A Biden Public Works Project: Build Four International Districts
President-elect Obama said this week that he would create 2.5 million jobs in two
years, largely through a public works project. How could those resources be used to
create a more secure United States for the next 100 years? Answer: Reconfigure Boston,
Atlanta, Miami and San Francisco as new International Districts. Boston could be the
nation’s gateway to Europe, Atlanta could be the nation’s gateway to Africa, Miami
could be the nation’s gateway to South America, and San Francisco could be the nation’s
gateway to Asia. This would be a good use of Vice President-elect Biden’s energies.
Boston. The Project on National Security Reform makes a strong case for the
creation of interagency regional centers. When the United States had infinite resources to
spend on its military, it made perfect sense to locate 50,000 or more troops in Germany as
part of the European Command (EUCOM). If those 50,000 troops were moved back to
within the borders of the continental United States, and matched with perhaps 50,000
civilians siphoned from Washington who could create a new International District in
Boston, the nation could have a better bridge for its interactions with Europe.
Atlanta. President-elect Obama selected his national security team on December
1, 2008 – but the team is composed of traditional functional structures: Treasury, State,
Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice. Vice President-elect Biden could designate
four vice presidential envoys – one for Europe (based in Boston), one for Africa (based in
Atlanta), one for South America (based in Miami), and one for Asia (based in Los
Angeles). Instead of continuing to search in vain for a willing host for the African
Command (AFRICOM), Biden’s Africa envoy could use AFRICOM as the beginning of
an International District in Atlanta that could serve as the nation’s bridge to Africa.
Miami. The U.S. military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is already
located in Florida, but the diplomatic expertise for Central and South America is in
Washington, DC. All 15 Cabinet departments have some interaction with South
American and Central American countries – Department of Health and Human Services,
Department of Education, Department of Commerce – but there is no integrated regional
center to coordinate all of these ties. A vice-presidential envoy could create an
International District in Miami to provide this integration.
San Francisco. Placing the Pacific Command (PACOM) in Honolulu has created
a large military city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but the nation needs an
International District within the continental United States in order to increase its capacity
to have an interagency bridge with Asia. The Bay Area has high-end university and high-
technology organizations that could be used as a base to host the reabsorption of PACOM
into an Integrated District in San Francisco.
Putting Vice President-elect Biden in charge of a Public Works project that would
create four International Districts outside of Washington, DC, but inside the continental
United States, could provide work for 2.5 million people for the next four years, and
strengthen the country’s national security for 300 million people for the next one hundred
years.