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A coalition of organizations dedicated to the prevention of violent conflict and mass atrocities wrote a letter to Secretary Tillerson urging him to support to sustain and strengthen the U.S. government’s civilian capacities to prevent and respond to violent conflict, mass atrocities, and genocide.

February 22, 2017

The Honorable Rex Tillerson Secretary of State U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20520

Dear Secretary Tillerson:

Congratulations on your confirmation to serve as Secretary of State. As a broad-based coalition of organizations dedicated to the prevention of violent conflict and mass atrocities, we write to urge your support to sustain and strengthen the U.S. government’s civilian capacities to prevent and respond to violent conflict, mass atrocities, and genocide.

More specifically, we urge that you:

  • Include no less than $60 billion for the F150 budget in the U.S. Government’s FY18 budget;

  • Make clear in the Department’s FY 2018 Congressional Budget Justification document these funds are essential to ensuring that the U.S. continues to lead the international community in efforts to prevent, respond to, and resolve violent conflict worldwide; and

  • Protect critical State Department and USAID conflict prevention functions.

Over the past 15 years, nearly half of the world’s population has been affected by some form of political violence. There has been a significant uptick in violent conflict globally since 2014 [1]. As the crisis in Syria demonstrates, ongoing violence not only continues to threaten civilian lives, but undermines global security as well as American leadership, values and economic interests. From the vacuums filled by violent extremism to unprecedented refugee flows that threaten U.S. allies, the value of early prevention can be seen both in lives saved and costly expenditures avoided.

Without sufficient attention to and resources for prevention, we see negative effects for: American security, where terrorist organizations capitalize on violence and grievances to fuel recruitment; American values, where religious freedom and democracy is threatened; and American companies that rely on overseas investment, supply chains, and markets.

As Secretary of State, you have inherited a chaotic world that demands wise and strategic engagement by the U.S. Government to reduce violence in the context of active conflicts, provide strategic support to countries to solve their own domestic challenges, and leverage American diplomacy to proactively address the causes and conditions likely to bring about future violence.

We stand ready to support efforts to prevent violent conflict, including violent extremism, mass atrocities, and genocide. To this end, we recently convened a bipartisan group of experts and published a comprehensive report, A Necessary Good: U.S. Leadership on Preventing Mass Atrocities. The report includes a roadmap for the Trump Administration with nearly 40 tangible recommendations [2], including many that relate to the work of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, and would require your leadership.

For a decade, our community has worked in coalition to support bipartisan efforts to strengthen and expand the prevention toolkit, recognizing that the most effective and least expensive way to reduce the risks of violence are robust investments through diplomacy and development in prevention and early engagement. We have been particularly focused on civilian structures, tools, and resources at the State Department and USAID. Positive developments have included the creation of the State Department’s Under Secretariat for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights (or J Bureau), the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO), and directed funding to more effectively and urgently address unforeseen and emerging crises through a variety of mechanisms such as USAID’s Complex Crises Fund.

We have seen the indispensable leadership role that the State Department and other civilian agencies have been able to play through the interagency Atrocities Prevention Board, for which the J Bureau and CSO have been driving and influential forces. We continue to encourage a robust role for the State Department in the necessary interagency coordination to ensure that prevention remains a core priority moving forward. In addition to diplomatic engagement, we have seen the distinct and critical leadership role that USAID plays in leveraging the tools of development to mitigate violence, and address the root causes that can give rise to conflict like injustice, poor governance, and marginalization. While we recognize that no agency of the U.S. government is without room for improvement, we are concerned that these critical structures and resources may be at risk in the context of budget cuts despite their utility and effectiveness.

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during your nomination hearing, you acknowledged that we are at “a pivotal time in both the history of our nation and our world.” We agree, and believe that your leadership specific to U.S. diplomacy and development efforts will be critical to addressing the ongoing and emerging global challenges that give rise to violent conflict.

We look forward to working with you and your staff to address some of the most complex and challenging issues of our time. We will reach out in follow up to this letter to request a meeting to further discuss the prevention of violent conflict, provide more specific examples of effective engagement and programming, and offer ways that our community can help to advance solutions.

Sincerely,

David Alpher, Washington Head of Office and U.S. Advocacy Manager, Saferworld

Brad Brooks-Rubin, Director of Policy, Enough Project

Charles J. Brown, Managing Director, Strategy for Humanity

Lisa Dougan, President and CEO, Invisible Children

Susan Freudenheim, Executive Director, Jewish World Watch

Michel Gabaudan, President, Refugees International

Dr. Tibi Galis, Executive Director, Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

Melanie Greenberg, President and CEO, Alliance for Peacebuilding

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society, The United Methodist Church

Tim Hirschel-Burns, Policy Coordinator, STAND: The Student-led Movement to End Mass Atrocities

Shamil Idriss, President and CEO, Search for Common Ground

Jennifer Leonard, Director, International Crisis Group

Eli S. McCarthy, Director of Justice and Peace, Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Bridget Moix, U.S. Senior Representative, Peace Direct

Diane Randall, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation

Madeline Rose, Senior Policy Advisor, Mercy Corps

Gabriel Stauring, Executive Director, iACT

CC: Mr. Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget

The Prevention and Protection Working Group is a coalition of human rights, religious, humanitarian, anti-genocide, peace and other organizations dedicated to improving U.S. government policies and civilian capacities to prevent violent conflict, mass atrocities and protect civilians threatened by such crises.