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United States Strategic Plan
First Revision. Released by the Office of Resources,
For International Affairs
Plans, and Policy, U.S. Department of State,
Washington, DC, February 1999
STRATEGIC GOAL: HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
Prevent or minimize the human costs
of conflict and natural disasters.
NATIONAL INTEREST:
American values mandate offering assistance and international leadership to help alleviate human suffering from crises, whether man-made or natural, even where no other U.S. interests may be involved.
STRATEGIES:
- Respond quickly on a bilateral and multilateral basis to crises. Maintain an emergency response capability, coordinated and managed across the USG, particularly for complex humanitarian emergencies.
- Ensure that international organizations have adequate early warning, information sharing, and emergency response capabilities. Strengthen partnerships with NGOs and international organizations to build their capacities to address humanitarian crises.
- Reduce world hunger. Develop food security by prepositioning food stocks and taking other measures in areas of chronic shortage, particularly Africa.
- Ensure international protection and relief for refugees. In post-conflict situations, promote durable solutions to refugee crises and provide transition assistance. Help repatriate and reintegrate refugees and displaced persons. Address the underlying causes of large-scale illegal international migration.
- Reduce the impact of natural disasters through international emergency prevention and by deploying emergency response resources.
- Eliminate uncleared landmines that threaten civilian populations by the year 2010. Achieve a ban on antipersonnel landmines consistent with U.S. national security interests. Support demining programs.
EXTERNAL FACTORS AND ASSUMPTIONS:
- Intense and intractable conflicts, most of them internal, will continue to erupt around the world for the foreseeable future.
- The extent of conflict, and the degree to which the environment is permissive or conflictive, will determine the nature of international response to a crisis.
Secure a sustainable global environment, and protect the United States and its citizens from the effects of international environmental degradation.
NATIONAL INTEREST:
The global environment has a profound and increasing impact on the United States. Pollution crosses borders and oceans, affecting the health and prosperity of Americans. Competition for natural resources can lead to instability and conflict, threatening security, economic, and other U.S. interests. In addition, value protection of the environment both at home and globally for its own sake.
STRATEGIES:
- Stabilize greenhouse gases in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol. Regulate the production, use, and trade of hazardous chemicals. Rebuild depleted fish stocks and reduce land-based sources of ocean pollution by 2010. Maintain biodiversity by halting the destruction of forests and protecting critical ecosystems.
- Develop specific objectives and a USG-wide strategy for managing international environmental issues. Take the environment into account when negotiating trade and other agreements. Use public diplomacy to build international understanding and support for protecting the environment.
- Conclude key multilateral negotiations, giving priority to climate change, toxic chemicals, forestry, and biodiversity. Improve the implementation of international oceans and environmental commitments.
- Strengthen bilateral dialogues with key countries, focusing on China, Russia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the European Union. Promote regional cooperation on transboundary environmental issues.
- Use development assistance to improve the capabilities of developing countries to reduce environmental degradation. Improve coordination on the environment with countries and international financial institutions that provide development assistance. Reform and reinvigorate UN and other multilateral institutions, as well as mechanisms to more effectively address international environmental problems.
- Work on environmental issues with and through the scientific community, private sector, and NGOs. Utilize science and technology mechanisms, such as cooperative agreements and programs, and participate in international commissions to further scientific cooperation on environmental issues.
EXTERNAL FACTORS AND ASSUMPTIONS:
- Left unaddressed, global environmental degradation will have an increasingly negative impact on security, prosperity, and health.
- Actions in the United States and several other key countries have a disproportionate global impact on the global environment.
INDICATORS:
- Levels of world fish stocks and ocean pollution.
- Alterations in land use, including desertification, deforestation, loss of wetlands, and silting of waterways.
- Number of bird species.
- Carbon dioxide emissions.
- Atmospheric nitrogen levels.
- Availability and purity of fresh water.
Stabilize world population.
NATIONAL INTEREST:
Stabilizing world population is vital to long-term U.S. interests. Rapid population growth undermines stability and economic and social progress, and can contribute to environmental degradation in many developing countries. Population stabilization that is grounded in human rights – especially for women – promotes democracy, reduces poverty, and leads to a healthier work force, all of which helps create a more stable global arena in which to advance U.S. interests.
STRATEGIES:
- Implement the Program of Action from the International Conference on Population and Development (the Cairo Conference or ICPD). Mobilize foreign government commitment and resources to achieve a comprehensive approach to family planning, reproductive rights, stabilizing population, and closely related health concerns.
- Work with governments to help them achieve their own population and development goals. Focus on those countries with large populations and high fertility rates, or smaller countries where other U.S. strategic or humanitarian interests are involved.
- Promote the rights of couples and individuals, especially women, to determine freely, responsibly, and without coercion the number and spacing of their children.
- Support programs, particularly in countries with unmet needs, to achieve universal access to family planning and other reproductive health services by 2015. Support programs in education for women and girls, maternal and child health, and status of women. Foster involvement of NGOs and civil society in population and related activities.
EXTERNAL FACTORS AND ASSUMPTIONS:
- World population will increase from 6 billion to at least 7.8 between 1999 and 2025.
- About 98 % of population growth will occur in developing countries where capacities to sustain high growth rates are the lowest.
- The ICDP Program of Action retains broad international support and other donors expand their investments.
Protect human health and reduce the
spread of infectious diseases.NATIONAL INTEREST:
The United States has direct interests in safeguarding the health of Americans and in reducing the negative consequences of disease worldwide. Epidemics can directly threaten public health in the United States. Unhealthy conditions elsewhere in the world increase the incidence of disease, increase human suffering, and retard development. Humanitarian values lead Americans to support improvements to global health, even in the absence of other direct interests.
STRATEGIES:
- Control epidemic and mortal diseases. Strengthen international health surveillance, early warning, and response networks. Promote and sponsor medical training and scientific research for new medical treatments through bilateral and multilateral organizations. Further scientific cooperation on health issues.
- Increase international communication and cooperation to fight disease. Develop and coordinate a sustained effort to enlist support from other nations, international bodies, and the private sector to raise the level of priority accorded to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Launch diplomatic initiatives to increase foreign government commitment to combating HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
- Encourage investment in basic health in developing nations. Expand environmental health programs and strengthen public health infrastructure to combat new and reemerging diseases. Support NGO and PVO capacity to improve health delivery systems.
- Emphasize maternal health and child survival in target countries, generally through programs closely linked to population and family planning.
- Reduce the spread of animal diseases and pests that are risks to human health.
EXTERNAL FACTORS AND ASSUMPTIONS:
- NGOs, PVOs and multilateral development institutions will play increasingly important roles in combating disease, but USG and other donor leadership will remain essential.
- New and emerging diseases will remain a critical global health challenge.
INDICATORS:
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- Mortality rates.
- Rates of illness/death by disease.
Office of Resources, Plans, and Policy
(202) 647-3434or
Office of Management Policy
(202) 647-0093
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520[end of document]
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