Gutting U.S. Government Humanitarianism Makes the Defense Department’s Job Harder

To paraphrase J. Robert Oppenheimer and Gen. James Mattis, some 64 years later, the United States learns again and again that it cannot achieve its political ends with coercion alone and with more investment in soft power like humanitarian aid and diplomacy, less is needed for war.

Last month, reduction-in-force notices pinged into email inboxes throughout the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at the U.S. Department of State. When the dust settled, pursuant to the department’s reorganization plan, 168 people — 75 percent of the bureau’s staff — were gone. These firings followed the earlier dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and, with it, the robust architecture of its Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.

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