COMMENTARY
I saw Robert Naiman from this organization talking about the handling of the Gadhafi death by the NTC in Libya. In a perfect world, Naiman's views were correct, but this is not a perfect world, and his position, in my view is correct but academic.

I have an issue with an academic and legalistic view of the management of society and the economy. There is not enough time and not enough resources to do everything right ... something like triage needs to be done ... the issue in Libya today is to get as much done as possible to move everything forward ... and Gadhafi now is yesterday.

Peter Burgess

Mission

Just Foreign Policy is an independent and non-partisan membership organization dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy by mobilizing and organizing the broad majority of Americans who want a foreign policy based on diplomacy, law and cooperation.

Although Just Foreign Policy will focus exclusively on foreign policy, we appeal directly to Americans for whom foreign policy is not a primary concern.

We have seen through the Iraq war that unnecessary military actions can undermine civil liberties and democracy at home, and can be used to remove pressing domestic issues like the economy from the political agenda to the detriment of the great majority.

During the Cold War, the United States spent trillions of dollars on an arms race with the USSR. Yet we were able to create Medicare, Medicaid, and enact large enough increases in Social Security to drive the poverty rate among the elderly down. But for a number of reasons—fiscal, economic, and political—our current circumstances are very different.

For example, at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968, the U.S. gross federal debt was 43.5 percent of our economy and falling. Today it is over 67 percent and rising. Maintaining our current foreign and military policy and possible large increases in military spending will lead to declines in U.S. living standards.

U.S. foreign policy therefore threatens to impede—perhaps as never before—the country's economic and social progress. We cannot afford to leave it in the hands of the 'experts' without influence from the public.

Eventually the United States must move towards a more multilateral approach to foreign relations—one that relies less on raw U.S. military and economic power and more on international law and treaties, co-operation, and diplomacy. Our goal is to accelerate this transition through education, organization, and mobilization of concerned citizens.

Just Foreign Policy is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Sarah P. Burns
Director of Development

Sarah Burns lives in Los Angeles, CA, where she works in public affairs, fundraising, lobbying, and public advocacy. She has served as Director of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood, Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Women’s Foundation of California and Director of Development for the Institute of the Environment at UCLA.

From 1995–2000, she was a lobbyist for the United Nations Development Program, in Washington, DC, mobilizing resources from the U.S. Congress and the Administration. Her professional experience also includes serving as a Legislative Assistant and Foreign Policy Advisor in the U.S. Congress, and as a consultant to the State Department. She has covered international issues leading up to major UN conferences, and attended the major UN conferences on Environment, Development and Population.

Ms. Burns serves on the Boards of the National Women’s Political Caucus and the National Council of UNA-USA. She holds degrees from Boston College (B.A., Newton College of the Sacred Heart); the University of Madrid (M.A.) and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (MPA), with a focus on international development. She is fluent in Spanish.

Ms. Burns can be contacted at info[at]justforeignpolicy.org or (202) 448-2898.

Kate Gould
Director of Advocacy and Outreach

Kate Gould is the Director of Advocacy and Outreach at Just Foreign Policy. She brings the voices of Just Foreign Policy constituents to DC by engaging policymakers and partners in the peace and security community.

Previously, Kate worked on foreign policy issues for the Friends Committee on National Legislation and interned for the U.S. Senate. By invitation from CARE International, she conducted a needs assessment of local women's attitudes toward HIV/AIDS prior to the implementation of CARE's first HIV/AIDS education and testing program in rural Zanzibar. She taught English in the West Bank with AMIDEAST and helped coordinate a joint Israeli-Palestinian radio show with the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information in Jerusalem.

Kate holds a Bachelors degree in International Development from Western Washington University.

Kate can be contacted at info[at]justforeignpolicy.org or (202) 448-2898.

Megan Iorio
New Media Director

Megan Iorio is the New Media Director at Just Foreign Policy. She is in charge of both internal and external communications, including maintaining and expanding Just Foreign Policy's online presence, developing and implementing action and educational campaigns, coordinating messaging, and overseeing web, graphic, and video production.

Megan has been involved in Just Foreign Policy's work since 2008, when she began to contribute research, writing, and technical expertise to the organization's campaign to prevent a U.S. war with Iran. Previously, Megan was an editor at a New York post-production facility where she earned a number of professional credits working on television programs and independent films. She has also produced, directed and edited a number of independent projects, including a music video for an up-and-coming New York hip-hop artist, and a documentary on Coney Island boardwalk sensation Shoot the Freak.

Megan is a graduate of New York University, where she took a bachelors degree in Classics.

You can contact Megan at info[at]justforeignpolicy[dot]org or (202) 448-2898.

Chelsea Mozen
Director of Programs and Administration

Chelsea Mozen is Director of Programs at Just Foreign Policy. She coordinates Just Foreign Policy's sustained campaigns. She also manages administrative aspects of the organization.

Previously, Chelsea was the Assistant Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research where she received her Master of Arts degree in Economics. She has years of experience working as a grassroots organizer in the United States and Eastern Europe. She has appeared in Time Magazine, the BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Die Zeit, Die Welt, L’illustre Magazine, among others.

Chelsea is based in New York and can be contacted at info[at]justforeignpolicy.org or (202) 448-2898.

Robert Naiman
Policy Director

Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy. Mr. Naiman edits the Just Foreign Policy daily news summary and writes on U.S. foreign policy at Huffington Post. He is president of the board of Truthout. Naiman has worked as a policy analyst and researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. He has masters degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois and has studied and worked in the Middle East. You can contact him here.