The United States provides .17% of its GDP in foreign aid. Of the twenty-one most industrialized nations in the world, the United States ranks twenty-first -- dead last –- in foreign aid contributions. For about 25% of the United States military budget, relationships of compassion and gratitude could be built with people in the impoverished world. Relationships of respect would make people in the United States and around the world more secure.

Money that pays for war could instead greatly benefit the domestic needs of nations. In the United States, for example, poverty, hunger and crime are on the rise; there are many more people who are jobless and have no health insurance; the quality of public education is falling; and our infrastructure is crumbling. Military money could be shifted into programs at the state and national level to address these problems that so negatively affect the quality of life.

Marshall Plan
But taking care of people in the United States is not enough because we all need to live in a world where people have hope and can meet their basic needs. World security depends on that. Foreign Aid models like the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Japan and Germany after World War II and laid the foundation for beneficial trading partnerships with them for fifty years is an example of good investment in peace and economic prosperity. This model, and others such as the Peace Corps, the Heifer Project and the Central Asia Project, are available for our study.

Beyond War does not advocate unilateral disarmament. Instead, we advocate for building a world beyond war. We advocate careful and clear thought about spending national resources. US military spending has been about $585.5 billion per year (not including the costs of the war with Iraq.) With NATO allies the United States spends more than six times that of every conceivable enemy combined, including Russia and China.

For much less than the cost of destroying the infrastructure of countries and killing both soldiers and citizens, long lasting, constructive relationships could be built which would move us beyond war. Non-governmental organizations (NGO's) provide excellent examples of how appropriate foreign aid can be provided to make important progress with limited funds. For example:

Heifer International
This non-governmental agency gives a heifer calf to someone in an impoverished country. The first calf from that heifer is given to a neighbor, and when that calf grows to a cow and has a calf, that calf is given to a neighbor. The same is done with chickens, goats, llamas, hives of bees, and other animals all over the world. These kinds of gifts can make a huge difference in a poor family's well-being -- and citizens of villages all over the world can regard the donors of these life enhancing animals as valued friends.

The Central Asia Institute
Greg Mortensen was a mountain climber who failed a climb in the Himalayas in Pakistan near the Afghan border. Greg arrived in a poor village frostbitten and very weak. The people took him in and nursed him back to health over several months until spring when he could walk out of the mountains. It was 25 miles to the nearest transportation. The villagers had saved his life, so he asked what he could do in return. Landslides had destroyed the village school, and they asked if he could help them rebuild it. He came back to the United States, wrote as many wealthy people and celebrities as he could think of, and Tom Brokaw sent him $250. Finally, an unknown and very generous person gave Greg $11,000 for his first school. He went back to Pakistan. Greg didn't need to tell the villagers how to build the school -- they already understood that better than he did -- they just needed the building materials. The villagers hand carried bags of cement, lumber and roofing materials up the mountain. Native stone was used in the construction. The school is now also used also as a community center and a medical clinic. In the last decade, Greg's Central Asia Institute has built many schools on the Pakistan-Afghan border. The Central Asian Institute has made a very big difference in the lives of people in that area, and they know at least one organization of Americans who want to partner with them to build a better world. Mortensen reports that when one of the schools that Central Asia Institute builds in partnership with a village is present, 95% of the villagers send their children to that school instead of the madrassas which teach hatred of people in the west.

United States Peace Corps
Beyond expressing compassion, appropriate foreign aid can help construct a world beyond war. The US Peace Corps volunteers -- citizens who work in NGO's [Non-Governmental Organizations] that provide medical care and food -- and appropriate foreign aid can build the human relationships, gratitude, and cooperation necessary for the functioning of international law.