There’s an interesting piece in today’s Washington Post about Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne efforts to get a motto adopted for his department. The Post has fun with the fact that the draft produced by a Departmental committee ran to 78 words. Kempthorne told them to come up with an alternative, and to keep it to nine words or less. Their response: “Stewardship for America with Integrity and Excellence.”

Now if I wanted to be snarky, I could point out how the Bush Administration has utterly failed to be a steward for the environment, demonstrating neither integrity (just look at the VP’s energy commission) nor excellence. Instead, I want to congratulate Secretary Kempthorne for coming up with something that does a pretty good job of summarizing what his agency should be doing. And I don’t think mottos are a bad thing – “Semper Fidelis” has worked pretty well for the Marines, for example.

Secretary Kempthorne’s efforts also brought to mind the considerable time and effort that many well-meaning activists have put into the campaign for a Department of Peace. I want to emphasize that I applaud these folks’ desire to promote a culture of peace inside the U.S. Government, and recognize that the current Administration’s approach does not inspire confidence in that regard.

So I share their goal, but don’t support the outcome they seek. And to be clear, this is my opinion, not a CGS policy.

I don’t like the idea for two reasons. The first is aesthetic. In 1984, George Orwell’s classic dystopia, the war ministry was known as the Ministry of Peace. That alone makes me hesitant to create any similarly named institution. And giving agencies good names has never been a guarantor of success – just look at the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush.

But my main objection is that we already have a Department of Peace. It’s called the Department of State. That’s what, in the right circumstances, State does – promote peace around the world and serve as a counterweight to the Department of Defense.

We need to strengthen the agency we have, not create a new one. That means giving State the tools and resources to stand up to DoD when necessary. It also means making sure that its internal culture recognizes promoting peace as one of its primary objectives.

A good start would be a motto. And I have the perfect one: “Peace Justice and Freedom in a Democratically Governed World” (which happens to be one of two we use at CGS). Not only does it capture the vision of those working for a Department of Peace, it even meets Secretary Kempthorne’s nine-word limit.

--Charlie Brown