Washington has a problem when politicians and budget makers disregard the need to adequately fund education-based, long-term solutions to foreign policy and national security shortcomings. Fiscal resources are found for military hardware; surely allocations benefiting the minds of those who face foreign problems should be given equal importance.
Let me be specific, through observations made before the horrendous events of 9/11, about the negative impacts of paying scant attention to the humanities.
Between 1984 and 1988, I observed drawings on walls of madrasas or religious schools in Pakistan angrily equating Soviets and Russians killing of Afghan families with Israelis using American assistance to attack Palestinian civilians. I saw similar images in Malaysia during the summer of 1990, while attending a workshop on social change. I knew then the diversity and tolerance enjoyed in the U.S. would not be brooked by fundamentalist societies developing elsewhere. Unfortunately Washington, focused on ousting its Cold War foe from Afghanistan and placing limited value on the observations of humanists, was unconcerned.
In 1999-2000 a graduate student of mine conducted a field study of education in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a National Security Education Program Boren Fellow. But prior to al-Qaeda's 2001 attacks policy journals were not interested in how militant Islamist ideology was being propagated. Only once calamity was upon the U.S. did his investigations find print to alert the American national security establishment.
Fieldwork is just one way the humanities contribute to valid information, rigorous analysis and good decision-making. Why let those lessons be obvious only in hindsight? Observations that come from studying cultures closely, learning about their pasts and presents, analyzing and contextualizing their ideas and practices must be given greater credence as routine and ongoing aspects of foreign policy and national security. But it cannot be done well if funding dwindles.
Knowledge of societies and languages provides the key to tending cross-cultural issues before problems develop and to mitigating crises when they occur. Humanistic learning is necessary in good times and bad, for broadening minds and abilities, for making friends and influencing people, even for eliminating foes. So the humanities must remain an integral, well-funded part of education and research in order to surmount global challenges that lie ahead.
