Today, I want to share an article with you by Mark Jamil.
During my tenure as a Policy Analyst at the Alliance for American Leadership (A4AL), I introduced the concept of the isolation-intervention pendulum: the recurring sociopolitical swing between expansive intervention and calls for isolation, driven by short‑term electoral incentives that abandon prior commitments and undermine long‑term stability. In that article, I noted that it was time for a durable foreign policy framework balancing security, human rights, and multilateral cooperation instead of the swinging pendulum.
Since then, A4AL has developed what is called the Two Penny Pledge, which calls for two percent of the federal budget to be spent on diplomacy and development.
Even with less than one percent funding, according to The Lancet, USAID saved an estimated 90 million lives over the past two decades through global health, famine relief, and anti-poverty programs. Now, the possibilities are endless for what two percent could accomplish: containing outbreaks like Ebola or screwworm, slowing climate change, or just further implementing a foreign policy plan that breaks the pendulum that I have discussed.
For me, I am particularly passionate about the 2 Penny Pledge because of how the United States could use this funding to support the rights of Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriacs (a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to Northern Iraq, Southeastern Turkey, Northwestern Iran, and Northeastern Syria, with a global population of 3-5 million). I use these three terms hyphenated in unity because of debate on whether these groups are affiliated with each other and if they descend from the Assyrian Empire alone or are more sectarian, with many Chaldeans arguing they descend from the Neo-Babylonian Empire and many Syriacs arguing they descend from the Arameans, as minorities in the Middle East.
In Syria, the country is in a transitional period after the fall of the Assad regime, where minority rights are a concern; Turkey where Turkish nationalist sentiment enshrined in the state; and in Iran, where the United States and Israel attacked the country, escalating a regional war and civilian casualties (including in Urmia which is a part of the Assyrian homeland). In the past, the community faced violence from war and genocides, especially recently by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The choice of Iraqi Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriacs was limited: flee their homeland, pay the jizya (non-Muslim tax), convert to Islam, or be killed. Families were displaced, including members of my extended family. Homes were marked with the Arabic letter Nūn (ن), marking them as “Nazarenes” (the Quranic word for Christians, which members of the community consider pejorative), and churches and historical artifacts were destroyed.
Currently, in Iraq, the Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriac community faces a range of issues: land grabs through land titles by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), vandalism of graves, and a lack of minority rights, which include an unfair quota system where non-Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriacs can elect politicians in the five given Christian (not Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriac) seats out of a total of 329 seats. This ends up resulting in the election of politicians and parties (e.g., the US sanctioned Rayan Al-Kildani’s pro-Iran Babylon Brigade) that go against minority interests.
In the ancestral homeland, churches and militias play a significant role in local laws and, at times, in which large-scale projects are completed; for projects that require local government approval, such as schools or water accessibility, the approval can be dependent on how the local government, church, and/or militia wants to be seen. This can lead to them denying approvals if they feel the project will engender locals to charities and not traditional or local authorities, or result in locals questioning why a charity is doing work the government should be doing.
This is of great matter to the United States. In Michigan alone, as a swing state, both Democrats and Republicans need to win elections; it is home to at least 187,000 community members who, despite their small number, contribute $17.6 billion to the state economy as of 2024. The benefit of Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriacs in the wider ancestral homeland is of benefit to both those in the diaspora and to Americans outside of the ethnic group. Diaspora communities maintain connections to their home countries and donate to charities. This fosters good sentiments toward the US and ideals we may aim to promote abroad, including trade and foreign policy.
Though one may ask: Why not let diaspora communities support their ethnic group without government support? The problem there is that the diaspora can only support so much. Members of the Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriac community in Michigan, like Americans as a whole, also need to put food on the table and fill their gas at the pump, and help further promote the economy in the state and country they live in. Not to mention, the United States helps create ease for non-governmental organizations to further projects and initiatives that they otherwise couldn’t accomplish.
In addition to this, in December of 2025, the United States inaugurated the US Consulate in Erbil with the KRG, which to date is the largest worldwide. This is significant as previously mentioned because of the KRG’s land grab belonging to Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriacs through land titles. The combination of US support for the KRG in Iraq and Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriacs being minoritized in their homeland creates a high impact on what funding brings. Impacts are high, as it allows KRG actors to have a greater say in how funding/economics and resources are shared, and to whom. This in turn affects local governments and trickles down to communities like mine.
When America backs KRG leaders and has the sole power of making economic decisions, it leads to minoritized villages being underfunded, causing the issues mentioned – land grabs, project approval issues, power dynamics, and, at times, militias trying to take control.
But one may ask, doesn’t this go against my entire argument in favor of foreign assistance and A4AL’s Two Penny Pledge? No, because as mentioned in my previous opinion article discussing the isolation-intervention pendulum, I called for reform where the US avoids complicity and refuses to provide financial or military assistance to countries and other actors that commit or worsen global atrocities and humanitarian emergencies.
We, as the United States, need reform in which we can both defend our national security and promote human dignity. Reducing our influence globally and reducing foreign assistance goes back to perpetuating the pendulum swinging in favor of isolation instead of having a new long-term foreign policy. American foreign relations, such as the US funding of the consulate in Erbil, help establish better relations with local communities, which helps combat terrorism at home and abroad; however, this shouldn’t entirely be at the expense of minoritized communities who live there and also simultaneously worsen the relations of other members in the local community and their diaspora.
The United States should pressure the KRG and Iraqi Central Government in how they treat communities like the Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriacs while combating terrorism. The United States should also be stern in how they support the KRG, as funding for the consulate, blanket support for the KRG, and waning support for the Iraqi Central Government due to Iranian support helps create an argument in favor of Kurdish independence and legitimization from Iraq (entirely disregarding the dynamics of possible Kurdish independence and autonomy in Syria, Iran, and Turkey). This impacts non-Kurds who live there and further destabilizes a region already facing instability, which impacts more than just minoritized communities and their diasporas. It affects the Middle East and its diaspora, who may decrease support and partnership with the US on fronts like the military and economy at home and abroad, and it affects the American people who have to pay more in lives through troops and in national security through preventing terrorism like what we saw on 9/11.
Plus, the United States can support non-governmental organizations, and has supported such organizations through USAID, that work with Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriac communities (e.g., the Shlama Foundation) and other minoritized groups (e.g., Nadia’s Initiative and Yazda, which pertain to the Yezidi community in Iraq).
From my perspective as a Chaldean-Assyrian American, what does two pennies bring? Revitalization. On the Chaldean-Assyrian side, it revitalizes an ethnic group that has suffered the consequences of the pendulum at home and abroad; it makes efforts to revive endangered languages like my native Sureth (a Neo-Aramaic language with Syriac and Akkadian influences, commonly known as Chaldean and Assyrian) from the brink of extinction at the source. It revitalizes the Chaldean-Assyrian-Syriac people and other minority groups like the Yezidis from being minoritized no longer and achieving further rights in Iraq, and away from the consequences brought upon by ISIS and the pendulum.
On the American side, the Two Penny Pledge revitalizes our standing in the world after constant faults in foreign policy, preventing the pendulum and its consequences; it helps create a positive outlook on the American Government and its people. Revitalization promotes stability, partnership, democracy, and self-governance for the community, which, in the long term, wouldn’t rely on the US giving aid. Instead, more money would benefit Americans in pursuit of the American dream and livelihood, promoting the economy they take part in and infrastructure. As an American, two pennies help promote a stronger border, countering irregular migration of people who otherwise wouldn’t leave their place of origin. Two pennies counter the influences of foreign adversaries like Iran, China, and Russia, who grapple for their hold on the Middle East, while increasing our soft power. Finally, it revitalizes minority groups across the globe, creating a connection to American values like freedom of religion and personal expression that many Americans, including myself, hold dear to our hearts.
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Mark Jamil is a graduate of Michigan State University and a Policy Analyst for the Alliance for American Leadership.
Join Mark and Sign the Two Penny Pledge
The full text of the Two Penny Pledge is included below:
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Dear Chair Collins, Ranking Member Murray, Chair Cole, and Ranking Member DeLauro,
We write to urge you to commit two percent of the federal budget to diplomacy and development in the Fiscal Year 2028 (FY28) appropriations bills. We call this commitment the Two Penny Pledge. The first penny strengthens longstanding national security programs. With less than one percent of the federal budget, U.S. international assistance has saved more than 90 million lives and helped lift more than one billion people out of poverty through famine relief, healthcare, education, and economic development.
The second penny would double the first’s impact. While existing programs target ongoing challenges, the additional funds would help address rising threats, including climate change, geopolitical competition, refugee crises, epidemics, and terrorism. From Ebola outbreaks to screwworm invasions, most crises are unpredictable, and Americans must be prepared.
Diplomacy and development are some of the most cost-effective investments taxpayers can make in our national security. Every $1 spent on activities that spur economic growth and political stability can avert spending of up to $103 on a future conflict. Strategic competitors, terrorists, and drug cartels move into the vacuum created when weak states collapse.
Ultimately, this commitment pays for itself. Before 2025, the U.S. government purchased roughly $2 billion a year in American-grown crops through Food for Peace, money that went straight to farmers across our country. Building stronger allies creates jobs for Americans: thirteen of America’s top fifteen export markets were once recipients of international assistance.
With America’s abandonment of decades-long partnerships, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has filled the gap. The CCP is bankrolling ports, power grids, and rail networks across the developing world through its Belt and Road Initiative. In 2025, global approval of China’s leadership surpassed America’s by the widest margin in nearly two decades, while disapproval of U.S. leadership hit a record high of 48 percent. We started investing in international assistance through the Marshall Plan to strengthen our allies and counter the Soviet Union. Today, different actors and an equally complex environment demand similar investments.
Americans understand the necessity of soft power. A June 2026 poll found that seven in ten Americans support increasing international assistance to two percent of the federal budget.
We urge you to support the Two Penny Pledge in the FY28 appropriations bills, and thank you for your leadership in strengthening American diplomacy and development.
If you have questions about the letter or suggestions for how we can make this pledge a reality, please contact outreach@A4AL.org
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