Funds for State Department slashed by 28% for next fiscal

In a vision that places military might above diplomacy to maintain American pre-eminence in the world, the White House on Thursday proposed to increase defence spending by $54 billion and slash the State Department funds by 28% to $37.6 billion in the U.S. budget for the next fiscal. “This is a hard-power budget, not a soft-power budget,” White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said.

The cut in State Department budget could lead to fewer political appointees in leadership positions, and south, central and east Asia bureaus could be bundled under a single assistant secretary. India is part of the South and Central Asia bureau in the State Department right now. The budget also proposes cuts in U.S. support for the World Bank and the UN, institutions that President Donald Trump’s adviser Stephen Bannon has been critical of. Further, it proposes to roll back U.S. development aid for developing countries, support of UN peacekeeping and climate change mitigation, and exchange programmes, all of which have been components of U.S. soft power.

The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), created by Congress in 1984 with the “proposition that peace is possible, practical and essential for U.S. and global security,” has been completely defunded.

The Trump budget proposes to eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a body created by the Congress in 1967 to ensure universal access to non-commercial broadcast content to the public. CPB supports 1,500 public radio and TV stations across the country, among them, the National Public Radio.

These proposals will be effective only when the Congress passes the budget.