Rumsfeld Foundation to Encourage Public Service
Fellowships Planned; Group Also Aims to Support Micro-Enterprise, Central Asia
By Bradley Graham
Monday, September 17, 2007; Page A06
[...]Now that he is out of office, he has devised a foundation with this concern in mind. The foundation's general goal, he said, is to "encourage reasoned and civil debate" about a range of global challenges. A major feature will be student fellowships to promote study after college in fields related to public policy, with the hope of encouraging young people to go into government.
Word that Rumsfeld is developing a fellowship programsurfaced in news reports several months ago. But in the interview -- his first detailed discussion of the foundation -- Rumsfeld described a broader mission, saying the foundation will also help finance loans to "micro-enterprises" in developing countries and try to generate support for Central Asian republics. Additionally, it will fund lectures on various topics. [...]
Rumsfeld became wealthy during a 24-year business career between stints in government. A family foundation, set up in 1985 by him and his wife, Joyce, is now valued at about $20 million and makes charitable contributions to dozens of groups a year. [...]
Details about the number and size of the Rumsfeld fellowships have yet to be worked out. But they will not be attached to a particular school, going instead to individuals for study in foreign and national security affairs, economics, and other public policy fields. [...]
Rumsfeld has long spoken of the need to encourage government service. The other main aims of his foundation -- loans to micro-enterprises and help for Central Asian republics -- reflect more recent interests.
Micro-enterprise is a burgeoning global phenomenon in which people who lack access to normal credit receive financing to operate small businesses. It has proved to be an economic boon to some poor regions. Rumsfeld noted that the repayment rates have been high, and he said such loans have the advantage of bypassing sometimes corrupt governments and landing directly in the hands of beneficiaries.
His focus on Central Asian republics such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan stems from a concern that they lack the U.S.-based support groups that benefited the Eastern European states in their transition from communist rule. "We don't have, in Chicago or Detroit or Pittsburgh, Uzbeks or Tajiks or Kazakhs," Rumsfeld said. "I think that we need to have people who understand what's going on in Central Asia . . . and the difficulty of that transition."
This is intriguing on a couple of levels. Rumsfeld likes microfinance because it bypasses corrupt governments, but he seems to want to support image-buffing and profile-raising efforts for a region that has a reputation for some of the most corrupt governments in the post-Soviet space.
Furthermore, while it's true that Central Asian countries have lacked the strong US lobbies enjoyed by countries like Poland, the Baltics, Armenia and Ukraine, they certainly haven't been without their voices of support in Washington - who needs a diaspora when you have professional lobbyists and James Giffen? And does the comparison to East European ethnic lobbies mean that Rumsfeld's goal for the Central Asian countries would be the same as what seemed to be the number-one US-related goal for the Poles and the Balts - NATO membership? Actually, I doubt it. But if anyone in the conspiracy-osphere notices this, expect comments about how Rummy's support is gravitating towards where the hydrocarbons are.
More seriously, since it's impossible to create a committed and cohesive ethnic diaspora from scratch (and since many of the immigrants to the US from Central Asia are not representatives of indigenous ethnic groups - for example, the infamous Alexey Vayner), it will be interesting to see what Rummy's foundation's approach will be to creating US-based "support groups" for the Central Asian countries. Actually, it will be interesting to see whether anything comes of this at all.
