January 9, 2009

Dr. Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

HARVARD Kennedy School
John F. Kennedy School of Government
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Taubman-162
Cambridge, MA 02138
Dear Dr. Nye,
My apologies for the piecemeal nature of this Plan B binder, but what seemed to matter
most was making sure you had all the information in time to review it, recommend
revisions, and perhaps forward it to those charged with fulfilling the promises made by
President-elect Obama in The War We Need to Win speech he gave in August, 2007, at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center:
As President, I will make it a focus of my foreign policy to roll back the tide of
hopelessness that gives rise to hate. Freedom must mean freedom from fear, not
the freedom of anarchy. I will never shrug my shoulders and say – as Secretary
Rumsfeld did – 'Freedom is untidy.' I will focus our support on helping nations
build independent judicial systems, honest police forces, and financial systems
that are transparent and accountable. Freedom must also mean freedom from
want, not freedom lost to an empty stomach. So I will make poverty reduction a
key part of helping other nations reduce anarchy.
I will double our annual investments to meet these challenges to $50 billion by
2012. And I will support a $2 billion Global Education Fund to counter the
radical madrasas – often funded by money from within Saudi Arabia – that have filled
young minds with messages of hate. We must work for a world where every child,
everywhere, is taught to build and not to destroy. And as we lead we will ask for
more from our friends in Europe and Asia as well – more support for our diplomacy,
more support for multilateral peacekeeping, and more support to rebuild societies
ravaged by conflict.
I will also launch a program of public diplomacy that is a coordinated effort across my
Administration, not a small group of political officials at the State Department
explaining a misguided war. We will open ‘America Houses’ in cities across the
Islamic world, with Internet, libraries, English lessons, stories of America's Muslims
and the strength they add to our country, and vocational programs. Through a new
‘America's Voice Corps’ we will recruit, train, and send out into the field talented
young Americans who can speak with – and listen to – the people who today hear
about us only from our enemies.
In the first 100 days of my Administration, I will travel to a major Islamic forum and
deliver an address to redefine our struggle. I will make clear that we are not at war
with Islam, that we will stand with those who are willing to stand up for their
future, and that we need their effort to defeat the prophets of hate and violence. I
will speak directly to that child who looks up at that helicopter, and my
message will be clear: ‘You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our
moment is now.’
The two programs President-elect Obama described – America Houses and America’s Voice
Corps – do not address the four primary aspects of the 21st century stateless
terrorism/local insurgency challenge.

Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com
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From scholars and journalists to UN agency heads and military leaders four topics keep
repeating: 1) billions of unemployable young people in failing/failed states
(Everyone); 2) indigenous ownership of the process is key (Dr. Orr, et al.); 3)
modernization without westernization (Drs. Huntington & Lewis); and 4) the US
military needs civilian counterparts who can carry out economic and political
reconstruction missions – sometimes in dangerous places … the wild frontier of
our globalized world (President-elect Obama, Secretary Gates, and General Petraeus).
I’m hoping you’ll agree:
Rather than recruit, train, and send out into the field talented young Americans who can
speak with – and listen to – the people who today hear about us only from our enemies,
we need to recruit and train young people from where people are most vulnerable,
where the light of hope has grown dark – where we are in a position to make a real
difference in advancing security and opportunity by sending them back prepared to
provide topflight humanitarian aid; development assistance; and post-conflict
reconstruction services.
Instead of open[ing] ‘America Houses’ in cities across the Islamic world, with Internet,
libraries, English lessons, stories of America's Muslims and the strength they add to our
country, and vocational programs, we need to establish a Global Service Academy that
will give young people trapped in urban conflict-zones or the wild frontier of our globalized
world [with its] wind-swept deserts and cave-dotted mountains a place to learn about
freedom and opportunity (both the positive and negative aspects) by experiencing them
firsthand.
In addition to creating new Mobile Development Teams that bring together personnel from
the State Department, the Pentagon, and USAID [to] work with civil society and local
governments to make an immediate impact in peoples’ lives, and to turn the tide against
extremism, we need to build a long-term program that turns youth bulges into
productive human capital and incubators of resentment and anarchy in weak states into
stable, nurturing communities.
What better way to show – through deeds as well as words – that we stand with those who
seek a better life?
How else can we get [t]hat child looking up at the helicopter [to] see America and feel
hope instead of succumb to the extremists’ program of hate?
Where better to [face] tragedy head-on and [turn] it into the next generation's triumph?
To make the service of a new generation of young people the new global American
narrative?
What stronger demonstration of America’s commitment to [write] a new chapter in the
American story than an invitation to ALL hardworking, open-minded, warmhearted young
people to come for free to learn how to be free and gain what they need to return to
modernize and stabilize their worlds without betraying their core spiritual beliefs and
values?
Thank you, again, for your time and interest.

With deepest respect and gratitude,

Christine

Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com