Entrepreneurship will beat battleships: "money cures almost all ills, while its absence is a precursor of restlessness, discontent, and violence. We need a foreign policy that showers dollars, not bombs, that ships business plans, not Humvees, abroad.".

• Author: Wiesen, Jeremy
• Position: National Affairs

ENTREPRENEURSHIP should be a key component of U.S. foreign policy, but hardly is mentioned and seldom implemented. From war-torn countries and Third World nations to even the neglected urban ghettos of the U.S., hundreds of millions of unemployed people have nothing to do all day but stew over the meaning-lessness of their lives, many of them to be tempted into crime, violence, and terrorism. Building businesses could be one of the most effective solutions for the problems in Iraq and the world's other troubled spots--in fact, everywhere. Yet, where are the business plans that will provide jobs for the millions of Iraqis if, or when, security is restored; 1,000,000 out-of-work Palestinians; and 900,000,000 Muslims who will find only 300,000,000 jobs in the next 20 years? More fundamentally, where are the people who are going to draft the needed business plans and who is going to engage them for this task?

The U.S. government has not tapped into our country's experts, the most experienced business community in the world--the individuals who might be able to determine the value-added products that lraq and Palestine could be manufacturing and the service businesses those nations should be developing. CEOs know how to execute. Palestine has the right climate for tourism, even casinos, but where are the pending deals from Steve Wynn and Donald Trump? Where are the plans to get Iraq into businesses other than oil and arms, Afghanistan into enterprises more lucrative than growing poppies for illegal drugs? Whatever goodwill that America still has comes from the world's desire for its knowledge of how to build a better economic life and some help in getting there. Encouragement and support for home-grown, indigenous entrepreneurs are needed.

It is imperative that the State Department create a Department of Business Development, hiring people from business, venture capital and investment banking, and even CEOs--and have advisory committees that draw on the enfire American business community. This is an opportunity for recent MBAs and young professionals to make a difference on a global, diplomatic, humanitarian, and "Marshall Plan" scale. Seasoned business moguls might find a more meaningful life in focusing on global wealth creation than competing for private sector deals. An American business "A-team" may have the exclusive ability to transform the world into a safer place and, therefore, our financial leaders should be challenged to become ambassadors of grassroots economic development, making it the heart of U.S. foreign diplomacy for the...