Just in time for the Service Nation Summit, the Brookings Institution released a paper Ten Times the Peace Corps: A Smart Investment in Soft Power by National Peace Corps Association President Kevin F. F. Quigley and Brookings Non-Resident Senior Fellow Lex Rieffel. The premise of the paper is that a giant challenge for our next president is to re-establish good foreign relations, and that for the United States to succeed diplomatically we will need to show the friendlier or “softer” side to our power, and that Peace Corps Volunteers have been one of the best people to showcase that side. Hence, sending more Volunteers out into the field will help us meet our diplomatic goals.
Today, Sept 6, Peace Corps house parties are meeting around the world to re-invigorate Peace Corps. (See below.) The text below I copied from More Peace Corps:
Through these parties, we hope to raise money, generate letters to lawmakers and get 5,000 sign-ups on http://www.MorePeaceCorps.org by the ServiceNation Conference on September 11th and 12th to show the presidential candidates that we are serious about doubling the Peace Corps. What happens after we reach 5,000? We go for 10,000 by October 14th, the historic anniversary of JFK’s speech at the student union of University of Michigan.
Click here to download a copy of our Organizer’s Toolkit with all the information you need to host your own House Party for MorePeaceCorps.
A huge thank you to all of our hosts!
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Have you hosted a More Peace Corps House Party, or attended? We’d love a report!
The New Service 
I would look up the NGOs and the history of soft power and civil society. These are academic working groups that have moved their way into foreign aid. Players on these teams are Peace Corps partners like Mercy Corps, the ONE program, Universities,etc.
The article misses the Safety and Security issues of being in countries where there is conflict, military coups, military dictators, etc. The NGOs that work in these areas under civil society and soft power are willing to work in dangerous countries and are paid very well to do this; like Afghanistan.