WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Appropriations, delivered remarks on Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations to announce his new report, “Rethinking the Battlefield.” The report details how America’s smart power capabilities have fallen dangerously behind those of our rivals and adversaries, and lays out comprehensive and specific recommendations to dramatically increase the United States’ non-military footprint abroad. The report calls for nearly doubling the U.S. foreign affairs budget—which includes the Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other agencies – with an emphasis on funding for international development, additional foreign service officers, anti-corruption efforts, countering propaganda, crisis response, and humanitarian relief.

Click here to view the full report: “Rethinking the Battlefield: The world has changed. It’s time for the U.S. foreign affairs budget to keep up”

“The United States has the most powerful military in the world – we need to keep it that way. But the world is changing. And in this new world, a strong military alone simply cannot protect American interests,” said Murphy. “Russia and China have mastered the ability to leverage energy, economic development aid, and non-military pressure to get what they want, while ISIS is corrupting minds around the globe through propaganda on the dark internet. When it comes to these non-kinetic means of demonstrating power abroad, the U.S. is simply outmatched – it’s time to rethink the battlefield. America pioneered smart non-military influence after World War II when we invested heavily in the Marshall Plan and laid the foundation that made modern European democracies possible. I hope this document gets folks in Washington thinking about concrete steps we can take to get back on track and keep our people safe.”

“Rethinking the Battlefield is a comprehensive blueprint for how America can protect its citizens, build our prosperity, and defend our way of life in the 21st century.  Senator Murphy recognizes that now is not the time for America to retreat from the world, and that we should be doing more, not less, to deal with challenges abroad before they affect our security and prosperity at home.  After the reckless and misguided cuts to national security institutions proposed by the Trump administration, it is more important than ever to have a real conversation about how and why we engage globally. Rethinking the Battlefield provides a good basis for such a discussion,” said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“In a more complicated, crowded, and competitive world, safeguarding American interests and values requires adaptive and agile diplomacy as our tool of first resort. As Senator Murphy thoughtfully argues, so long as diplomacy and development remain an under-resourced follow-up to the use of force, we can bet on mounting challenges, crises, and cost in both blood and treasure,” said Ambassador William J. Burns, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Deputy Secretary of State.

Murphy is a vocal advocate of robust American diplomacy and a more limited use of military power. He, along with U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), laid out new, forward-looking foreign policy principles to guide America’s role as a global leader in the 21st Century.