monetary resources to which it may be clinging. Erecting programs and agencies that help ease the strain the countries are under is the only effective way to eliminate both the anger and resentment much of the world feels toward the U.S., and to ensure that horrible atrocities like Darfur never have the chance to fester. –todd williams