smart power

From "The Forgotten Front: Winning Hearts and Minds in Southeast Asia"
by Christopher Bond and Lewis Simons
Foreign Affairs

"In addition to helping provide young Muslims with a quality, secular education, the United States should be expanding the Peace Corps and other US civilian organizations operating in Muslim areas throughout Southeast Asia. Smart power would best be delivered by volunteers in sandals and sneakers who live, work, and teach among the people of the region, rather than by diplomats in wingtips or soldiers in combat boots. The State Department would do well to reduce the footprint of fortress-style embassies in capital cities and instead create more intimate consulates staffed by Americans fluent in local languages in smaller district towns. Although this would likely create new security risks, human contact at this level would go a long way toward draining the swamp that nourishes tomorrow's terrorists."



As a Peace Force cadet, my ultimate mission is to squash the young shoots of terrorism. Nevermind if I get frost bite from wearing sandals in this weather, I will drain that icy swamp, one bowl of Muslim noodles at a time. Toes are a small sacrifice, a minor security risk, as is Giardia and other parasites.