Speaking at the State Department on Dec. fifteen, 2010 the Secretary of State unveiled a roadmap for improving U.S. diplomacy and global development efforts. The outset ever Quadrennial Affairs and Development Review (QDDR) outlines sweeping reforms for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Evolution (USAID) to meliorate coordinate diplomacy and evolution initiatives with national security objectives. Amidst several recommendations, the review calls for structural changes at the State Section and developing stronger "civilian capability" to prevent and respond to international emergencies and trigger-happy extremism. Despite beingness welcomed past many U.Due south. and international aid and development groups, significant questions virtually implementation and funding remain largely unanswered.

Humanitarian assistance and development groups from across the U.S. and around the world take welcomed some of the findings of the QDDR, only are concerned about the impartiality of U.S. government led responses to conflict driven emergencies. "The QDDR is an important step in reaffirming the efforts to modernize USAID and further elevate information technology every bit the world's premier development agency," said Paul O'Brien, vice president of policy and advancement campaigns for Oxfam America. "But the document leaves open the question of how the United States will resolve situations where affairs and evolution will require unlike approaches and tradeoffs."

Samuel A. Worthington, the president of the largest alliance of American aid and evolution organizations, InterAction, shares this business organisation. "The risk is that the humanitarian response itself volition be politicized," Worthington wrote in a Huffington Post blog, "with diplomatic and counter-terror imperatives trumping humanitarian principles, which mandate that impartial response to vulnerability is the near important benchmark for determining the nature and scope of the response." InterAction has created a QDDR resource page featuring in-depth assay of the review and its findings, responses from NGOs, and more.

The 2 year review assessed the roles of the State Department, USAID and armed forces in response to disquisitional global trends impacting international diplomacy, such as countering violent extremism, conflict prevention and evolution piece of work.  After consultations with hundreds of people in the U.South. authorities and around the earth, the QDDR recommends the Country Department accept a leadership role in responding to disharmonize-driven emergencies and that USAID focus on nutrient and health problems. It also calls for bolstering "civilian power," which the review defines as non-armed services government actors engaged in diplomatic and evolution activeness around the globe. "Even the globe'southward finest armed forces cannot defeat a virus, cease climate modify, prevent the spread of fierce extremism, or make peace in the Middle East," the QDDR says. "Much of the work that civilians do around the world is the work of prevention, investing proactively in keeping Americans condom and prosperous," it adds.

In add-on to boosting the roles of noncombatant actors across the government, the QDDR describes ceremonious gild organizations as "indispensable partners, force multipliers, and agents of positive change" in achieving the U.S.'southward diplomatic and developmental goals. The QDDR says, "Non-state actors bring considerable political and financial resource to bear upon collective challenges. They mobilize populations within and across states to promote growth, fundamental man values, and effective democratic government…Civil guild, universities, and humanitarian organizations can oft act in areas or in a manner that a government but cannot: as neutrals or aid providers in conflict zones; every bit idea-leaders; and as intermediaries between states or between states and peoples."

Objectives set forth in the QDDR include:

  • Creating an Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Man Rights at the State Department to bolster efforts aimed at advancing homo security

  • Establishing a Agency for Counterterrorism, which will heighten the State Department's ability to counter violent extremism and engage in counterterrorism diplomacy

  • Elevating economic affairs every bit an essential strand of our strange policy by expanding the Land Department's role on economical issues

  • Increasing State Department and USAID staff