tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8593531793690391722011-08-05T13:50:12.725-04:00On fragile states, foreign assistance and stability operationsDevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.comBlogger431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-63464642778026917172010-05-19T15:33:00.002-04:002010-05-19T15:36:59.440-04:00

HuffPost story discussing the Government Accountability Office's evaluation of AFRICOM and CJTF-HOA's humanitarian/development/winning-hearts-and-minds efforts. Ultimately the GAO report isn't very satisfying, says what they always say about these things - no metrics, no plan. There are some interesting anecdotes though, like a lost school.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-53066184770999365872010-05-11T12:00:00.004-04:002010-05-11T12:11:11.627-04:00

Some commentators are prone to point to Pashtunwali and the idiosyncrasies of Pashtun culture to explain why establishing a stable government in Afghanistan is so difficult. We don't need to look far to discover strains within U.S. political culture. This excerpt is from the Oath Keeper's website:8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-87363890228027034062010-05-10T10:42:00.003-04:002010-05-11T11:36:56.582-04:00

Reuters reports that Hizbul Islam is attempting to clear out pirate enclaves from the coast of Somalia. Hizbul Islam argues that they're taking on a policing function that the government of Somalia they're fighting against is unable to undertake. The pirates themselves claim Hizbul Islam wanted a cut of the ransoms, and so they're now being punished for refusing.I've argued in the past against

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-83109165388890855432010-04-29T12:24:00.008-04:002010-04-29T13:42:02.567-04:00

The devil and development, indeed.Growing anti-market rhetoric deserves some answer. No one is seriously suggesting we shutter Wall Street, the danger is still reform being watered down, but rhetoric painting Wall Street's problem as greed and the complexity of derivatives a con man's sleight of hand could unintentionally distort the reformist agenda.Hernando De Soto has shown that the majority

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-26706525415795148742010-04-20T10:29:00.005-04:002010-04-20T17:40:29.352-04:00

Reagan once observed that "the most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Turns out if you're trying to build a market economy the only thing worse than too much government is not enough, according to a study by Brown, Earle and Gehlbach.Counterintuitively, their examination of privatized firms in post-Soviet Republics found that larger

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-50379345446734083322010-04-16T12:43:00.017-04:002010-04-20T18:03:14.943-04:00

How do we know when we've hit that "sweetspot" where we've adequately invested in our civilian foreign policy tools (e.g. diplomats and foreign assistance "carrots") versus how much we've spent on defense or homeland security. Unfortunately there's no complex quantitative model that can offer us a refined account of what that balance should look like - though considering the lack of trust we

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-47745278307509935502010-01-21T13:39:00.005-05:002010-04-16T11:48:32.495-04:00

The Cable picks up on DOD retaining the "Global Train and Equip Fund", also called 1206 for the section of the original authorizing legislation.The whole story is a little more complex. State ends up winning full control of the section 1207 funds - an account that allowed DOD to transfer funds to State to conduct stabilization and reconstruction programs. Whether State will continue to

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-88572508276172578412009-12-24T10:07:00.005-05:002010-04-16T11:49:09.280-04:00

I love Noah Shachtman, but wish that when he asks if the U.S. military can accomplish the train and equip mission in Afghanistan and shows a video highlighting not only ANA on drugs but also some Marines responding with a drill instructor mentality, he'd also point out his colleague David Axe captured on video another soldier using best practices.Here's what to do.Here's what not to do.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-67034784973797777432009-12-01T20:55:00.003-05:002009-12-01T21:00:03.529-05:00

Granted the strategy looks like a camel. But I like it anyway.The stakes in Afghanistan and Pakistan are too high to walk away lightly, but the obstacles to anything that looks like success are too high to confidently invest billions of dollars and thousands of lives in the endeavor. Rather than continue to drift into a Vietnam-like quagmire as we have been, or simply withdrawal with

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-45812230381844249622009-10-15T14:32:00.006-04:002010-04-16T11:50:10.388-04:00

There's a time limit to how long development advocates can frame their crusade in terms of national security. The reason the national security lens gets any purchase at all is because of fragile states, and fragile states only because of Afghanistan. If support for war in Afghanistan is deteriorating, how long before the tide shifts back against looking at development as a national security

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-53613630511925182072009-10-05T18:24:00.004-04:002009-10-05T18:37:26.278-04:00

The data tells a story of Pakistanis that fear their country is going in the wrong direction, but largely for economic reasons. Their perception of religious extremism, the Taliban and Al Qaeda as problems have grown. Support for military operations against the Taliban have grown, but those operations have to be Pakistani operations. They continue to oppose cooperation with the U.S. (Obama

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-4766884197227611252009-10-02T13:47:00.003-04:002009-10-02T13:49:51.932-04:00

Pincus points out the DOD is hiring contractors to translate the U.S. Army intelligence field manual into an Afghan-friendly version. Isn't this exactly how we're supposed to have learned not to do things? If you're trying to build capacity you have to follow the FUBU principle - "For Us, By Us."

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-23208496843060140262009-09-25T14:18:00.003-04:002010-04-16T11:50:35.927-04:00

While Sen. Levin is calling for the rapid expansion of Afghanistan's security forces - to facilitate a more rapid US withdrawal - the Senate Approps committee is cutting the Administration's request (sorry, CQ subscription).

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-2030791514625364122009-09-25T12:37:00.003-04:002010-04-16T11:51:45.655-04:00

Why should we care about governance capacity building, and why do our current aid institutions fail so miserably?Lockhart before the SFRC, 17 Sept 2009. Back in 2002, during the preparation of Afghanistan’s first post-Bonn budget, Afghanistan required a budget of $500m for the year to be able to pay its 240,000 civil servants (including doctors, teachers, and engineers) their basic salaries of

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-73930462513250520202009-08-17T12:34:00.003-04:002009-08-17T13:14:58.250-04:00

This is a great example of divorce between the conversation about the crisis in military readiness and the use of Supplementals/Overseas Contingency Operations funding.ArmyTimes.comAugust 16, 2009 Weapons Cuts To Pay For Army Troop IncreaseIn an Aug. 13 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., President Barack Obama asked that Congress consider amending the 2010 Pentagon budget request by

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-46434382957500178222009-03-19T15:41:00.002-04:002009-03-19T15:46:51.765-04:00

Many point to the U.S. ambassador's Chief of Mission authority as a natural place to rest interagency coordination. A recent Lockheed Martin analysis of AFRICOM's roles and missions lays out more baldly than usual the reach and limits of CoM authority.Acknowledge Chief of Mission authority (Ambassador as President’s representative) to grant entry to government personnel based on diplomatic

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-22631994958484726192009-03-03T17:54:00.004-05:002009-03-10T20:07:01.696-04:00

According to Larua Rozen at FP's The Cable, Gen. Jones appears to be completing the NSC's assertion of bureaucratic power, expanding NSC's mandate to chair not only the NSC's Principals Committee and Deputies Committee, but the Interagency Policy Committees as well. It'll be interesting to see if this is as decisive as expected without the President's explicit mandate in a PPD. It's not an

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-46470456284235442792009-03-02T14:42:00.005-05:002009-03-02T15:08:45.621-05:00

In case you haven’t seen it yet, President Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive – 1, “Organization of the National Security Council System.” Thanks to ArmsControlWonk for the link.I've a few points to make about how this ties in to the Karen DeYoung article from a couple weeks back in which Gen. Jones laid claim to controling the NSC process. His remarks seem to be reflected in this document,

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-43847040563144728332009-02-27T11:31:00.010-05:002009-02-27T12:57:26.958-05:00

This graphic shows the discrepancy between State and DOD regional organizations that the NSA, Gen. James Jones, said he was going to resolve (We'll see). Generally I like State’s org, but it's important to understand that the logic of these structures are driven by State and DOD's fundamentally different way of engaging the world. Not just defense vs. diplomacy. It's DOD's regional approach vs.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-27367752822483747412009-02-19T21:01:00.008-05:002009-02-19T21:57:45.192-05:00

Deputy Secretary Gordon England signed off on DoDD 1404.10 on January 23rd, just after inauguration. It establishes a DOD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce (CEW) that sounds a whole lot like State's Civilian Response Corps (CRC), run by the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization.Couple relevant questions:1) Will S/CRS have any authority over the CEW per NSPD-44?2) Will CRC

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-4990076897099826292009-02-17T19:28:00.009-05:002009-02-27T12:56:45.020-05:00

A favorite quote of mine: I love the F process. Now I know where all the money is going and what it's being used for.- Senate Appropriations StafferThis is the logic of an accountant, not a policy maker with a commitment to outcomes. [To understand why a remark like this about the F process can be frustrating - the above remark is reasonable on its face - you have to have a sense of what' s been

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-7989598303978943122009-02-17T17:07:00.010-05:002009-02-17T21:09:33.683-05:00

Dennis Ross was Middle East envoy and the chief peace negotiator for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. FP's The Cable says he will be President Obama's special envoy to Iran. Below is an excerpt from his 2007 book Statecraft, addressing some of the challenges to effective foreign policy.When it comes to exercising statecraft, the starting point, at least organizationally, is to

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-62918384896858220592009-02-17T13:42:00.005-05:002009-02-17T17:34:43.237-05:00

Schmidle's recent article in the New York Times Magazine highlights the new conventional wisdom on AQ franchising - not all brands are alike.The war against Al Qaeda will undoubtedly continue, but a more nuanced analysis of Al Qaeda has led to a more nuanced approach to combating terrorism and a reconsideration of how the strategy that guided the war on terror in its early years should be put

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-14110144319154589882009-02-17T10:46:00.010-05:002009-02-20T12:34:59.531-05:00

Creative Associates and Lockheed Martin put together a great conference on stability operations and foreign assistance reform - two conversations that need to be drawn together more. Couldn't stay for the whole thing, but the first panel with John Nagl, Andrew Natsios and other industry luminaries was great stuff.I was excited to see development and foreign assistance reform addressed as part of

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-22475710773085559282009-02-05T16:29:00.006-05:002009-02-17T17:32:23.715-05:00

GAO has a report assessing DOD's shortfalls in the development of a capability portfolio approach to acquisition. This points to just how challenging an interagency portfolio analysis would be to institutionalize. But it also indicates how sensible a decision this would be for the US to make. We've spent a long time gutting the civilian portions of our national security establishment, how do

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-58463774784227400052008-12-30T17:07:00.005-05:002009-02-17T17:32:03.180-05:00

If we were to have a truly whole of government approach to national security, that would include a systematic way of addressing requirements from a whole of government perspective, to enable rational whole of government resource allocation decisions. The DOD has had a capability portfolio "pilot program" for several years attempting to look at the analogous capability gaps and redundancies

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-20244787999041535052008-12-29T12:14:00.009-05:002008-12-29T18:07:45.125-05:00

Benjamin Friedman makes an important point about mistaking lessons-learned from Iraq and Afghanistan for a science of stabilization and development. We still haven't fully grasped the inherently political component in these operations, at least not in Afghanistan.Thought experiment: If Israel were to occupy Gaza for another 10 years following all the rules in FM 3-24, would the Palestinians

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-29760110466423610752008-12-29T11:26:00.010-05:002009-02-17T17:41:41.740-05:00

This fiasco with the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (an interagency counterterrorism program in the Sahel) reminds me strongly of the fights between State and DOD over providing security for PRTs in Iraq(took over a year).From a GAO report earlier this year:Second, disagreements about whether State should have authority over DOD personnel temporarily assigned to conduct TSCTP

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-40898505182452601382008-12-24T14:56:00.010-05:002009-02-20T09:59:49.470-05:00

Chris Blattman's Blog: Links I likedChris Blattman posted a link to this great article by Mamdani on the issue of military interventions targeted at preventing genocide. Mamdani's book on 1994 Rwanda is one of my favorite. Bottom line is that military interventions typically inflame the violence they're intended to halt.Why relevant? Samantha Power is off to the NSC.Mamdani's a challenging

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-44068847784285224992008-12-18T11:42:00.012-05:002009-02-17T21:06:02.571-05:00

For those of us who care about national security, it isn't enough to recognize that the US has underfunded our foreign assistance programs, we have to reassess the modalities. The DoD has a Building Partnership Capacity program to strengthen partner country militaries. It's difficult to take seriously State's "Governing Justly and Democratically" goal when almost all of our aid is delivered

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-43974595858917409522008-11-27T12:34:00.001-05:002008-11-27T12:46:24.230-05:00

Chris Blattman's Blog: How would you reduce aid dependence?Over the last several years I've sat through countless meetings in which NGOs and others from the development community have told me how wasteful it is for the U.S. military to be engaged in development projects. There's a great deal of truth in this. Lack of sustainability is one of the more common critiques. Chris Blattman points out

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-74496968409173310632008-11-24T14:57:00.005-05:002008-11-26T16:28:29.860-05:00

Was at an aid effectiveness conference in the UK last week. One of the interesting differences between the US and UK system pointed out to me by an official from the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) was that the UK doesn't have the same kind of prohibition on agencies targeting domestic audiences to promote themselves (Smith-Mundt). One of the more interesting instances is

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-49777071443204943132008-11-15T12:10:00.011-05:002008-11-15T13:46:05.393-05:00

Blattman's involved with a very interesting randomized experiment in Liberia on DDR methods. Also check out his posting on Easterly's attack on Collier's Bottom Billion.Also check out the panel Blattman spoke on yesterday. Great experiments on deliberative democracy/campaigning in the developing world (Benin) and the use of mass media for post-conflict reconciliation (impact on norms in Rwanda)

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-69215616040005366302008-11-08T22:55:00.008-05:002008-11-15T13:36:10.571-05:00

Jenny Aker has an interesting paper about the affect of cell phones on local development. Worth thinking about how the same networks that facilitate market transparency and long-term development also facilitate insurgent networks also facilitate counterinsurgency networks. What does this mean when you're in a place like Afghanistan where communication networks are more capital intensive than

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-85412483773396976862008-11-08T16:05:00.003-05:002008-11-08T22:53:03.391-05:00

Jared Diamond gave this TED talk back in 2003, but it was only just publicly posted in October this year. He gives a brief overview of his thesis from Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed.Though the discussion is facilitated by a wide variety of examples, clearly Diamond is concerned about the sustainability of our current global society. Sustainability is also an important issue for

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-23210372313014896792008-11-03T17:53:00.006-05:002008-11-05T13:59:24.075-05:00

Steven Biddle of CFR and Jeffrey Friedman of Harvard's Kennedy School put out this great study of Hezbollah's 2006 campaign through the Army's SSI. As noted in the report, a lot of folks have been looking at that campaign for lessons learned about the future of conflict. Non-state actors performing successfully in conflicts in an increasingly conventional (read maneuver and combined arms)

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-6422130150603411632008-11-01T19:54:00.006-04:002008-11-05T14:00:03.126-05:00

No, really. Will make you wax nostalgic. Thursdayborn has some great stuff here.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-45012104519349670882008-11-01T19:49:00.003-04:002008-11-05T14:00:18.891-05:00

Just stumbled across this, haven't had time to process it yet, but looks interesting. From April 2008, video and slides.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-63701072945621354152008-11-01T19:17:00.004-04:002008-11-08T16:12:48.281-05:00

I'm not endorsing this (I'm not in the solution business just now) but it's very much worth a listen. Tom Barnett sells his vision of what the future of the U.S. national security system looks like at the 2005 TED conference. His vision has large implication for USAID types. Plenty of rice bowls get broken, which is of course what makes it interesting. He's an engaging speaker to boot.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-11041763483050282132008-11-01T17:18:00.011-04:002008-11-15T13:38:35.129-05:00

The House Armed Services Committee held this hearing back in April 2008, but if you missed it, it's worth a look. This is the first time the Secretaries of Defense and State testified together before the House. Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies as well.This is fantastic introduction to some of the elements of contention between DOD, State, and USAID. If you don't

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-46140764502842911232008-10-31T15:05:00.006-04:002008-11-04T15:46:50.456-05:00

The TSCTP has generally been under reported. This GAO report is not a bad place to get spun up on what the U.S. is doing in the Sahel, and what we could be doing better. From July of this year.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-61128611193760375982008-10-31T15:02:00.004-04:002008-11-01T18:45:30.218-04:00

Great coverage. If you want to get spun up on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, watch this.

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859353179369039172.post-78237684140723807782008-10-29T21:31:00.003-04:002008-11-01T13:32:53.961-04:00

This blog will address:1. U.S. national security institutions and strategy2. Development and U.S. foreign assistance3. The politics affecting how we engage in the above.I hope to draw readers into this as a collaborative and contentious project, leading to real world change in practice and policy. Our ability to explore the overlap of these spheres will be our comparative advantage.But the proof

DevilandDevelopmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14710062269677891533noreply@blogger.com0