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Robert H. Dorff
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U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE
Pillars of a New American
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CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
AND PEACEBUILDING: PILLARS OF A
NEW AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY
Volker C. Franke
Robert H. Dorff
Editors
October 2013
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The Strategic Studies Institute and the co-editors of this vol-
ume join in thanking the faculty, students, and staff of Kennesaw
State University (KSU) for their extraordinary efforts in orga-
nizing and implementing the symposium, and in the prepara-
tion of this book. We also extend a very special thanks to KSU
President Dr. Daniel S. Papp and Dr. Richard A. Vengroff, Dean
Emeritus of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences for
their energetic support of and commitment to the event and the
publication of this book. In addition, we would like to thank Dr.
iii
Jeffrey D. McCausland, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Re-
search and Minerva Chair at SSI; Mr. Doug Brooks, President
Emeritus of the International Stability Operations Association;
and Dr. Akanmu Adebayo, Professor of History and Director of
KSUs Center for Confict Management, for their skill ful modera-
tion of the panels. We appreciate the assistance of Mr. Edward
L. Mienie, INCM Ph.D. Candidate who, as graduate assistant for
the symposium, helped coordinate the conference logistics and
co-authored the conference brief; and INCM staff, including Pro-
gram Administrator Rose Procter, Program Coordinator Chelsea
van Bergen, and Student Assistant Audrey Adams, whose tire-
less efforts and great dedication ensured the suc cessful organiza-
tion and effective implementation of the symposium. Finally, our
thanks go to the INCM Ph.D. students, all of whom volun teered
to serve as program liaisons and campus guides to the panelists.
ISBN 1-58487-583-6
v
CONTENTS
Foreword ..................................................................... vii
1. Confict Management and Peacebuilding:
Pillars of a New American Grand Strategy ......... 1
Volker C. Franke and Robert H. Dorff
2. New Threats; New Thinking ............................... 15
Frederick W. Smullen
3. The Transatlantic Relationship: A Breaking
or Restorable Pillar of a New American
Grand Strategy? .....................................................29
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
4. The Nature and Demands of Smart Power ........41
Robert Kennedy
5. A Future U.S. Grand Strategy:
Confict Management Forever with Us,
Peacebuilding Not So Much................................. 99
Michael Lekson and Nathaniel L. Wilson
6. The Role of Peacebuilding and Confict
Management in a Future American Grand
Strategy: Time for an Off Shore
Approach? ............................................................133
Charles J. Dunlap, Jr.
7. Always an Outsider: U.S. Military Role in
International Peacebuilding ...............................159
William Flavin
8. Thinking Globally, Acting Locally:
A Grand Strategic Approach to Civil-Military
Coordination in the 21st Century ..................... 193
Christopher Holshek
9. Peacebuilding and Development:
Challenges for Strategic Thinking .....................241
Fouzieh Melanie Alamir
10. Forces of Order and Disorder: Security
Providers and Confict Management ................271
Michael Ashkenazi
11. Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response
Options: Addressing the Policy Challenges..... 295
Dwight Raymond
12. The United States, China, and India
in the New World Order: Consequences
for Europe ............................................................ 317
Liselotte Odgaard
13. Negotiating the Pitfalls of Peace and Security
in Africa and a New American Grand
Strategy: African Union Peace and Security
Architecture and the U.S.
Africa Command .................................................339
Kwesi Aning and Festus Aubyn
14. U.S. Grand Strategy and the Search
for Partners: South Africa as a Key
Partner in Africa ................................................. 369
Abel Esterhuyse
About the Contributors ............................................ 399
vi
vii
FOREWORD
On February 24, 2012, Kennesaw State University
(KSU) and the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the
U.S. Army War College (USAWC), conducted a sym-
posium en titled Peacebuilding and Confict Manage-
ment: Pillars of a New American Grand Strategy.
The symposium built on the results of the 2011 KSU-
SSI symposium that examined the utility of the U.S.
Governments whole-of-government (WoG) approach
for responding to the challenging security demands
of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on this
earlier evaluation of the benefts and shortcomings of
the WoG approach in the feld and the integration of
operational and tactical demands generated by new
security challenges, the 2012 symposium examined
more closely the strategic objectives of interagency
cooperation specifcally in the areas of peacebuilding
and confict management.
In addition to the dual focus on peacebuilding and
confict management, the symposium was designed to
examine one of the ongo ing research interests in the
SSI academic engagement series: the role of WoG ef-
forts in addressing contemporary national and inter-
national security challenges and opportunities. In
addition, the topics covered by the panelists created
important synergies with SSIs 2012 Annual Strategy
Conference, which examined challenges and oppor-
tunities for the future of U.S. grand strategy in an
age of austerity. Four symposium panels addressed
the following topics: The Role of Peacebuilding and
Confict Management in a Future American Grand
Strategy, More than a Military Tool: Strengthen-
ing Civil-Military Cooperation in Peacebuilding,
Peace and Development: Key Elements of a New
viii
Grand Strategy, and Confict Management, Peace-
building, and a New American Grand Strategy: Views
from Abroad.
The symposium discussions ranged from the
conceptual to the practical, with a focus on the chal-
lenges and de sirability of interagency cooperation in
international interventions. Invited panelists shared
their experi ences and expertise on the need for and
future of an American grand strategy in an era char-
acterized by increasingly complex security challenges
and shrinking budgets. Panelists agreed that tak-
ing the status quo for granted was a major obstacle
to developing a successful grand strategy and that
government, the military, international and nongov-
ernmental organizations, and the private sector are all
called on to contribute their best talents and efforts to
joint global peace and security efforts. The panelists
engaged the audience in a discussion that included
viewpoints from academia, the military, government
agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and indus-
try. Despite the broad range of viewpoints, a num-
ber of overarching themes and tentative agreements
emerged. The reader will fnd them in the chapters of
this edited volume.
KSU and SSI are pleased to present this book, and
we hope that readers will engage us further in the
kinds of issues and debates that surfaced during the
symposium and that are captured and extended in the
pages that follow. In the interest of both national and
international security, we must continue to debate is-
sues pertinent to strategy and strategic decisionmak-
ix
ing and develop effective tools for the implementation
and coordination of strategies of peacebuilding and
confict man agement.

DOUGLAS C. LOVELACE, JR.
Director
Strategic Studies Institute and
U.S. Army War College Press
1
CHAPTER 1
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
AND PEACEBUILDING: PILLARS OF A
NEW AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY
Volker C. Franke
Robert H. Dorff
The United States must renew its leadership in the
world by building and cultivating the sources of our
strength and infuence. Our national security de-
pends upon Americas ability to leverage our unique
national attributes, just as global security depends
upon strong and responsible American leadership.
President Barack Obama,
2010 U.S. National Security Strategy
INTRODUCTION
In June 2009, President Obama traveled to Egypt
to make good on a campaign promise to mend U.S.
relations with the Muslim world and to repair Amer-
icas tarnished image in the world. Immediately after
taking over the White House, President Obama had
launched a series of foreign policy initiativese.g.,
ordering the closure of the U.S. detention facility in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; sending additional troops
to Afghanistan while ordering the withdrawal of all
combat troops from Iraq; promoting democratic re-
form, economic development, and peace and security
across the Middle East and North Africa; and negoti-
ating and ratifying a new Strategic Arms Reduction
2
Treaty (START) with Russia
1
that presented a sharp
turn-around from the George W. Bush administra-
tions go-it-alone approach to fghting a global war
on terror (GWOT) that had turned away allies and
friends and angered public opinion worldwide.
Indeed, Obamas embrace of diplomacy and coop-
eration made him popular abroad and revived Amer-
icas image, eventually leading to him being awarded
the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The prize committee cele-
brated President Obama for his extraordinary efforts
to strengthen international diplomacy and coopera-
tion between peoples and for giving people around
the world hope for a better future founded in the
concept that those who are to lead the world must do
so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared
by the majority of the worlds population.
2
Despite obvious differences between the Obama
and Bush administrations foreign and national secu-
rity policies, both Presidents seem to share one com-
mon conviction: that other countries long for U.S.
leadership and that U.S. policies ought to manifest
Americas leadership position in the world.
3
Not-
withstanding mounting global criticism of American
unilateralism and straining transatlantic relations, the
Bush administration was convinced that friends and
allies would eventually come around and rally to the
side of the United States, even if they bristled at its
actions, because they shared Americas goals and val-
ues and had faith in its motives. But fexing Ameri-
can muscles in Iraq and Afghanistan not only turned
Washingtons partners away, it also led to nuclear sa-
ber rattling by Iran and North Korea and left the U.S.
Government with a mounting defcit.
3
As the 2008 election neared, it had become clear
that the United States could no longer afford the Bush
practice of bullying other countries to ratify changes
we hatch in isolation.
4
Instead, President Obama ad-
vocated a strategy no longer driven by ideology and
politics but rather one that is based on a realistic as-
sessment of the sobering facts on the ground and our
interests in the region.
5
Obama believed that a United
States that listened more to others, stressed common
interests and favored multinational action would com-
mand followers. In practice, however, Obama discov-
ered that in a globalized world, where power has been
more widely dispersed, many countries are indiffer-
ent to American leadership. In the same vein, describ-
ing the political and economic ascendance of countries
such as China, India, Brazil, Russia, or South Africa,
Fareed Zakaria has argued that the world is shifting
from the hostile Anti-Americanism that characterized
much of the Bush presidency to a post-Americanism
where power is far more diffuse and dispersed across
a wider array of countries.
6
But not only that, nonstate
actors are becoming increasingly important players in
the geopolitical terrain as well.
Even if Washington led wisely and sympatheti-
cally, James Lindsay has argued, others might not
follow. Consultations could not guarantee consen-
sus.
7
Given these new global realities, how are U.S.
interests to be promoted in a world in which others
no longer blindly follow the single most powerful and
infuential country? What are the prospects for Ameri-
can leadership, and what are appropriate strategic re-
sponses to emerging security threats? What principles
should inform the development of those responses?
What, in other words, should be the elements of a new
grand strategy guiding the formulation of American
foreign and national security policy?
4
Since the end of World War II, U.S. policies have
been informed by changing and at times compet-
ing ideas about Americas role in the world, shift-
ing among visions promoting neo-isolationism,
selective engagement, cooperative security, and
primacy.
8
None of these visions, however, are suf-
fcient to address the rapidly changing nature of to-
days global security context and provide a coherent
and comprehensive organizing framework to protect
and promote U.S. national security at home or abroad.
Unless the Presidentirrespective of party or politi-
cal persuasionfnds a way to align foreign policy
prescriptions with evolving global trends, Lindsay
warns, the gap between American aspirations and
accomplishments will grow, and the prospects for
successful US global leadership will dim further.
9
In an effort to discuss visions and ideas for a future
U.S. grand strategy based on diplomacy and coopera-
tion, on February 24, 2012, a number of leading civil-
ian and military experts came together at a sympo-
sium held at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw,
GA, to evaluate the usefulness and practicality of con-
fict management and peacebuilding as key pillars to
the development of a new American grand strategy.
10

The 2012 symposium built on the results of a success-
ful 2011 symposium that examined the utility of the
U.S. Governments whole-of-government approach
for responding to the challenging security demands of
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
11
This volume presents the central arguments and
key fndings of the 2012 symposium, tracing the central
plans and policies that ought to comprise Washing-
tons efforts to harness political, military, diplomatic,
and economic tools together to advance U.S. national
interests in an increasingly complex and globalizing
5
world. Authors contributing to this volume tackle
strategic choices for effectively addressing emerg-
ing security threats, integrating confict management
approaches into strategic decisionmaking, sharing
the burden of peacebuilding and stability operations
between military and civilian actors, strengthening
civil-military cooperation in complex operations,
and enabling the timely scaling-down of military
deployments.
The frst part of this volume lays out some of the
specifc threats, challenges, and opportunities of the
emerging strategic global security environment and
offers some more general recommendations for stra-
tegic responses to those challenges. In Chapter 2, for-
mer Chief-of-Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell,
Frederick W. Smullen III, presents a comprehensive
overview of the challenges that characterize the global
national security landscaperanging from terrorism
and piracy to hunger and humanitarian issues, to pan-
demics, climate change, energy and resource security,
and the global economic crisis. Facing this plethora of
challenges, Smullen advocates that the United States,
as the remaining single global superpower, can and
should lead by example, taking strategic advantage of
a moment in history that offers the opportunity to heal
Americas global image, strengthen its infuence with
like-minded nations, and (re)earn respect as a solid
citizen nation of the world.
Focusing specifcally on challenges to transatlan-
tic relations, in Chapter 3 former German Defense
and Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Gutten-
berg warns of the danger of disconnection through
connection, i.e., that new and intertwined global
challenges and shifts of power risk marginalizing
traditional partnerships and multinational institu-
6
tions. Identifying the paradox that the circumstances
requiring better global governancee.g., conficting
interests and incentives, divergent values, or differ-
ing normsare also the ones that make its realization
incredibly complex and often unpleasant, Guttenberg
calls for a bold and long-term strategic vision that rein-
vigorates the transatlantic relationship by promoting
a global democratic political culture based on respect
for cultural differences. Any new American grand
strategy, Guttenberg argues, ought to move beyond
short-term thinking and ad hoc procedures to change
the transatlantic narrative so national populations can
understand the complexities and dilemmas within
which institutions from the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization (NATO) and the United Nations (UN) to
the European Union (EU) operate and reach out past
the old West to bring emerging powers such as Bra-
zil, Russia, China, or India into the global dialogue, so
they will shoulder greater global responsibility while
recognizing the limits of their own power.
Although acknowledging the many and varying
threats to U.S. national security in the years and decades
to come, Robert Kennedy argues in Chapter 4 that per-
haps the greatest challenge for the United States will
arise from a continued relative shift in power from the
worlds predominant political, economic, diplomatic,
and military superpower to primus inter pares in world
affairs. Thus, to meet the challenges ahead including
its readjustment in status, Kennedy argues, Wash-
ington must wisely apply the instruments of national
powerpolitical, economic, psychological, and mili-
tary. Chapter 4 addresses specifcally the origins and
nature of national power: its sources and the means by
which those are transformed into preferred outcomes
in the international arena and the instruments states
7
use to do so, and examines the likely demands arising
from soft and hard power to be molded into what is
fashionably called smart power.
Presenting an overview of the origins, present
state, and prospects of the international security or-
der, Michael Lekson and Nathan Wilson conjecture in
Chapter 5 that traditional peacebuilding in the sense
of stabilization, institution building, and democratiza-
tion, while remaining an active and important com-
ponent of international relations, will decrease in im-
portance to a future American grand strategy and an
even smaller part in actual practice. Instead, Lekson
and Wilson argue the need for confict management,
understood as a mix of defense and diplomacy, will
increase in the future. As a result, both diplomats and
the military will have to place a premium on fexibility
and practice selective engagement, especially in an en-
vironment where threats and challenges are multifold
and resource allocations remain tight. The adage do-
ing more with less, Lekson and Wilson criticize, not
only serves as a guide to policy but also as a conve-
nient pretext to avoid prioritization. In short, the au-
thors conclude, There will be no shortage of conficts
to manage, and we will all need to keep getting better
at it if we want this story to have a happy ending.
Given the enormous cost in casualties and resources
in Americas post-September 11, 2001 (9/11) wars,
Charles J. Dunlap, Jr. argues in Chapter 6, the United
States needs to consider alternative approachesto
include especially peacebuilding and confict manage-
mentto accomplish its strategic goals. Dunlap con-
jectures that it is incumbent upon the Armed Forces to
develop methodologies to accomplish these missions
in a way that is supportable by the American public.
To achieve this, Dunlap proposes an off shore ap-
8
proach based on a light military footprint that lever-
ages Americas asymmetric advantages in high tech-
nology as a means of addressing emerging security
challenges without necessarily putting large forces on
the ground. Off-shore peacebuilding and confict man-
agement will not work in every instance, but can serve
as a starting point when the next challenge arises. At
the end of the day, however, Dunlap concludes, any
off shore strategy must recognize that the central task
of peacebuilding and confict management must be
developing local capabilities.
International peacebuilding, William Flavin argues
in Chapter 7, is at its heart a host nation challenge and
responsibility, and national factors will shape its pace
and sequencing. As a result, Flavin contends, the U.S.
military will always remain an outsider to the peace-
building process and the country it is trying to assist.
Irrespective of what the military will try to do to shape
the outcome, the host nation has its own objectives and
ideas and, as the infuence of the military force wanes,
local imperatives will take over. Flavin cautions that
the military can never have suffcient knowledge
about the host country and the other international
actors because of its own institutional processes and
the temporary nature of its involvement. Neverthe-
less, its unique ability to plan, organize, respond, and
mobilize resources ensures that the U.S. military will
continue to undertake a wide variety of tasks beyond
its basic combat skills, making short-term security the
sine-qua-non and peacebuilding a secondary function
of military operations in the future.
Given the grand strategic imperatives of the 21st
century, Christopher Holshek contends in Chapter 8,
the civil-military nexus of confict management and
peacebuilding is more relevant to international en-
9
gagements and American grand strategy today than
ever before. However, Americas current civil-mili-
tary approach to foreign policy and national security
remains largely based on an outdated national secu-
rity paradigm, itself predicated on Cold War thinking,
that has been revitalized since 9/11. Instead, Holshek
calls for a more enlightened approach to civil-military
coordination that is not based on a tradeoff between
idealism and realism, but one where those who bring
democracy serve as true ambassadors of the concept
and exemplify its tenets in their daily interactions
with local populations. Such applied civil-military co-
ordination must mirror the civil-military relationship
in democratic societies and the actions of uniformed
personnel must be consonant with the values of the
democratic societies they represent. When Americans
think globally and act locally, make their actions con-
sonant with their core values, and embrace a new ethos
of engagement, they can transform both their environ-
ment and themselves. However, failure to recognize
this, he warns, risks further deterioration of Ameri-
can global leadership and the security and prosperity
resulting from it.
Examining the strategic challenges at the intersec-
tion between peacebuilding, development, and secu-
rity, Melanie Alamir argues in Chapter 9 that strategic
thinking that tends to treat actors and societies in de-
veloping countries as mere objects in pursuing their
own countries national interests, contradicts the key
development tenet of local ownership. Strategic think-
ing that is marked by a general confdence in instru-
mental rationality that for the most part disregards
the relevance of perceptions, emotions, identities,
and beliefs, and is characterized by an engineering
mindset based on hierarchy, predictability, order, and
10
sequence cannot be applied to planning for peace-
building and development. Instead, it tends to take
political decisions for granted, focusing on how to
implement them rather than to question their wisdom.
Peacebuilding and development, however, require
permanent monitoring, evaluation, and the fexibility
to question not only tactics, but also goals, if needed.
Alamir concludes that strategic thinking needs more
fexibility, making the likelihood of delay, setbacks,
detours, or failure integral elements of any effective
future grand strategy. The main challenge, she conjec-
tures, is to reconcile dominant top-down approaches
along with their engineering logic with the ambigu-
ity, unpredictability, and uncontrollability of contem-
porary security threats and challenges.
Heeding Alamirs call for a more fexible and sen-
sitive strategic approach to peacebuilding, Michael
Ashkenazi argues in Chapter 10 for greater nuancing
in the strategic discourse particularly by recognizing
how interactions between low-level actorsindividu-
als and small groupscan have major impacts on
the outcomes of strategies. Ashkenazi examines his
claim by developing a concept of security providers
encompassing different types of more or less struc-
tured formations that engage in security. Using iden-
tifable rewardscash, emotional gratifcation from
association, legal support, and ideologyAshkenazi
contends that variations in the relative strength of
these rewards over time cause formations to move
in the mapped space toward one or another of the
four ideal types. Ashkenazi concludes that identify-
ing these rewards and manipulating them over time
must be incorporated into strategic thinking. Where
an international actor such as the United States has a
strategic interest in ensuring stability, peace, develop-
11
ment, democracy, and other social goods, it is crucial
to identify and resolve micro-level problems that, in
the aggregate, can cause a strategy to fail.
Examining Americas strategic efforts specifcally
in the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide,
Dwight Raymond reviews in Chapter 11 the policy
formulation contained in the governments recent
Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Options
(MAPRO) planning process.
12
Raymond criticizes that
competing national interests oftentimes dissuade ac-
tion, that risk-averse bureaucracies tend to support
status quo approaches, and that the complex nature of
security problems may not be conducive to clear-cut
decisions in the interest of stopping perpetrators and
protecting innocent victims. Reviewing the recently
released MAPRO Handbook, Raymond provides an
outline for effective interagency cooperation to help
policymakers wrestle with MAPRO decisions and as-
sociated risksalthough much of the Handbook is
also applicable to other complex situations involving
confictby providing a rational yet feasible process
for contingency planning as well as crisis response.
The fnal part of this volume examines how Amer-
icas strategic choices are perceived from abroad.
Evaluating Washingtons reorientation away from
the Atlantic to the Pacifc, especially with China and
India as rising competitors, Liselotte Odgaard con-
tends in Chapter 12 that any future world order will
be dominated by Americas pursuit of an integration-
ist world order and Chinas pursuit of a coexistence
world order. The different U.S. and Chinese versions
of international order give rise to an international
system without clear rules because of the lack of one
coherent set of principles of international conduct.
In this in-between system, she argues, India and Eu-
12
rope will be takers rather than makers of that future
order, facing the challenge of carving out a position
in-between these two competing world orders, and
security threats will be addressed primarily through
ad hoc frameworks of confict management.
Turning to Africa, Kwesi Aning and Festus Aubyn
examine in Chapter 13 the history of U.S. engagements
in Africa, especially in the peace and security arena
and juxtapose Americas grand strategic calculations
with Africas own perceptions of and responses to its
security challenges. In addition, Aning and Aubyn ex-
plore how in the face of common challenges both the
African Union (AU) and the United States can identify
and respond to their security challenges in a manner
that makes this relationship a win-win one instead of
the present one driven by suspicion, competition, and
outright hostility. Unfortunately, Aning and Aubyn
conclude that U.S. policy toward Africa has remained
largely intact under the Obama administration, still
pursuing that same militarized and unilateral secu-
rity approach toward Africa policy employed by the
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. It
is important, Aning and Aubyn conjecture, for the
United States not to see Africa at the periphery of its
foreign policy engagements but rather to devote re-
sources to strengthening the operational and tactical
components of AU peace support operations, focus on
bolstering the civilian capabilities for the AUs confict
management activities, increase its economic support
to bridge the AUs bureaucratic and institutional ca-
pability gaps in confict management, and reconcile
its interest with African human security needs such
as poverty, unemployment, access to clean water, and
the HIV/AIDs pandemic.
13
Dove-tailing on the geopolitical challenges out-
lined by Odgaard and the African context presented
by Aning and Aubyn, Abel Esterhuyse examines in
Chapter 14 specifcally the role of South Africa as a key
partner in the pursuit of U.S. strategic interests in Af-
rica. Reviewing the historically rather limited involve-
ment in African security by either country, Esterhuyse
contends that perceptions in South Africa about the
United States and, specifcally how the United States
prefers to conceptualize and respond to perceived
threats, have been shaped predominantly by the ki-
netic-driven U.S. involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan
and, more recently, Libya. The creation of U.S. Africa
Command (AFRICOM) further reinforces this percep-
tion. South Africans view their own military involve-
ment in Africa as human security-related and that of
the United States as military security-orientated. For
the current Action Council of Nigeria (ANC) govern-
ment, U.S. military involvement in Africa is seen as
a force of destruction shaped largely by conventional
warfghting applications, while South African mili-
tary involvement is driven by the human security and
peacetime applications of military force. As a result,
as long as these perceptions remain, strategic coopera-
tion between both countries will be diffcult to achieve.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 1
1. A comprehensive list of foreign policy initiatives is avail-
able from www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy. See also James
M. Lindsay, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the Future of
US Global Leadership, International Affairs, Vol. 87, No. 4, 2011,
pp. 765-779.
2. The text of the Nobel Prize citation is available from
www.reuters.com/article/2009/10/09/us-nobel-peace-citation-text-sb-
idUSTRE5981RA20091009.
14
3. See Lindsay, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the
Future of US Global Leadership.
4. Barack Obama, Renewing American Leadership, Foreign
Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 4, July-August 2007, pp. 2-16.
5. Ryan Lizza quoted in Lindsay, George W. Bush, Barack
Obama and the Future of US Global Leadership, p. 773.
6. Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World, London UK:
Norton, 2009.
7. Lindsay, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the Future
of US Global Leadership, p. 779.
8. Barry R. Posen and Andrew L. Ross, Competing Visions
for U.S. Grand Strategy, International Security, Vol. 21, No. 3,
Winter 1996/97, pp. 5-53.
9. Lindsay, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and the Future
of US Global Leadership, p. 779.
10. Details of the 2012 KSU-SSI Symposium is available from
www.kennesaw.edu/ksussi/2012/index.php.
11. For details of the 2011 KSU-SSI Symposium, see Volker C.
Franke and Robert H. Dorff, eds., Confict Management and Whole
of Government: Useful Tools for U.S. National Security Strategy?
Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College,
2012, available from www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/
display.cfm?pubID=1102.
12. Dwight Raymond, Cliff Bernath, Don Braum, and Ken
Zurcher, Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Options (MAPRO):
A Policy Planning Handbook, Carlisle, PA: Peacekeeping and Sta-
bility Operations Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2012, avail-
able from pksoi.army.mil/PKM/publications/collaborative/collaborati-
vereview.cfm?collaborativeID=11.
15
CHAPTER 2
NEW THREATS; NEW THINKING
Frederick W. Smullen
The author paints a picture of a global national se-
curity landscape as he views it, what the challenges
are, and what can be done, so readers can ponder what
these challenges mean to citizens who care about our
welfare, our security, and the safety of this country
and the world at large. Therefore we should look at
the global landscape to try and make sense of it and
ponder what it bodes for the future. It would be easy
to dismiss current events simply by saying, We live
in interesting times, as went the old Chinese proverb.
The truth is, weve always lived in interesting times.
If you think about it, the challenges that face us today
seem so broad and so interconnected. They increase,
they evolve, but our thinking evolves as well.
Lets take a closer look at the environment and
times in which we fnd ourselves. The world of to-
day is a crucible of challenges. This is an era in which
problems and threats have become global concerns in
ways once unthinkable. As a nation, we have always
known crisis and always will. But what is different, if
anything, about the crises of today compared to those
of the past? For one thing, most crises in the past had
a beginning and an end. Although painful along the
way, you knew they would not, indeed could not,
last forever. Todays crises tend to defy predictabil-
ity. They rise up in larger numbers, many occurring
simultaneously, and they seem to persist far longer.
Some are unforeseen and diffcult to prepare for; oth-
ers loom as threats that draw our attention. At the top
16
of many threat lists is terrorism, something that shook
our national sense of invulnerability on September
11, 2001 (9/11) and captured our call to action so as
to protect the homeland from the likes of al-Qaeda,
which is evolving. Our thinking needs to evolve too.
Even before the killing of Osama Bin Laden, al-Qa-
eda had changed. Their operational planning capabili-
ties, including the attack on the USS Cole, the World
Trade Center bombing, and the subsequent 9/11 at-
tacks, bruised and rallied a nation. Once a formidable
terrorist organization with a media wing, it is now
more of a media organization with a terrorist wing.
Yet grave threats remain: lone wolf attacks, such as
the so called underwear bomber on Christmas Day
2009, the attempted Times Square bombing in 2010, an
attempted bombing in 2011, and an attempted bomb-
ing of the U.S. capital in 2012 by a Moroccan citizen
who had been living in the United States illegally for
the past 12 years. These threats loom and will stay
with us. There has been a rise in prominence of al-Qa-
eda inspired and affliated groups, such as al-Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). We cannot be lulled
into thinking that these groups are only concerned
with local and regional grievances. The package bomb
plot emanating from Yemen in 2010 is proof that this
force can be projected. We must strive to understand
these groups better, and work toward the eradica-
tion of the root causes of extremism that give rise to
these groups. Ironically, before his death last year, the
spiritual leader of AQAP was Answar Al-Awlaqi, an
American of Yemen descent, who inspired Islamic ter-
rorists to take action against the West. Make no mis-
take about it, Osama Bin Laden may be dead, but his
legacy lives on.
17
Global piracy is a swiftly moving threat. Piracy
threatens and slows down commercial shipping, has
a chilling effect on world trade, increases commodity
prices, and contributes to regional insecurity. Pirates
have thrived in recent years, maintaining a high level
of attacks for the ffth straight year. In 2011, pirates
attacked 439 ships and took 802 people hostage. The
threat continues in 2012, as 37 attacks took place in
January alone. Pirates currently hold hostage 10 ships
and 159 crew members of various nationalities. So-
mali pirates remain the biggest threat accounting for
54 percent of all global attacks. But the dangers of
piracy were brought closer to home in January 2012
when an American citizen was rescued in Somalia by
U.S. Navy Seals after being held captive by pirates
for 3 months. The ransoms are also growing bigger.
In mid-November 2010, a South Korean supertanker
anchored for months off the city of Hobyo in central
Somalia fetched a $10 million ransom. Raids by South
Korean and Malaysian commands in January 2012
have taught us that we need to deal differently with
these pirates, and what do I mean by that? We need to
take, in my view, the fght to them before they reach
the high seas. We need to get them where they live,
where they grow, each and every day. It is a growing
problem, and one that we need to be concerned about.
Hunger and humanitarian issues do not seem as
threatening but do pose problems. The humanitar-
ian concerns of the so-called bottom billion, those
people living on less than $1 a day, and the plight of
internally displaced persons and refugees, as well as
those suffering from hunger, lack of clean water, and
basic medical care are concerns. The nearly two billion
undernourished people in the world call for urgent
government action to ensure the future sustainability
18
of the worlds food supply. If you think about it, the
Middle East is a classic case. A related concern is the
rising price of food, which is increasingly in shorter
supply. It is a historical truth that when food prices
rise, confict increases. Many of these issues create the
conditions that are fertile breeding ground for danger-
ous ideologies.
Pandemics pose an entirely new set of challenges,
and ones that evolve constantly. The threat posed
by pandemics, be they naturally occurring or hu-
man caused through the use of a weaponized bio-
logical agent, is astronomical. The speed with which
naturally occurring crises may be evolving may be
directly related to the speed of travel and mobility
of people in todays world. The severe acute respi-
ratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in China in 2003
illustrated that.
In this increasingly interdependent world, the ef-
fects of climate change and the persistently slow re-
sponses to it are a concern. Even if the current pace
of emissions reductions continues, the earth will be at
least 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer
at the end of this century than at the start of the in-
dustrial revolution. The devastating effects of climate
change do not just bring humanitarian crises to the de-
veloping world, they affect how humans live and will
live in the future. Natural disasters around the world,
like the powerful tsunami in Japan, the earthquakes
in New Zealand, the foods in Thailand, and the hur-
ricanes and tornadoes in America were very visible
reminders, yet again, that the concerns of the worlds
people are often interconnected. Those global calami-
ties in 2011 alone caused an estimated $350 billion
in damage.

19
There will be other threats, less bellicose but
threats nevertheless. Demands for highly strategic
resources including energy, food, and water outstrip
available supplies. Our quest to develop new sources
of energy, even as we continue to exploit existing
ones, is certainly not without challenges. There will be
a predictable transition away from oil toward natural
gas, coal, and other alternatives. Demand for food will
increase as populations rise. Stable supplies of water,
especially for agricultural purposes, will reach criti-
cal proportions. Will we mobilize a global economy
to ensure energy sustainability through renewable re-
sources and transition away from oil toward natural
gas, coal, and other alternatives?
A crippling cyber attack on our nations electronic
infrastructure could have devastating consequences;
cyber warfare and cyber espionage threaten privacy
and personal security, economics, governments, and
businesses. Our reliance upon these systems has
grown exponentially over the years, and security must
keep up with the new challenges presented every day
as, increasingly, government and corporate internet
sites are being hacked.
The threat posed by weapons of mass destruction
(WMD), such as nuclear, chemical, and biological, is
unthinkable. Nation states must work diligently and
work together to decrease proliferation of these arms.
The imperative is to prevent these materials from fall-
ing into the hands of nonstate actors whose irrational
actions could truly jeopardize our way of life and
place other international actors, ally, and adversary
alike, in catastrophic situations.
20
PRESERVATION OF THE FORCE
Our nations Armed Forces, the fnest and brav-
est in the world, have seen over a decade of multiple
deployments that have left our force depleted. Yes,
we are no longer in Iraq and we are redeploying from
Afghanistan, but care must be given to not break the
force. Besides the nearly 6,200 killed and more than
47,000 wounded, thousands upon thousands have
returned from these conficts victims in other ways;
missing limbs and suffering catastrophic brain inju-
ries, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and high
depression and suicide rates, which hit another record
high of 164 active-duty Army in 2011. There were 124
in the National Guard and Reserves nonmobilized
who took their lives. Another alarming statistic is
that in 2011, military divorce rates hit their highest
level since 1999, with a divorce rate of 3.7 percent and
nearly 30,000 marriages ended in 2011. We must en-
sure that these men and women receive the fnest care
in return for the service they have given our nation in
some of our darkest hours over this past decade. In
the memorable words of Winston Churchill, Never
have so many owed so much to so few. We must also
ensure as the military grows smallerand the an-
nounced reduction is 80,000 Soldiers down to 499,000
from a current strength of 570,000 by 2017that we
do not emasculate the force.
GLOBALIZED ECONOMIC CONCERNS
One of the lessons of the global economic down-
turn and melt-down has been that risk, as much as
and perhaps greater than reward, is globalized. The
interconnected global market place is an amazing
21
generator of wealth, but it becomes threatening when
systems become unhealthy. The economic downturn
has strained relations with some close allies, and care
must be taken to work cooperatively to meet global
economic challenges.
DISAFFECTED YOUTH
In the midst of these challenges, the youth of the
world struggle to come into their own and make their
way through this complex environment, often facing
challenges not of their own choosing or design. The
worlds youth who are growing up in threatening en-
vironments are at the greatest risk of falling under the
sway of dangerous ideologies. Beyond this, they are
not allowed the conditions to meet their full potential
and, once again, their concerns are our concerns.
Old challenges and the rise of new powers consti-
tute potential threats that require new thinking. The
world at the end of the frst decade of the 21st century
is a map of challenges and opportunities. Some of the
players are new, and some are not new at all. Without
doubt, the Arab world is an immediate challenge not
only to itself but to the rest of the world as well. Given
the unrest and turmoil in the Middle East, that region
has become a boiling cauldron and a huge national
security concern for the U.S. Government. Our stra-
tegic interests are many with friends and foes alike in
that part of the world, not just in Tunisia, Libya, and
Egypt, where reform movements helped depose lead-
ers in these countries, but elsewhere as well. Clearly,
the instability in the governments of Syria and Yemen
remain at the top of the list of concerns at the moment.
Is there still the risk of this instability creating similar
rebellions in Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, and Su-
22
dan? Should others like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the
United Arab Emirates be concerned about the unrest
spilling across their borders? The U.S. Government
needs to invest now in rigorous strategic thinking to
determine how our vital national interests will be af-
fected and how we can protect them. Whether these
countries lean toward or bend away from democra-
cies and favorable relations with America and the
West can have an enormous infuence on our strategic
ties to nations of the region.
China, a country that currently has 115 billionaires
and can erect a 15-story building in 6 days, has expe-
rienced meteoric economic growth in recent years and
has seen its ability to affect and infuence, both region-
ally and globally, increase. Some economists suggest
China could become the worlds largest economy by
2027, if not before. Our economies persist in requiring
each other to cooperate. Meanwhile, Chinas military
is growing stronger with time. It has constructed the
worlds frst anti-ship ballistic missile, has developed
a stealth fghter plane, and has launched its frst air-
craft carrier; impressive toys to accompany a new
assertiveness. As China builds up its military, other
nations in the regionIndia, Japan, South Korea,
Singapore, Indonesia, and Australiaare amassing
weapons of their own at a frenzied pace, causing a
shift in the worlds military balance and altering secu-
rity concerns in the Asia Pacifc region.
Russia, too, has attempted re-emergence on the
world stage as evidenced by some of its actions, ac-
companied by the return of ferce nationalist senti-
ments expressed by Russias government. As Russia
enters an uncertain period of new leadership, head-
lined by the return of Vladimir Putin to the presi-
dency this year, we can expect Russia to take a more
23
hard-line position toward the United States. Problems
continue in its restive border regions and could place
the country on a collision course. We share with both
China and Russia a mutual need for the worlds re-
sources, so we must cooperate, or compete. Can we do
so responsibly?
Israel and Palestine are nagging problems. When
Secretary of State Colin Powell and the author went to
the State Department in 2001, the Israel-Palestine situ-
ation was at the very top of our list. We knew it had to
be resolved, and we worked very hard to contribute
to that resolution. Our very frst trip overseas was to
both Israel and the Palestinian territories to see if we
could broker a dialogue and a relationship between
those two forces. We failed, and we have been failing
dramatically ever since. Peace in the Middle East re-
mains an elusive dream. Ensuring security for all peo-
ples living in this region, while preventing extremism,
must continue to be a focus moving into the future.
The threat of failure is simply too great.
Far to the east, North Korea just experienced a
rapid change in its leadership, with Kim Jong-il unex-
pectedly dying of a heart attack and the reins handed
to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. New leadership can
often be a time of muscle fexing and that has already
begun with not totally unexpected hostile rhetoric
spewing from Pyongyang. Missile tests and border al-
tercations such as those in 2010 must not be repeated
and allowed to drag this region back into confict, nor
decrease the security of our allies. Interestingly, when
we sat down in Beijing with our representative to
North Korea and the North Korean representatives to
talk about common concerns, one of which was their
need for food, we expressed our desire to have non-
proliferation be a prominent way of life. This desire
was not considered at that time.
24
The world stage has also welcomed new powers:
nations such as Turkey, and Brazil, who both project
infuence. The privileges of this newfound power must
always be balanced with responsibilities. New pow-
ers must act as agents of cooperation and prosperity,
rather than increasing polarity and tension. Pakistan,
at the heart of a region that has experienced so much
confict, remains a key player. Tactics used against
extremist ideologies can work against our tenuous re-
lationship. The aftermath of a recent NATO airstrike
that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and increasing efforts
by Congress to decrease aid to Pakistan continue to
threaten an already precarious situation. Neighboring
India has grown into an economic powerhouse, yet
tensions remain on the border with Pakistan. This re-
lationship grew more tense after 2008 when Pakistani
extremists attacked Mumbai with devastating results.
The world remains watchful of Iran as it contin-
ues to develop its technologies and fexes its muscles
toward the West. We must keep a careful watch with
respect to its nuclear agenda, its provocative actions
in the straits of Hormuz, and its apparent willing-
ness to conduct an attack against the United States. A
recent assessment by James Clapper, the Director
of National Intelligence, suggests the Iranians have
changed their calculus and are more willing to con-
duct an attack in the United States as a response to
real or perceived actions that threaten the regime.
1
It
further shows Irans hostility toward the United States
and its interests in this hemisphere. Questions remain
about Iranian ambitions. Can international coopera-
tion in the form of sanctions keep this situation from
jeopardizing international security?
Conficts in Iraq and Afghanistan have contin-
ued to weigh us down. For all intents and purposes,
25
a complete redeployment of troops from Iraq took
place at the end of 2011. Yet Iraq is a nation struggling
to fnd its identity, and the 1,000-person embassy in
Baghdad will be challenged. Meanwhile, our strategic
attention has turned now to the situation in Afghani-
stan where there were 90,000 troops, although a draw-
down to 68,000 by the fall of 2012 began in July 2012.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has declared that
by mid- to late-2013, our combat mission will decline.
Nation-building continues in these two laboratories.
We remain committed to the mission required of the
United States and the international community. The
consequences of failure are too great.
Closer to home on our own border with Mexico,
drug-related violence and crime continues to escalate
signifcantly. Confronting this spillover of violence
only treats the symptom. The root causes remain and
must be addressed. In September 2010, when asked
What is the greatest threat or concern that keeps
you up at night? Admiral James A. Winnefed, Jr.,
Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, replied
Drugs. We have not done a very good job with the
Mexican military and the Mexican government. They
blame us for demand, and we blame them for sup-
ply. Unfortunately, we have not been talking to one
another. We have not been creating an atmosphere
where we can solve this problem.That is a growing
concern, and one that we must attack.
I have created a picture of gloom here; however,
I would say there is cause for hope. Interesting times
have always inspired new thinking, and we must re-
main dedicated to constantly challenging our assump-
tions to ensure that the uncertainties of the future can
be met. America can and should take a lead role in
projecting the kind of global thinking and leadership
26
that garners respect. That means being ready and will-
ing to make decisions that are courageous. America
needs to stand out as a beacon of what is right in and
for the world. Call it a grand plan or a grand strategy,
but Obama must be always looking at the world as it
exists yet have a vision of what it is likely to look like
in the following years.
That starts with a coherent strategic planning pro-
cess and the will to devise and follow through on a
strategic plan that prioritizes challenges and responds
over time to meet them successfully. Rigorous stra-
tegic planning can help avoid preventable crises. As
he does the peoples business, the President needs to
defne our vital national interests and resources avail-
able, establish our objectives, and develop a set of for-
eign and domestic policies that will advance Ameri-
cas interests and ideals.
The broadest objective of any such strategy should
be to make an honest appraisal of where the world is
today, and what it is likely to look like tomorrow. I call
it looking beyond the horizon for potential destina-
tions. Incumbent in this appraisal process, there needs
to be a serious and vigorous national debate about the
ends or the means or the exits in places of commit-
ment like Pakistan and Afghanistan. I have been very
critical of our government. Did we have this debate
before we went to Afghanistan? No. Did we have this
debate before we went to Iraq? No. We did not have
this in Congress. We did not have it in the media. We
did not have it among the American people who have,
and should have, a voice.
The goal of any grand strategy should be to stabi-
lize the current world order and create mechanisms
through which change can occur. Ideally, this grand
strategy would be for the greater good of America
27
and the like-minded nations of the world by having
a framework that promotes the global system and
betters the prospects for trade, commerce, diplomatic
contact, pluralism, and liberty. To succeed, it will
need the active support and participation of many of
the other 195 countries of the world and would seek
involvement of others in a collaborative effort to deal
effectively with a whole host of problems. One of the
fundamental tenets of this grand strategy must be that
the United States cannot protect every sea lane, broker
every deal, or fght every terrorist group alone. The
age of unilateralism is past.
The United States can do a lot but can do even more
with willing partners. Speaking at the West Point grad-
uation in May 2010, President Obama said, America
has not succeeded by stepping outside the current
of international cooperation. We have succeeded by
steering those currents in the direction of liberty and
justice. But the United States can and should lead by
example. It remains the single global super power, one
that can have a unique role in this emerging world or-
der, one that has enormous convening, agenda-setting
and leadership powers. For the world, the challenges
and consequences of the moment are enormous. For
the United States, this moment offers the opportunity
to bind the wounds to our reputation with decisions
that can heal our image and strengthen our infuence
with like-minded nations. Doing so can responsibly
contribute to making the world a better place and at
the same time earn respect as a solid citizen nation
of the world. It is a watershed moment that cannot
be squandered.
This is a rare and unprecedented time in history.
It holds unparalleled importance with respect to the
opportunity to help stability, prosperity, and dignity
28
to billions around the world by making good leader-
ship and management decisions. The same is true for
companies with respect to their research, their devel-
opment, and the technologies they advance for the
good of their clients and customers. They need to be
willing to explore new partners and adjust to the ever
changing economic climate and dynamic national se-
curity environment. If history is any indicator, which
I believe it is, then perhaps the most important peo-
ple, places, and events that will shape our future are
things we cannot know in advance; only prepare for.
In the age of exploration, a saying that described these
unknown factors was inscribed at the edges of their
maps: here there be monsters.
ENDNOTE - CHAPTER 2
1. James Clapper, Testimony before the U.S. Senate,
February 2012.
29
CHAPTER 3
THE TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIP:
A BREAKING OR RESTORABLE PILLAR
OF A NEW AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY?
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
The foreign policy community has probably heard
more speeches about transatlantic relations than we
have grains of sand on the shores of both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean. Many of them are inspired by romantic,
even nostalgic thoughts. Aside from relatively unin-
spired references to shared values and interests, there is
still a propensity to state the unrivaled global infuence
of the so called West. This tendency demonstrates an
astonishing hubris.
A notable number of manuscripts still refect on
the effects of a mainly bipolar, cold war-infuenced
world. It is remarkable that we are still adapting to
realities that have had their frst turning point almost
a quarter of a century ago.
Certainly, the annomination of the dates 11/9
(November 9, 1989) or 9/11 (September 11, 2001) is
familiar. But they are neither synonyms nor parallels.
The frst date has been the rootstock of a signifcant
global geopolitical shift. The other, as horrifc as it
was, serves less as a source for a new world order than
as the poisonous blossom of a long-time neglected,
fast growing plant that only partly has the same or
similar roots. Although the signifcance of both dates
is widely understood, many strategic answersir-
respective of whether they emerge from the United
States or Europeare still comparatively unsatisfac-
tory, specifcally regarding long-term perspectives.
30
Some refer to these developments as moving from
a symmetric world order to a new age of asymmetry
and to the consequence of seeking ad hoc solutions.
Others refuse to bear the burden of a comprehensive
and methodical stocktaking (or evaluation)not only
of current and forthcoming global challenges, but
also of their interdependencies. Therefore, the funda-
ment for any long-term assessments or solutions is al-
ready porous, and the basis of any pillars of so-called
Grand Strategies that we are discussing is of limited
frmness. One slogan could be: Disconnection through
Connectionnew, intertwined global challenges and
global shifts of power imply the risk of a marginal-
ization of traditional partnerships and multinational
institutions. Or: As the world grows together, it is also
growing apart.
Four major developmentsglobal governance
failures, the global shift of powers, global political
awakening, and economic disparity (within and be-
tween countries)infuence the evolution of a variety
of other global risks, and, ironically, a considerable
number of those risks can further magnify the four
overarching developments.
1

What are the risk scenarios that have emerged or
will evolve beyond the four cross-cutting global de-
velopments? We face at least fve major risk clusters
that are tightly connected to each other, intertwined,
and often overlap into other clusters.
1. Geopolitical risks: We have been talking for
years about fragile, failing, and failed states and the
consequences, ranging from terrorism, proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), illicit trade,
and organized crime, to piracy or corruption. Fur-
thermore, this cluster includes all sorts of geopolitical
conficts besides classic scenarios to even such areas as
space security.
31
2. Economic risks: As the results of fscal crises (we
have not seen the last one) or as to their reasons, one
could name asset price collapses, extreme currency,
and price volatilities (on energy, commodities, or
consumer prices), liquidity and credit crunches, infra-
structure fragility, regulatory failures, etc. Let us also
not underestimate a certain retrenchment from global-
ization going along with these phenomenaand a re-
surgence of nationalism and populism. In this regard,
Europe is not the only union of countries that serves as a
shining example.
3. Societal risks: here we have to take into account
all challenges that are linked to demographic devel-
opments and their effects like energy, food, and wa-
ter security as well as chronic, infectious, andin
our hemisphereso-called lifestyle diseases (public
health expenditure in the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development [OECD] countries has
risen at twice the rate of economic growth). Western
society has already undergone a dramatic change in
its age structure. Some call it the age-quake. The
World Health Organization (WHO) uses the phrase a
silent social revolution. This silence echoes (yes, even
silence has an echo!) political shyness and inabilities.
We must not forget migration and the subsequent ur-
ban development (in the future, intercontinental mi-
gration will become increasingly important).
4. Societal risks lead us to environmental risks. I
am still surprised about the degree of ignoranceor
lets put it more mildly: unawarenessin high level
political circles in this country when it comes to the
question and aftereffects of climate change. Topics like
biodiversity loss, melting of the polar ice-caps, food-
ing, air pollution, waste management, and a growing
number of storms and cyclones also merit mention.
32
5. Technological risks: cyber war is as much a real-
ity as threats from new technologies (including the in-
visible threat of immaterial environmental pollution,
e.g., by electromagnetic radiation). All of this is no lon-
ger a Buck Rogers fantasy. The chances of a critical
information infrastructure breakdown have not been
reduced during the last couple of years (the success-
ful cyber attack on Estonia in 2007 should have been
a wakeup call). Online data and information security
is a mega-topic nowadays, and so are the paradoxa
that go along with the call for freedom of the Internet
on one hand and the criminal misuse of the net on the
other. We see the triumph of open networkswith
major complexities that are almost impossible to con-
trol responsibly, for those who want to.
Indeed, this is an incomplete list, though it still
shows the range of challenges we are facing today
and tomorrow.
What has the transatlantic community to offer
when it comes to the question of how to get a frm
grip on the intertwining lines between and within the
clusters? Generally, we could fnd quite a spectrum of
possible measures, if more and explicitly coordinated
efforts were to take place. But do we see anything in-
spiring, anything creative in the political, academic or
cultural arena that aims at the challenges mentioned
above? Not much, I am afraid. Nonetheless, it is neces-
sary to assess the epicenter of the transatlantic rela-
tionship frst, which isit may sound simplisticthe
people on both sides of the Atlantic.
However, a new generation of policymakers, schol-
ars, and commentators shows a changed attitude and
approach toward the Atlantic connection. One reason
is that the background and the scope of experiences
33
of many has changed or is at least in an evolutionary
phase. In contrast to the second half of the 20th cen-
tury, many young, even infuential Americans have
never been based or stationed in Europe. A growing
number has an Asian or Latin American heritage.
Think about the students of today in Europe.
Many of them were born after 1989. They have never
had the existential experience of what it meant to live
in a surrounding that urgently needed a functioning
transatlantic partnershipimagine their upbring-
ing and environment. A good number come from the
former Eastern Europe, others are second or frst gen-
eration Europeans originating from Turkey or North
Africa, with different cultural roots. All this is not
problematic at allon the contrary, it is enriching and
a source of inspirationbut it has to be understood
and accepted when it comes to a new defnition of
transatlantic ties.
Second, among the younger generation, pragma-
tism seems to replace emotionssuperfcially, this
fnding is not a political disaster, but rather infu-
ences the value-driven approach to the relationship.
Ask someone younger about these values, and you
will still get the answer: democracy, human rights,
rule of law, etc.but ask the same person how these
principles correspond across the Atlantic or to what
extent they are implemented at home, and you may
get a fascinating, wild mixture of imprecise semi-in-
tellectual sound bites. A clear response would have
to imply uncomfortable considerations like aspects of
a democracy crisis now faced in certain parts of the
Western world. Additionally, negative emotions seem
to function quite properly across the ocean; positive
sentiments are rarely expressed routinely, if at all.
34
The last outstanding transatlantic hope and ex-
pectation from the European side was connected to
Barack Obama (but it was tied to a character and not
to a traditional political and cultural construct). Today
it seems that many Europeans turned their hope into
disillusion. When it comes to the current President,
some parts of the European foreign policy community
draw the conclusion that an internationally celebrated
political rockstar turned out to be a one-time Grammy,
respectively Nobel prize winner, at least on the
diplomatic platform.
Nevertheless, with respect to foreign affairs ca-
pacities, I do not see many auspicious alternatives
right now. The range of knowledge in international
matters among the remaining Republican presiden-
tial candidates is currently only beaten by the overall
quality of the TV debates. It is, by the way, an excep-
tional experience for a European to be bashed again
and again by such a spectrum of arguments. All in
all, this is a very promising outlook for a fourishing
transatlantic perspective.
What is left of the myth of existing transnational
institutions? What is left of a creative transatlantic in-
fuence on the substance and structure of other inter-
national organizations?
First, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) has been struggling to adapt to the new se-
curity challenges for years and has only selectively
widened its scope. Cyber war or energy scarcity may
serve as examples, though they have not effciently
been implemented yet. National interests perform as
impressive road blocks. The Libya Operation, by the
way and despite all songs of praise, is not a NATO
success, if you take the decisionmaking behavior of
important member states into account. NATO can
35
never win in Afghanistan, and the remaining chance
of not losing will probably be sacrifced to accommo-
date the mood of the voters at home. If I had to defne
cynicism to my children, I would start with our cur-
rent Afghanistan policy.
Second, certain structures of the United Nations
(UN) remind me of an iceberg drifting into waters with
unpredictable warm currents, while the journey of the
iceberg started in 1949. However, beneath the iceberg,
a rather stable raft appears, unfortunately with only
fve admittedly quite comfortable seats. The only rec-
ognizable transatlantic structural attempts to expand
the raft are monuments of standstill and stagnation,
artistically inspired by France, the United Kingdom
(UK), and the United States and knowingly attracting
China and Russia as well. It is not only desperate Syr-
ian hands that slide off the slick side planks of the raft.
Third, I do not want to elaborate in detail on the
European crisis, which is worth its own conference.
But the current crisiswhich is not only a debt cri-
sis or fscal crisis, but also a crisis of understanding
and therefore still a crisis of political leadershipis
destabilizing the core concept of the EU as well. I am
deeply concerned about the future of the achieve-
ments of the EUachievements that too many people
in Europe take for granted. Needless to say, such a
crisis has spillover effects for the transatlantic part-
nership. It strengthens our ominous culture of mutual
fnger-pointing.
Finally, even organizations of more limited, though
signifcant, scope are struggling, just to name the Or-
ganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) and the World Trade Organization (WTO),
not to mention the Doha development round. Some-
how logical, looser concepts like the G20 are gain-
36
ing ground, even though the last meeting in Cannes,
France, reminded me more of the Film Festivals that
usually take place there. So some traditional multi-
or transnational frameworks and concepts are on the
verge of decay. Does the transatlantic community of-
fer any viable answers? I doubt it. Do we understand
the paradox that the circumstances that make better
global governance imperativebe they conficting in-
terests and incentives, divergent values, or differing
normsare also the ones that make its realization so
incredibly complex and often unpleasant? I doubt it
as well.
Eventually, what are the consequences for Europe
and the United States? Will the transatlantic relation-
ship remain a core element of Western political infu-
ence or is it in agony because of a Pacifc and Asian
21st Century? Can the undoubtedly growing trans-
Pacifc importance be an excuse at all? By no means.
It may be one out of many more or less good reasons,
but it is also a cheap plea.
So what to do? What are possible steps to avoid a
sidelining of the Atlantic perspectives?
Accepting a new dynamic of multipolarity may
sound diffcult, but is essential.
The same is true for the understanding that
global stability can be promoted and pro-
gressed only through larger scale cooperation
and not through imperial behavior or domina-
tion (Zbigniew Brzezinski).
2

In any case, Europe has to accept trans-Pacifc
ambitions and should enlarge its own strategic
scope. On the other hand, the United States
could acknowledge the possibilities of closer re-
sponsible European-Russian relations. Both do
not necessarily weaken transatlantic relations.
On the contrary, they could offer opportunities
37
for stronger common strategic approaches and
for revisions of certain, sometimes archaic, in-
struments or strategies (EUSS [Eastern Europe
Security System]).
In a mid- to long-term perspective, a broader
cooperation between the so-called old west
and the new east does not have to be a day-
dream any longer. We could mutually beneft
from respective impulses and experiences by
fostering a regional cooperative model in a
multi-polar and increasingly complex geopo-
litical setting.
In addition, a bold and long-term strategic vi-
sion for the transatlantic community needs to
reinvigorate the transatlantic relationship by
promoting a global democratic political culture
(that respects specifc cultural aspects). But
we also have to engage in a self critical debate
about the state of democracyled by demo-
cratic countries! Existing rifts in this context are
not insurmountable.
Regarding the risk clusters described, we
must confront the respective publics with the
truth, and not with shimmering party and
election programs.
Looking at the United States, a new grand strat-
egy should offer more than an accumulation of unfn-
ished diplomatic bits and pieces. I still have problems
trying to fgure out the overall logic behind this ad-
ministrations foreign policy. Where are the connect-
ing lines between the Presidents Cairo speech and
the present Middle East policy? Where is the ratio-
nality besides ad hoc procedures? The same ques-
tions have to be asked with respect to the EU foreign
policy approaches.
38
To be fair, governments will probably never re-
solve the dilemma between short-term thinking and
the obligation to think in longer strategic terms and to
frmly undergo explanatory work. They usually have
to concentrate on the more immediate conficts and
disagreements. But this doesnt exclude the willingness
to form groups and initiatives that include knowledge
and experience, but also young ideas that range from
academia to culture, and to those people who tend to
see themselves in a complementary role. All this can
only happen if traditions continue to develop and con-
tribute to diversity instead of seeking a uniform global
culture. I call it the expansion of tradition.
Some thoughts that such groups or initiatives
would have to cover are more than obvious for me:
Regarding the span of the global risks and
challenges, a well-informed and well-mobi-
lized global public opinion, sharing values
and norms of a global citizenship (but not a
uniform global culture), would be certainly
desirable, but is still closer to Utopia than to re-
alization. Notwithstanding, in this context the
modern means of digital communication could
be used much more creatively.
By accepting the differences, we need to work
on our cultural ties. We tend to underestimate
them, and they have signifcantly changed.
Two rather banal aspects are essential. First, we
need to bridge the existing uncertainty among
rising powers to shoulder a greater share of
global responsibilities. Second, the established
powers have to surmount their reluctance to
recognize the limits of their own power.
We have to reach out way past the old west.
Engaging China, Russia, as well as Brazil, In-
39
dia, or South Africa and Indonesia and others
is key. Some European governments still have
credibility in areas where the U.S. reputation
islets say it diplomaticallyat least strained.
Not only does the transatlantic relationship
need a new narrative (as a frst step toward re-
vised concepts), but so do institutions such as
the EU, NATO, UN, etc., because we will not
achieve any long-lasting changes without giv-
ing our population the opportunity to under-
stand and accept certain obvious complexities
and dilemmas.
Such a transatlantic community could serve as a
pulse generator, as a source of inspiration instead
of a source for strategic despair.
To conclude, we need to show both pragmatism
and emotions. Pragmatism without emotions ham-
strings creativity, and, of course, uncontrolled emo-
tions have led to historic conficts. I propose to strive
for an emotional pragmatism. The transatlantic re-
lationship deserves a serious endeavor to attain it.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 3
1. See also on some of the following risk scenarios, Global Risks
Report, World Economic Forum, held at Davos-Klosters, Switzer-
land, in January 2011.
2. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis
of Global Power, New York: Basic Books. 2012.
41
CHAPTER 4
THE NATURE AND DEMANDS OF
SMART POWER
Robert Kennedy
It is often noted that the threats, potential threats,
and challenges that confront and will continue to con-
front the United States today and in the decades ahead
are far more complex than those during the Cold War.
Indeed, in the decades ahead those threats and chal-
lenges will pose a severe test for American leadership
in global affairs, whether they arise from the prolifera-
tion of nuclear weapons, materials, and know-how;
chemical or biological weapons; terrorist organiza-
tions, transnational criminal groups, drug cartels, and
individuals of malevolent intention; tribal, ethnic, or
sectarian strife; or from rising regional powers, failing
governments, cross border conficts, global economic
disturbances, environmental degradation, pandemics,
or climate change. However, perhaps the greatest chal-
lenge of the 21st century will arise from the continued
but slow relative shift from the worlds predominant
political, economic, diplomatic, and military super-
power to primus inter pares in world affairs.
Following the devastation resulting from World
War II, the United States emerged as an economic and
military superpower.
1
Its economy was larger, and
the country was richer than any other in the world.
In terms of industrial strength, the United States was
at an absolute and relative advantage over its allies as
well as its enemies.
2
Moreover, it was sole possessor
of the bomb.
3

42
Today the United States produces about 20 per-
cent of the global economic output, with predic-
tions that soon its economy will fall second to that of
China. While the United States and Russia remain the
predominant nuclear powers, there are three other
so-called declared nuclear weapons states under
the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT)China, France, and the United Kingdom
(UK); three additional states that have tested nuclear
weaponsIndia, Pakistan, and North Korea; Israel
(believed to have nuclear weapons); and Iran (an NPT
state) that is believed to be seeking to develop nuclear
weapons.
4
Though U.S. military forces measured in
total manpower remain second only to those of China,
with India in a close third, economic pressures are
likely to force a reduction in the overall size of U.S.
Armed Forces in the years ahead. U.S. military forces
can neither be everywhere all of the time nor resolve
all conficts without the assistance of others. Thus, to
meet the challenges ahead, including its relative read-
justment in status among nations, the United States
must wisely apply the instruments of national power
(political, economic, psychological, and military). This
chapter addresses the nature of national power: its
sources, the means by which the sources of a nations
power are transformed into preferred outcomes in
the international arena, the instruments states use to
do so, and what is demanded if soft and hard power
are to be molded into what is now fashionably called
Smart Power.
ON POWER
In its simplest form, power is the ability to achieve
what one seeks to achieve. Though there are many def-
initions of power,
5
in an international context power is
43
generally considered to be the ability of a nation-state,
group of states, or nonstate entities to impose its/
their favored outcome on a given situation or prevent
another state, group of states, or nonstate entity from
doing so. It has a deliberate, active connotation. For
example, French philosopher Bertrand de Jouvenel,
writing over a half century ago, noted: When Power
addresses itself to a foreign state, the weight behind
the words is proportional to its ability to make itself
obeyed and win from that obedience the means of ac-
tion.
6
It is in getting ones way, in making others
conform to ones will, in its active, deliberate sense
that power is most often understood.
Yet power has always had a much broader conno-
tation. It is true in one sense, as de Jouvenel argued,
that power turns on obedience, and he Who knows
the reasons for that obedience knows the inner nature
of power.
7
Indeed, history is marked by states em-
ploying their power to force other states to their will.
However, there is more to the essence of power than
can be gathered under the umbrella of obedience. Obe-
dience, or to put it more directly, an action undertaken
by Party B that is favorable to Party A is not always
the result of active efforts on the part of Party A to
seek obedience from Party B. A painting can have the
power to produce a series of thought patterns or emo-
tions or move the viewer to action. The picture is pow-
erful. It has power so-to-speak. But it has not made or
commanded the viewer to obey. The power it has on
the viewer is often noncognitive, frequently related to
the emotive aspect of a viewers personality, though
there can be cognitive, rational components based
on the attitudes and/or beliefs or on the physical or
psychogenic needs of the viewer. Similarly, in inter-
national affairs, for example, though an individual,
44
say from Nation B, may risk his life providing intelli-
gence to Nation A because of bribe or threat, that indi-
vidual may well do so for quite different reasons such
as respect for Nation As objectives or perceptions of
shared values, a commonality of ideals, beliefs, and/
or interests. He does not obey or comply, rather he
volunteers. Of course de Jouvenel recognized this as-
pect of power in his exploration of the nature of obedi-
ence.
8
Moreover, it is this aspect of power, the power
of attraction or seduction (particularly in its passive
sense), that Joseph Nye, Jr., frst introduced in 1990
9

as soft power and further developed in 2004
10
and
2011.
11
As Nye put it in 2004 in answering the ques-
tion, What is soft power?
It is the ability to get what you want through attraction
rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the at-
tractiveness of a countrys culture, political ideals, and
policies.
12
Nye distinguishes this so-called soft power from
hard power. Hard power rests on inducements (car-
rots) or threats (sticks).
13
It is Command power . . .
the ability to get desired outcomes through coercion
and payment.
14
On the other hand, soft power is the
ability to get preferred outcomes through co-optive
means of agenda setting, persuasion, and attraction.
15

Soft power, in general, is based on less tangible
sources of power than is hard power. So what, then,
are the sources of a nations power and what means
can be used to translate those sources into preferred
outcomes in the international arena?
45
Sources and Means of Power.
The sources on which a nations power is based
are many and varied. They include such factors as:
a nations geography; natural resources; size, na-
ture, and health of its economy; industrial capability;
quality of education; population; culture; traditions;
language; history; level of technology; ability to in-
novate; internal organization; the quality of its diplo-
macy; the size, composition, training, and leadership
of its military, as well as the nature and effectiveness
of its weapons and equipment; its legal institutions;
the effciency and effectiveness of its government; po-
litical, economic, and social resilience; sound strategy;
and national will. These are the sources or what are
sometimes called the elements upon which a nations
power rests. Some of these sources can be objectively
measurede.g., landmass; population; resources;
gross domestic product; external trade; and numbers
of military aircraft, tanks, artillery, and manpower.
Some are primarily subjectivee.g., quality of lead-
ership, effectiveness of the diplomatic corps, morale
of troops, quality of military training, and national
will. However, both objective and subjective sources
of power are the building blocks of a nations soft, as
well as hard, power.
Whether objective or subjective, the sources of
power seldom function independently. For example,
a nation may be blessed with a vast expanse of ter-
ritory that might strain an invading armys logistical
reinforcement to the breaking point. However, in the
absence of a capable military, the defender might not
be able to put up effective resistance. A nation may
have an abundance of natural resources, but a weak
and ineffective economy, poor governance, or corrup-
46
tion may inhibit or sap the ability of a nation to trans-
late its natural resources into power. A nation with a
strong economy may not be able to translate its eco-
nomic strength into a tool for pressuring another state
to action or inaction through the use of economic sanc-
tions without effective diplomatic efforts to garner the
support of other nations to join in sanctions. The most
technologically advanced army with poor leadership
or faulty strategy may fall to a less advanced army
with good leadership and a sound strategy.
Success in translating the sources of power into
preferred outcomes in the international arena de-
pends in large measure on a nations ability to infu-
ence, persuade, coerce, deter, and/or compel the ac-
tions/behavior of other international actors. Power
measured in resources does not necessarily equate
to power measured in preferred outcomes.
16
An un-
derstanding of these means or methods reveals es-
sential differences between what is meant by soft and
hard power.
Infuence.
Infuence is the ability to produce an effect with-
out the apparent need to act, exert force, or use threats
or commands. Infuence is a principal aspect of soft
power. Infuence depends heavily upon the percep-
tions of others. Infuence can be indirect and passive or
direct and active. Passive or indirect infuence gener-
ally depends on existing relationships among nations
and peoples and is the result of perceptions by others
of an affnity for or attraction to such things as ones
culture, traditions, language, values, institutions, or
policies, or from respect by others for a nations po-
litical, economic, or military power. For example, the
47
UK, with a culture, language, traditions, values, and
institutions similar to those of the United States, has
an infuence on U.S. behavior beyond that of the UKs
military or economic power. Had the UK not sided
with the United States in going to war against Iraq, it
is questionable whether the administration could have
gained the support of Congress for that effort. Simi-
larly, a sense of shared values and similar, if not iden-
tical, democratic institutions between most European
nations and the United States affords the United States
an infuence in Europe beyond its military might. Of
course, Americas economic strength and military
capabilities played a major role during the Cold War
confrontation with the Soviet Union and continue to
do so today. This fact, however, in no way detracts
from the general affnity that affords the United States
and the democratic nations of Europe infuence over
each others actions.
Indirect or passive infuence can also have nega-
tive effects. Where values, institutions, cultures, etc.,
diverge, a nations infuence in a given situation may
be negative. The late Samuel P. Huntington postu-
lated a Clash of Civilizations: The great divisions
among humankind and the dominating source of con-
fict will be cultural,
17
thus signaling that differences
of culture can trigger not affnity but dislike, rejection,
even hatred.
Infuence can also be direct or active. For example,
a nation can use public diplomacy in order to promote
its image. Treaties, alliances, and executive agree-
ments also can provide a nation with direct infuence
on the behavior of others.
48
Persuasion.
Persuasion is the ability to move by argument,
entreaty, or expostulation another party to a belief,
viewpoint, or political position, or to undertake or not
undertake (dissuade) a course of action. Persuasion
involves active, intentional efforts. Like infuence, its
success or failure often depends on previous relation-
ships, and like infuence it is an exercise in soft power.
However, persuasion depends heavily on a nations
diplomatic skill in translating knowledge of another
countrys interests, objectives, and concerns into effec-
tive augmentation in support of a preferred outcome.
Persuasion demands actual leverage in the logic of ar-
gumentation. Thus it demands in depth knowledge of
potential social, economic, political, and/or military
consequences of the action contemplated, as such con-
sequences are likely to be viewed from the target na-
tions perspective.
Because of the existence of multiple voices ema-
nating from varying sectors of society that lie beyond
the governments ability to control, democracies have
an inherently more complex task in using a nations
diplomatic skills in attempts to persuade others to its
position. Differing interpretations of events, differing
evaluations of options, and different desired outcomes
from different sectors of society, often from different
departments or branches of government, complicate
a nations ability to speak with one voice as it articu-
lates its position, and may reinforce uncertainties in
the minds of those one is trying to persuade. Leaks
of information from within the nations bureaucracy
suggesting different courses of action can further
complicate the task.
49
Coercion.
Coercion is the ability to demand another to un-
dertake or not undertake an action through threat, in-
timidation, or bribe. Coercion is active in nature. It is
a deliberate attempt to pressure another party to act
in ways that advance ones preferred outcomes and,
as such, falls in the category of hard power. Coercion
may be direct, for example, through the threat of po-
litical, economic, or military consequences the other
party would fnd undesirable. It also may be indirect,
for example, through the leaking of a memorandum
or media releases provided as background or deep
background
18
information, suggesting that such unde-
sired consequences are being considered.
For coercion to be successful, actual power (politi-
cal, economic, and/or military) or the perception that
the coercing nation has the actual power to affect un-
desired consequences and the will and determination
to do so are generally necessary. As with persuasion,
in democracies the ability to coerce may be weakened,
as parliaments or Congress debate the merits of poten-
tial threats or where parliamentary or congressional
approval may be required to carry threats into force.
Deterrence.
Deterrence is the ability to discourage another from
undertaking an action they might otherwise prefer to
undertake. Deterrence generally falls into the category
of hard power, primarily because it entails a threat to
produce undesired consequences should the other fel-
low decide to act. It is usually understood in its pas-
sive context and generally has an effect on a states
cost versus beneft calculations under a given set of
50
circumstances. For example, a state might be deterred
from acting because of the existence of countervailing
nuclear or conventional forces, as a result of potential
economic or other sanctions, or because it perceives
the potential loss of some promised or extant beneft,
any and all of which might suggest costs in excess
of benefts. Of course, the classic case of deterrence
took place during the Cold War when presumably
the Soviet Union was deterred from using its nuclear
weapons against the United States because the United
States possessed countervailing nuclear capabilities.
Deterrence also can be active, for example, by
promising a desired good to another state for its inac-
tivity. Here the line between deterrence, coercion, and
persuasion becomes somewhat blurred. In one sense,
it could be argued that in offering a desired good for
inactivity, one is attempting to use the soft power of
persuasion to convince the other party that it is in its
interest to act accordingly by altering perceptions of
interest. It also could be argued that one is using the
promise of a beneft as a hard power bribe in order to
place pressure on political decisionmakers in the tar-
get country in order to coerce them into not taking ac-
tion. It perhaps could be equally argued that one state
is deterring another from an action that it might oth-
erwise take by altering their cost beneft calculations.
Like coercion, deterrence usually requires actual
power, or the perception on the part of an opponent,
that one has the powerpolitical, economic, and/
or militaryand the will and determination to bring
about the undesired consequences or to provide a de-
sired good. Generally speaking, deterrence relies on
hard power. This is not to say that deterrence per
se is an exercise in hard power. Extant political, eco-
nomic, or military power affects perceptions. As such,
51
others may be deterred from acting, for example, not
because Country A deployed a naval force to a region
to discourage some particular activity, but because the
very existence of that force in that region has struc-
tured perceptions that serve to discourage actions by
others. In such a case, there is no hard power threat.
The threat, if any, exists in the perceptions of others.
They may perceive the existence of the deployed force
as a threat, as an exercise in hard power. But the ex-
istence of military forces, per se, does not constitute
an exercise in hard power. Indeed, deploying military
forces for humanitarian purposes is an exercise in
soft power.
Compellence.
A term usually attributed to Thomas Schelling,
compellence is the ability to secure ones preferred
outcome through the direct application of forcepo-
litical, economic, and/or more often than not, mili-
tary. It is the opposite of deterrence. It requires actual
power to force an opponent to act. It is the ultimate
expression of hard power. Some confuse it with coer-
cion. For example, one defnition contends: It is com-
pellence when the classic lawman threatens a suspect
with death if he does not surrender.
19
Yet this is bet-
ter understood as coercion. The suspect has not been
forced to surrender. Rather he is encouraged to do
so by virtue of threat. The suspect still has a choice.
He can surrender or take his chances. On the other
hand, if the lawman physically grabs the suspect or
shoots him in the legs so he cannot move, there is no
choice involved. He has been compelled to surrender.
If Country A with a superior military force destroys
Country Bs advancing army, it has compelled that
52
army to halt. If Country A threatens to destroy Coun-
try Bs army if it fails to stop, it is attempting to coerce
it to stop its advance. Both examples, of course, are
examples of uses of hard power.
Instruments of Power.
The instruments of power are those toolspo-
litical/diplomatic, economic, psychological, and mil-
itarya nation employs to transform some, though
not all, its sources of power into preferred outcomes
through the use of the above noted means. However,
a nations ability to affect a particular behavior in a
given situation may not depend, solely or at all, on the
active use of the instruments of power. As was men-
tioned earlier, the ability to infuence has a passive
side, that of attraction and seduction, that exists prior
to any attempts to induce a specifc behavior on the
part of another. This is the soft power that Nye so
often trumpets. Nevertheless, though the instruments
of power are active by nature, they can be employed
to produce soft as well as hard power. Moreover, they
often can make use of the soft power of attraction and
seduction as they are employed, for example, in soft
power efforts to persuade.
Political-Diplomatic.
Political-diplomatic power is the ability to achieve
ones ends through reason, symbols, and/or through
emotive elements of human nature. It generally re-
sides in the land of discussions, negotiations, and
demarches designed to inform, persuade, or gather
information. But its reach goes well beyond the gov-
ernment demarche. Diplomats and their supporting
53
elements in the various agencies of government help
set the tone and tenor of relations between states and
other international actors. They wallow in soft power.
Their success and the success of their mission often
rely on knowledge and understanding of the culture,
history, traditions, norms, values, and language of
their assigned country, as well as that countrys po-
litical processes, players and their personalities, and
the issues they are confronting. Political-diplomatic
power need not be exercised directly with those who
make decisions. It often functions effectively through
an understanding of the milieu surrounding those
making decisions and by focusing on those who exer-
cise infuence over decisionmakers in a given polity.
Success in employing the political diplomatic in-
strument of power also relies on a thorough under-
standing of the objectives and concerns of the country,
countries, or other entities involved, and the capabili-
ties those entities have to meet their objectives and al-
leviate or mitigate their concerns. For example, prior to
Iraqs 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the George H. W. Bush
administration misread, with the help of some Arab
allies, Saddam Husseins intentions and sent mixed
signals to him that may have helped pave the way for
Husseins fnal decision to invadean evident diplo-
matic failure on the part of the Bush administration.
Following the invasion, the Bush administration suc-
cessfully used the political-diplomatic instrument of
power to build not only a supportive domestic coali-
tion, but also an international coalition supportive and
contributing to the ultimate use of hard military power
to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Knowledge of the
predispositions of the audiences involved played an
essential role. In that immediate post-Cold War envi-
ronment, the Bush administration built a domestic as
54
well as European coalition for action by equating Sad-
dam Hussein to Hitler and evoking concerns over ap-
peasement and further conquest. Appealing to those
same audiences, as the price of a barrel of crude oil
jumped nearly 50 percent during the month following
the invasion, members of the administration also were
quick to point out the potential economic implications
should a signifcant amount of Middle East oil fall un-
der the control of one man.
On the other hand, to Arabs, unlikely to be moved
by the Hitler analogy, and with some perhaps happy
to see higher prices for their crude oil and with many
not greatly enamored by what they perceived as a
generally haughty attitude on the part of Kuwaitis,
the naked aggression of one Arab state against
another played well.
The political-diplomatic instrument of power can
also have a hard power coercive face. The withdrawal
of the American diplomatic mission to Syria in Feb-
ruary 2012, for example, was an effort to coerce the
Syrian government to step down or alter its policy of
killing those who oppose the rule of Bashar al-Assad.
Leaks to the press, statements by policymakers, com-
ments by diplomats, offcial demarches, and such
that suggest the possibility of economic sanctions or
military action fall under the hard power rubric of
political coercion.
Political-diplomatic power originates at the high-
est offces of government, fowing through a variety of
agencies and their representatives that deal with other
nations, international organizations, and nonstate ac-
tors. As noted above, the political-diplomatic instru-
ment is often signifcantly augmented by affnities
that exist between the peoples and governments of
the entities involved. In that sense political-diplomat
power begins at home.
55
Economic.
When one thinks about the economic instrument
of power, one frequently thinks of economic carrots
and sticks. Carrots and sticks are what one party
uses to coerce another party to undertake an action
that they might not be inclined to undertake. Carrots,
for example promises of trade, economic assistance,
debt forgiveness, access to technology, and the provi-
sion of resources such as military hardware, are the
sweeteners meant to encourage a specifc action.
Sweetener is a euphemism for the word bribe.
Sticks, such as the declared intent to withdraw eco-
nomic assistance, impose economic sanctions, and/or
trade embargoes, are threats a state may use to elicit a
certain behavior. Since carrots and sticks are unlikely
to alter basic attitudes and beliefs about a given situ-
ation on the part of those to whom they are directed,
they are in essence coercion instruments that reside
in the realm of hard power, whether during the offer,
threat, or implementation stage.
The economic instrument of power, however,
should not be confused with the normal ebb and fow
of trade, technology, economic aid and/or develop-
mental assistance, and certain forms of security as-
sistance, such as assistance provided to improve the
professionalism and capabilities of police forces. The
size of a nations economy, the volume and patterns of
trade, and the quality of its economic interaction in the
world arena underwrite its ability to elicit the behav-
ior of others. Such activity may provide a soft power,
passive ability to infuence behaviors. Economic assets
and capabilities become instruments of hard power
when used subtly or otherwise to deliberately bring
about actions congruent with ones preferences, as,
56
for example, is the case in U.S. efforts to get Iran to
cease activities the United States and others consider
are aimed at producing nuclear weapons.
Of the instruments of power, the successful use of
the economic instrument has a checkered past. First,
because it can have a damaging effect on a target na-
tions economy and thus result in the suffering of
innocents, the economic instrument applied by one
state can be used by the target state to unite its citi-
zenry against those who reduce economic assistance
or impose sanctions or embargoes. Another impedi-
ment to the successful employment of the economic
instrument is the negative consequences it can have
on the initiating country or countries and their allies.
Employing the economic instrument seldom comes
without pain. For example, attempting to coerce Iran
into meeting its obligations under the NPT by plac-
ing an embargo on Iranian oil, if effective, is likely
to result in a painful increase in the price of crude
oil with potentially serious negative implications for
the world economy. Despite such potential undesired
consequences, the economic instrument has become
an aspect of hard power that often for political and
psychological effects must be employed. States need
to believe that everything that could be done has been
done before agreeing to the use of military force.
Psychological.
The psychological instrument of national power
relies on the perceptions of others. It fnds its roots
in both soft and hard power, covers a wide spectrum
of activities, and has a passive and active aspect. Psy-
chological appeal is a primary ingredient of infuence.
Its passive aspect frequently is a byproduct of other
57
factors and activities.
20
For example, in the aftermath
of the industrial revolution, the theories of Karl Marx,
two world wars, strong economic growth at home,
and Soviet support internationally for those seek-
ing to break the bonds of colonialisms, among other
things, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
and its communist model enjoyed wide psychological
appeal. The psychological impact of Soviet successes,
by military or other means, certainly played a role in
President Dwight Eisenhowers espousal of the fall-
ing domino principle.
21
Similarly, the psychology of
people was on his mind in a 1955 letter to Sir Winston
Churchill in which he noted that any further victories
for communism would have an adverse impact on the
minds of neutrals.
22

In the post-Cold War era, the glaring success of the
U.S. military in defeating in 100 hours what was then
the worlds fourth largest army had an enormous im-
pact on the perceptions of Americas military might.
Though affecting the perceptions of others may not
have been the driving force behind the U.S. use of
force in the 1991 Gulf war, perceptions of a techno-
logically dominant, militarily powerful America will-
ing to stand up to aggression and committed to a new
international cooperative system emerged. Such per-
ceptions surely contributed to Americas soft power
ability to infuence other players in the international
arena. Today, by virtue of such factors as size, popu-
lation, and expanding economy, China has affected
the perceptions of others about its current and future
power and its appropriate place in the world hierar-
chy of nations. Thus nations are becoming more def-
erential toward China than in years past.
58
On the other hand, the psychological instrument
of power includes deliberate efforts to manipulate
the attitudes, beliefs, and emotions of others to cre-
ate favorable impressions. This is the active aspect of
the psychological dimension of power. Since it relies
on perceptions, it fnds its roots in both hard and soft
power. Thus there can be, and usually is, a psycho-
logical aspect to efforts to infuence, persuade, coerce,
and compel the behavior of others. For example, just
before the end of the Vietnam War, the Four Party
Joint Military Team, established under provisions of
the January 1973 Paris peace accords, met in Hanoi.
At that meeting, Colonel Harry Summers, Chief of
the Negotiations Division of the U.S. Delegation, in
a conversation with Colonel Tu, Chief of the North
Vietnamese Delegation, remarked: You know you
never defeated us on the battlefeld. Colonel Tu re-
sponded: That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.
23

It was irrelevant because the war was fought not just
at the military level, but also at the soft power psycho-
logical level. General Vo Nguyen Giaps forces may
not have defeated the Americans on the Vietnamese
battlefelds, but they won on the psychological battle-
grounds in Washington, DC, on college campuses,
and in the streets of America and thus, in a sense,
compelled a change in U.S. behavior.
Similarly, as Iraqi troops broke ranks, withdrew,
and surrendered en masse during the 1991 Gulf War,
they did so not only because they were defeated in
battle, but also because of the psychological effects of
Americas superior technology. When in the middle of
a quiet night, the tanks to left and right explode under
attack from seemingly nowhere, the psychology is not
to stay in your tank and fght, but to abandon the next
obvious target and run. That is the ultimate in hard
power battlefeld coercion.
59
On the soft power side, the offcial diplomatic corps
as well as a nations public diplomacy play major roles.
The diplomatic corps not only help shape perceptions
of ones nation among a target nations leaders, but
also play a role in public diplomacy, the task of which
is to help shape perceptions among leaders and the
populace in target countries through the provision of
information. Mary K. Eder, an authority in strategic
communications, writes:
All communication conducted with intent does more
than merely inform. It educates, reveals, restricts, and
can elicit strong emotion. Most important, informa-
tion as an element of national power also infuences
and can powerfully inform governments, direct public
opinion, affect international relations, result in military
action, and build or deny support.
24
Among the least costly and most useful instru-
ments of public diplomacy that have been created in
the post-Cold War period are the Department of De-
fense (DoD)-run regional centers. The George C. Mar-
shall European Center for Security Studies, The Asia-
Pacifc Center for Security Studies, The Center for
Hemispheric Defense Studies, The Africa Center for
Strategic Studies, and the Near East South Asia Center
for Strategic Studies bring together leaders from their
respective regions to examine jointly many of the com-
plex issues that confront our nations. Discussions at
these centers are characterized by openness and hon-
est attempts to understand differing points of view.
Value is ascribed to individuals and their ideas irre-
spective of the nations from which they come. Thus,
they provide a window on American society and its
values and add dramatically to the reach of Americas
soft power.
60
However, both the passive and active aspects of
the psychological dimension of power can be feet-
ing. For example, as the Soviet economy began to
wane under the weight of its own contradictions in
the late 1960s and early 1970s and as the repressive
nature of the Soviet system became more clearly vis-
ible to others, the psychological appeal of the Soviet
system diminished. Similarly, when the United States
and its partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Asso-
ciation (NATO) attacked Yugoslavia from March to
June 1999, the favorable image that many Russians
had of the United States following the end of the Cold
War soured. One observed a similar phenomenon in
other parts of the world when the United States in-
vaded Iraq in 2003, without United Nations (UN)
authority, with a justifcation unsatisfying to many,
and against the recommendation of many of its allies
and friends. As a result, American soft power was
signifcantly diminished.
Similarly, public diplomacy caught in a deliberate
lie can raise suspicions and undermine years of ef-
forts. To highlight the difference between truth and
propaganda, Edward R. Murrow, the U.S. Informa-
tion Agency (USIA) director from 1961-64 said:
American traditions and the American ethic require
us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that
truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To
be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable
we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.
It is as simple as that.
25
Military.
The military instrument of power is usually thought
of as hard powerthe capacity to use violence for
protection, enforcement or extension of authority.
26
It
61
clearly operates in the realms of deterrence, coercion,
and compellence. In a world of independent sovereign
states, perpetually in competition for scarce resources
in an environment where there is no acknowledged
higher authority, military power is seen as the Ultima
Ratio Regum.
27

One has little diffculty understanding hard power
aspects, for example, of allied military forces compel-
ling the surrender of Nazi Germany during World War
II; or the hard power value of U.S. strategic nuclear
forces as deterrents to a Soviet nuclear attack on the
United States during the Cold War; or, for that matter,
the hard power used to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait
in 1991.
However, there are other dimensions to the mili-
tary instrument of power. Today, the purely kinetic
(a word in modern military parlance as used by Bob
Woodward in his Bush at War) aspects of the military
instrumentkilling and/or destroying if you will, is
often seen as increasingly less useful in solving many
of the security problems nations and peoples confront.
Even during the height of the Cold War, there were
those who believed that the forces amassed by the
superpowers had markedly limited utility. In 1968,
Harvard professor Stanley Hoffmann wrote that the
superpowers:
. . . enjoy an exceptionally high negative productivity
but suffer from a low productivity of power. . . . [They
are] able to prevent each other (as well as, a fortiori, all
others) from achieving their goals sought by force . . .
[however, they are unable to] fully resort to coercion in
order to force another into agreement or submission.
28
62
With the Cold War now more than 2 decades be-
hind us, further questions have arisen concerning the
utility of military forces. Many argue that the inter-
national environment is less dangerous today than it
was during 4 1/2 decades of Soviet-American con-
frontation. Gone are the massive Soviet military forces
threatening Western Europe. While there are signif-
cant policy differences between the United States and
Russia and China, war with either seems highly un-
likely. Of course, the United States does face dangers
that could have devastating consequences, particularly
should terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) or from states such as North Korea or Iran,
should they acquire nuclear weapons and associated
delivery systems. However, none of these dangers or
their potential consequences is likely to be anywhere
near the same magnitude as those that existed during
the Cold War. Thus today, many question the need for
large nuclear and conventional military forces. They
see the primary value of nuclear weapons as resi-
dent in their utility as a deterrent. They contend that
since they fail to meet just war criteria, their use, even
threatened use, is not credible during lesser conficts
or confrontations. Raymond Aron once noted:
Ballistic missiles . . . have less infuence on the course
of events than the English feet sitting at anchor may
have had during the 19th century. . . . They do not per-
mit either of the great powers to dictate to their allies
or clients instructing them on how they must conduct
themselves. . . .
29

This point made many years ago remains no less
true today and readily applies to modern nonstate
actors. Indeed, the real hard power value of military
forces in the 21st century is more often likely to be
63
inversely proportional to their destructive potential,
with strategic nuclear forces as least useful and special
operations conventional forces as most useful. More-
over, with such conficts in mind as Algeria in the late
1950s, Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, and perhaps in
such contemporary conficts as those in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan, those who question the utility of military
power are quick to note that even a preponderance of
conventional forces cannot always or easily be trans-
lated into political victory. Indeed, in ideological, eth-
nic, and sectarian quarrels, as well as in dealing with
terrorism, the military instrument may be the least ap-
propriate, though sometimes necessary, instrument.
Ideas, it is said, cannot be defeated by force of arms.
There is much truth in such arguments. Neverthe-
less, the military instrument of power cannot be un-
derstood in its entirety simply as the employment of
hard power. Rather, it is a multifaceted instrument
that can play a role in advancing a nations interests
from soft power infuence to hard power coercion and
compellence. As Michael Howard, speaking about
military power, noted some years ago:
Indeed, it is not easy to see how international relations
could be conducted, and international order main-
tained, if it were totally absent. The capacity of states
to defend themselves, and their evident willingness to
do so, provides the basic framework within which the
business of international negotiation is carried on.
30
Such factors as size, readiness, disposition, and
perceived or demonstrated effectiveness, as well as
perceptions of future capabilities can have an enor-
mous psychological impact on friend and foe. The
soft power infuence of the military begins with in-
vestments in military research and development
and is further nurtured by the acquisition of military
systems; both of these are often seen as statements
of future intent as well as capabilities. Soft power
psychological aspects of military power also are of-
ten advanced by the temporary, as well as relatively
long-term deployment of forces abroad. Perceptions
of highly competent and effective military forces
deployed to a region can help shape (infuence) the
views of others. For example, in December 1907 Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt dispatched an armada of 16
battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet on a 14-month
trip around the world. The purpose of the voyage
was to showcase Americas growing military power,
particularly its newly acquired blue-water navy, its
industrial prowess,
31
and its ability and determination
to protect American interests around the globe. Belch-
ing black smoke, this steam-powered, steel armada,
later dubbed the Great White Fleet because the
ships were painted white with gilded scrollwork on
their bows, traveled 43,000 miles and visited 20 ports
of call. Save for a donnybrook in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
the voyage was generally a diplomatic success, with a
Chilean cruiser guiding the feet through the Straits of
Magellan, a 9-day celebration of George Washingtons
birthday in Callao, Peru, and with more than 250,000
people staying up all night so as not to miss the feets
arrival in Sydney, Australia. Perhaps the most dra-
matic success came with the Great White Fleets visit
to Yokohama, Japan. A fimsy arch set up to honor the
arrival of the Fleet caught fre. Atop the pole on the
arch was mounted a Japanese fag. Before the fames
could reach the fag, a U.S. Marine from the Fleet,
climbed up the side of the arch that had yet to catch
fre and dramatically rescued the fag. The observing
Japanese crowd went wild, hoisting the Marine onto
their shoulders and parading through the streets.
32
64
65
Roosevelt also dispatched these great dread-
noughts to impress upon the Japanese, who were in
an expansionist mood, still chafng over their failure
to get all they wanted out of the Roosevelt-mediated
1906 Treaty of Portsmouth that ended their triumphant
war with Russia, and irritated over anti-Japanese riots
that were sweeping California, that the United States
could protect its interests in the Pacifc Ocean even
though the bulk of its blue-water naval assets were
located in the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly after the feets
October 18-25, 1908, visit to Yokohama, the Japanese
ambassador in Washington, DC, received instructions
to reach an agreement with the United States that
would recognize the Pacifc Ocean as an open avenue
of trade, and promise equal opportunity in China. The
ensuing Root-Takahira agreement was signed on No-
vember 30, 1908.
33
This was a classic exercise in the
soft use of the military instrument of power to win
friends and infuence people. There was no threat, no
bribe, and no effort to compel.
During the Cold War, the United States deployed
hundreds of thousands of land, air, and sea forces to
Europe. Those military deployments eased security
concerns among Western Europeans and freed them
to focus their efforts on post-war economic recovery.
Both directly, through close military collaboration and
the political collaboration that such military collabo-
ration spawned, and indirectly, through the feeling
of security U.S. military forces provided, the United
States and Western European states and peoples
forged close relationships. Psychologically comforted
by the U.S. military presence, Europeans were often
willing to let the United States take the lead on secu-
rity matters, even in some cases on foreign political is-
sues. Thus, the United States infuenced the behavior
66
of these states simply by virtue of the presence of its
military forces.
Similarly, deployments in the Persian/Arabian
Gulf and elsewhere provide a sense of security and
stability that often serves as the glue of civil relations
among states in those regions and accrues infuence to
the United States. Admittedly, however, in some cases
one or more states (e.g., Iran in the Persian/Arabian
Gulf) or nonstate actors (e.g., Somali pirates) will see
such deployments as coercive in nature. Thus deploy-
ments can serve simultaneously as instruments of
both the soft power of infuence with friends and hard
coercive power with adversaries.
Perhaps an important additional beneft to the de-
ployment of U.S. military force abroad is the apparent
direct effect on growth. A 2007 study of U.S. military
presence in 94 countries from 1950 to 2000 revealed
that putting U.S. forces in a country over time was as-
sociated with an increase in the per capita growth rate
of that country by an extra 1.8 percentage points per
year. Perhaps more interesting, the study found that
military, economic, or social aid was not a good sub-
stitute. The authors found more troops predict more
growth, but more aid does not. Furthermore, the
study revealed that usual explanations for this phe-
nomenonthe multiplier effect of spending by U.S.
forces on the local economy have a short-term effect,
but robust long-term growth correlates more with the
exemplar effect. When locals saw how the U.S. mili-
tary did business, it changed the business culture and
courts, with salubrious effects on commerce.
34
The soft aspect of military forces is also evident
in such activities as the U.S. training and education
of foreign militaries whether in the United States or
abroad, as well as other forms of security assistance,
67
including U.S. participation in joint exercises, and U.S.
involvement in peacekeeping operations, humanitar-
ian assistance, and disaster relief. In each of these cases
the U.S. military is often seen as providing a good
that meets the needs of others and thus helps shape
the views of those directly assisted, as well as others,
about the nature of American society and its values.
The Demands of Smart Power.
Smart Power has been defned as the skillful com-
bination of hard and soft power.
35
The Center for
Strategic and International Studies Commission on
Smart Power noted: Smart power means developing
an integrated strategy, resource base, and tool kit to
achieve American objectives, drawing on both hard
and soft power.
36
If these are the objectives of smart
power, what are the essential demands of smart power
that must be met if the United States is to achieve
these objectives?
Vision.
The United States must have a vision of the kind
of domestic environment and international order it
hopes will emerge in the decades ahead. Without such
a vision, it will be unable to further develop its do-
mestic sources of power and focus the instruments of
soft and hard power smartly in ways that support
the achievement of its international vision. It will not
be able to balance often competing, short, medium,
and longer-term objectives, prioritizing and sacrifc-
ing what it must to achieve more important objectives
and thereby encouraging movement within the inter-
national community in the desired direction.
68
Investing in the Sources of Power.
If the United States wishes to remain a dominant,
if not always predominant, international player in the
21st century, it must further develop the sources of its
soft and hard power. While it can do little to alter its
geography and the provision of natural resources, the
ability to develop its other sources of power is only
limited by the wisdom and imagination of its national
and local leaderships. For example, ensuring a healthy
economy will require a wise balance between the
further development of business and industry and
environmental concerns such as air, water, and soil
pollution that undermine the quality of working and
living conditions, which add long-term, though often
immediate, costs to health care, and often lower labor
productivity.
In an increasingly globalized economy, U.S. suc-
cess will demand stronger investments in education.
To many, the current system increasingly appears to
be broken. According to rankings released by the Or-
ganization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-
ment (OECD) Programme for International Student
Assessment, which compares the knowledge and
skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world,
the United States has fallen to average. The OECD
reported further noted that investment in education is
paid back many times over. For example, according to
the report increasing U.S. reading, math, and science
scores by 25 points over the next 20 years would re-
sult in a gain of $41 trillion for the U.S. economy over
the lifetime of the generation born in 2010. Bringing
the United States up to the performance of the best
performing education system among OECD members
69
could result in economic gains up to as much as $103
trillion.
37
The report further notes that the quality of
education depends on several factors. First, an ac-
tual rather than rhetorical commitment to education
as weighed against other commitments, for example,
as expressed in terms of pay versus the pay of other
highly skilled workers, or as expressed in terms of
how education credentials are weighed against other
qualifcations when people are considered for jobs.
Second is clear and ambitious standards that are
shared across the system, with a focus among other
things on higher-order thinking skills. Third is high
quality teachers and principalsstudent learning is
ultimately the product of what goes on in the class-
room. Last, but not least, world-class education sys-
tems deliver high-quality learning outcomes consis-
tently across the entire education system.
38
The United States may not be in as precipitous
decline in technology and innovation as Thomas L.
Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum suggested in
That Used to Be Us. According to one recent study, it
still ranks frst in patents per capita. It is sixth in eco-
nomic output devoted to research and development
investment and seventh in scientifc and engineering
researchers per capita. Combining all three measures
in a broad assessment of the technological and in-
novative capabilities of the worlds leading nations,
the United States ranks third. In each category, the
so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and
China) fall far behind.
39
Nevertheless, future competi-
tiveness in a globalized world economy demands that
the United States vigorously encourage and support
technological innovation. In many ways, Americas
technological future is highly correlated to its educa-
tional system at all levels. While the U.S. university
70
system remains the best in the world,
40
the university
product remains dependent on inputs from primary
and secondary schools. According to the World Eco-
nomic Forum (WEF), the United States is ranked 48th
in the quality of mathematics and science education.
Though there are signifcant questions about the va-
lidity of WEF opinion-based ratings, nevertheless, the
ratings are generally in line with OECD rankings. This
does not bode well for the future.
Re-examining the educational processes for U.S.
diplomats and military leaders is also warranted.
Once inducted into the Foreign Service, U.S. diplomats
fnd the educational opportunities somewhat limited.
There is nothing comparable to the through-career
educational programs available to advance the profes-
sional skills of military offcials. On the other hand, in
an increasingly complex world where the demands on
military personnel go well beyond battlefeld skills,
the military educational system has become increas-
ingly focused on operational issues, often providing
little time for education and training on issues associ-
ated with the broader aspects of national strategy, na-
tional military strategy, and the militarys role in soft
power projection.
Finally, when viewed from afar, what appears to
many Americans as a dysfunctional political system
is likely to be taken by proponents of more authoritar-
ian models of governance as an example of the failings
of democracy style government. On the other hand,
other non-Americans may simply take it as the rough
and tumble of democratic (republic style) politics. In
either case, the long-term effects of apparently disap-
pearing concepts of compromise within the American
political system may well undermine the domestic
effectiveness and effciency of the United States and,
71
in turn, the ability to use its soft and hard power in
pursuit of American interests abroad. Political parties
had yet to be formed when the U.S. Constitution was
written and debated. However, in Federalist Paper #10,
James Madison warned of the dangers of faction. By
faction, he meant:
a number of citizens, whether amounting to a major-
ity or a minority of the whole, who are united and
actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of
interest, adversed [sic] to the rights of other citizens,
or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the
community.
However, he assumed that the problem would be
mitigated in a republic of vast citizenry and territory,
where interest would be diffuse and the prospect for
faction diminished. The republic thus would be saved
from faction by compromises made to advance the
broader community. Indeed, in a democratic republic,
by defnition there can be no absolutes. Such a system
is based on fnding a common way ahead. Today, in a
political system where political parties are increasingly
dominated by extremes, where elective politics seems
to demand that the supposedly wiser representatives
of the people refect rather than inform extremes and
where compromise has become a bad word, gridlock
dominates to the detriment of the nation. Should this
continue, America will fnd itself weaker in most, if
not all, sources of its soft power.
Commitment to a Norms-based International Community.
The United States is unlikely to remain the only
or predominant superplayer in the international
community. If it wishes to have its interests pro-
72
tected and perhaps advanced in the future, it will
need to continue the development of a norms-based
rather than interest-based international community.
As World War II was drawing to a close, the United
States established itself as the preeminent advocate
of a norms-based international environment, with its
efforts to establish such organizations as the UN, the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Develop-
ment (World Bank), and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF). Following the war, it played a major role
in the formation of the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade
Organization (WTO). In the drafting of such docu-
ments as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
modeled in part after the U.S. Bill of Rights, the In-
ternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and in advancing
global guidelines for land use and property rights, the
United States also has played a key role in advanc-
ing international law, an essential basis for a norms-
based international community. Norms set by these
institutions have served the United States very well.
They have established mechanisms for dialogue on
issues of international concern. They have provided
for economic stability and development. They have
advanced Americas long-standing preference for free
and open trade among nations, as well as concepts of
human rights in peace and war.
However, for much of the frst decade of the 21st
century, it appeared to many that the United States,
now the worlds most powerful nation, was drawing
back from its commitment to international norms as
guides to the behavior of states. The United States
failed to join such internationally favored agree-
ments as the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the
73
International Criminal Court, and the Anti-Personnel
Mine Ban Convention. This, coupled with the Neo-
conservative harangues against the UN, multilater-
alism, evident preference for unilateral action, and
perceived willingness to interpret international law to
suit U.S. purposes regardless of commonly accepted
understandings, led some to conclude that the United
States had come to prefer a self-interest-based interna-
tional community, where to quote Thucydides, the
strong do what they can and the weak suffer what
they must.
41
In an increasingly interdependent world, where
achieving ones objective will almost always require
the assistance or as a minimum the acquiescence of
others, policies fundamentally guided by self-interest
will win few friends, gain infuence among few na-
tions or peoples, do little to advance the nations
soft power, raise concerns about Americas ultimate
aims, heighten perceptions of the abuse of its power,
undermine its ability to use hard power when it may
be necessary, and thus be largely counterproductive.
Joseph Joffe, publisher-editor of the German weekly
newspaper, Die Zeit, writing about the United States
over a decade ago, correctly noted:
To the extent that the United States turns unilateralism
into a habit . . . others will feel the sting of American
power more strongly. And the incentive to discipline
Mr. Big will grow.
42
Investment in the Common Good.
U.S. successes in the post World War II Cold War
era owe as much to its efforts to provide for the
common good as to its military and economic clout.
74
Indeed, for most of the post World War II era, the
United States has acted as the foremost producer of
global/regional public goods.
43
By shaping its for-
eign policy agenda to advance not only its own in-
terests but also those of others, it was able to grow
its soft power global infuence. By holding the value
of the dollar currency artifcially high following the
war, Americans would be encouraged to buy foreign
products, helping others get their post-war econo-
mies going again. By providing them a security shield
and money through the European Recovery Program
(Marshall Plan), the United States freed Western Euro-
pean nations from the burden of heavy defense expen-
ditures and thus allowed them to focus their limited
resources on economic and social recovery. Moreover,
many of the institutions the United States advanced
not only helped establish norms for international be-
havior, but also provided for the common good. The
World Bank provided loans for post-War reconstruc-
tion and development. The IMF stabilized exchange
rates, making trade among nations more predictable.
GATT lowered barriers, encouraging greater trade
among nations and stimulating economic develop-
ment. The WTO continues the processes set in motion
by GATT.
Such efforts have built a better world and have
contributed greatly to Americas stature in the past.
Continued investment in the common good is essen-
tial if the United States hopes to retain its primacy in
the international community. But as Joffe has said:
Primacy does not come cheap, and the price is mea-
sured in the currency of obligation. Leaders succeed
not only because of their superior power, but also be-
cause they have a fne sense for the quirks and qualities
of others--because they act in the interest of all [empha-
75
sis added]. Their labor is the source of their authority.
And so a truly great power must not just prevent but
pre-empt hostile coalitionsby providing essential
services. Those who respect the needs of others engage
in supply-side diplomacy: They create a demand for
their services, and that translates into political profts,
also known as leadership.
44
In short, investing in the common good generates
gratitude among those affected, opens avenues for
infuence, often predisposes others to political/dip-
lomatic overtures, and thus contributes to a nations
soft power.
Knowledge.
In the decades ahead, nothing will be more impor-
tant than knowledge. Knowledge of the interests of
other states and nonstate actors, their objectives and
concerns, and the skillful management of a nations
public diplomacy to translate such knowledge into a
favorable view of the United States will be required.
Moreover, to choose wisely among the instruments
of national power and the means of their employment
in any given circumstance, a thorough understanding
of the individuals and/or groups of individuals a na-
tion wishes to affect is a necessity. If the United States
is to have an immediate effect on the behavior of an-
other state or nonstate actor in the international arena,
it must be able to identify those likely to be able to
directly or indirectly affect the decisions to be made.
This requires in-depth knowledge of the attitudes, be-
liefs, and predispositions of those likely to be involved
in the decisionmaking process or the so-called proxi-
mal decisionmaking environment. It also requires an
understanding of the more emotive aspects of the per-
76
sonalities involved. This places an enormous task on
the intelligence community, not only on their ability
to directly gather information needed to make appro-
priate judgments, but also to analyze that intelligence
along with information garnered from the wide range
of academics who have engaged in such efforts. Where
efforts to affect the behavior of others is long-term and
likely to involve the use of public diplomacy, an un-
derstanding of attitudes, beliefs, predispositions, and
emotive aspects of not only the proximal, but also
distal environment of the target country is required.
In democracies, such a distal environment includes
a wide range of groups and, of course, the public in
general, upon whose consent the government often
relies. In authoritarian regimes, the scope of the distal
environment is likely to be more circumscribed.
Investments in education and intelligence are
among the most valuable investments a nation can
make if it wishes to use its soft and hard power wisely.
It is the basis upon which one chooses which instru-
ment or combinations of instruments of national power
(political, psychological, economic, and/or military)
to use in a given situation, as well as over time, and
which means or combination of means (infuence, per-
suasion, coercion, deterrence, and/or compellence) to
employ on which international actors when and how.
Integration of the Instruments of Power.
As suggested above, smart power requires that the
instruments of national power be fully integrated. The
political, economic, psychological, and military instru-
ments, deployed to infuence, persuade, coerce, deter,
or compel, may be used individually, in tandem, or
jointly, depending on the nature of the issues to be
77
addressed. This will require cooperation and coordi-
nation across the agencies of government involved,
particularly between the departments of State and
Defense, but also others such as Homeland Security,
Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture, and Justice. It also
will require the cooperation of Congress: at minimum
a Congress knowledgeable enough and determined
enough to serve as a check on executive actions, while
acting in an effcient, nonpartisan manner to support
executive branch efforts when warranted.
More than a decade ago, the HartRudman Com-
mission signaled the need for strategic fusion of all ap-
propriate instruments of national power:
The nature of the future security environment appears
to require advanced, integrated, collaborative planning
and organized interagency responses beyond what is
possible under the current interagency system.
45
More recently, the 2009 DoD Quadrennial Roles and
Missions Review Report also highlighted the need to
increase unity across the government for addressing
common national security problems.
46

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also
highlighted the need for integrative efforts:
One of our goals coming into the administration was
. . . to begin to make the case that defense, diplomacy
and development were not separate entities, either
in substance or process, but that indeed they had to
be viewed as part of an integrated whole and that
the whole of government then had to be enlisted in
their pursuit.
47


However, such integration is an enormous task.
It will require addressing a wide range of issues that
78
I have attempted to identify elsewhere.
48
In particu-
lar, it will require the education of a wide range of
government professionals, as well as diplomats to
manage the processes at home and abroad. Such an
education may require a Goldwater-Nichols DoD Re-
organization Act of 1986 style professional education
for selected nonmilitary, as well as military offcials.
Invest in Public Diplomacy.
Public diplomacy is usually understood to be the
means by which governments seek to advance their
nations interests through understanding, informing,
and infuencing the views of broader publics in for-
eign countries.
49
Among the principal tasks of U.S.
public diplomacy are communicating American val-
ues, ideas, and policies and their rationale. It includes
a wide variety of efforts, which span a spectrum from
student exchanges to public media releases to the in-
formation provided by civilian and military offcials
of the government.
During the Cold War, it was hard to measure
the benefts of such public broadcasting efforts as
the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio
Liberty. We do know that those broadcasts not only
shaped U.S. images but also often highlighted, by
virtue of implicit example, the failings of many of the
authoritarian regimes that fell to their coverage. It is
equally diffcult to measure the success of such pro-
grams as the Peace Corps, the Department of State-
run participants programs, the various DoD-run re-
gional education centers, as well as the Fulbright and
other exchange programs. But those programs not
only provide many Americans, often captive of their
own insularity, an opportunity to better understand
79
the culture, languages, and perspectives of other peo-
ples and nations, but also advance an understanding
of American culture, traditions, values, and, perhaps
above all, concepts of freedom and openness to others
around the globe.
Public diplomacy can be a powerful tool in ad-
vancing the interests of the nation. In the media age,
with the emergence of a multiplicity of communica-
tions means, where news and entertainment are often
merged and news blurred, and competing and some-
times misleading information has become increasingly
common, a strong investment in public diplomacy is
essential. It is in such an environment that the battle
of ideas and thus the battle for the hearts and par-
ticularly the minds of others take place. If the United
States is to be successful, it will need to do a better job
coordinating its efforts among the various agencies
of government. This neither means that all those who
venture abroad on U.S. programs receive indoctrina-
tion on U.S. policies, nor does it mean that there needs
to be one truth on all issues. Rather, there needs to be
a greater unity of effort in communicating to foreign
peoples those issues of strategic importance and sus-
tained education of those civilian and military offcials
in regular contact with the media that provides them
with the tools necessary to be effective communica-
tors via the various instruments of the modern media.
As Mary K. Eder has written: At issue is the concern
that America does not communicate clearly with the
world. It often seems that the U.S. government sends
mixed messages or fails to clearly and consistently
communicate policy.
50


80
Humility.
During one of the presidential debates before
his election as President, George W. Bush, speaking
about the reactions of others to the United States, com-
mented: If we are an arrogant nation, theyll view us
that way, but if were a humble nation, theyll respect
us.
51
This must have been sweet music to many in
the world who have tired of Americas claims of ex-
ceptionalism. Of course, such claims have deep roots
in the American psyche, reaching back to 1630. John
Winthrop, still aboard the fagship Arabella en route
to New England, delivered a sermon to future Massa-
chusetts Bay colonists, remarking that the Lord will
be our God and delight to dwell among us . . . wee
shall be as a Citty upon a Hill.
52
The idea of American
exceptionalism has often been advanced. Among oth-
ers, President-Elect John F. Kennedy quoted Winthrop
in a January 1961 address to the General Court of
Massachusetts. President Ronald Reagan repeatedly
referred to the United States as the shining city upon
a hill. Presidential candidate George W. Bush in 2000
remarked: Our nation is chosen by God and commis-
sioned by history to be a model to the world.
53
The United States is exceptional in many regards.
Many non-Americans see the United States as the
land of freedom and opportunity. The United States
has much to be admired. Nevertheless, the old adage
self-praise stinks, applies both at home and abroad,
and both among individuals and between and among
states. Loch Johnson has labeled arrogance as one of
the seven sins of American foreign policy.
54
America might well keep in mind that the United
States is ranked ffth in world competitiveness, 16th in
national infrastructure, 39th in institutions

, and 42nd
81
in health and primary education.
55
The United States
also is ranked 49th in infant mortality and 50th in life
expectancy, lagging behind all Western European
states, except Turkey.
56
While one may take exception
to one or more of the rankings, this is the way many
others see us. Indeed, according to Johnson:
there is a perception around the world that the United
States has grown too big for its britches, that it has
failed to live up to its noble rhetoric as a peace-loving
power with lofty ideals, that it thinks its views are su-
perior to other nations.
57
Thus, a little humility would go a long way in ad-
vancing Americas soft power and likely make appli-
cations of hard power more palatable.
Humility is demonstrated in many ways, for ex-
ample, knowledge of the history, culture, traditions,
language, and current issues and concerns of others;
soliciting and listening to the views of others; and
perhaps above all, seeing others as equals, with some-
thing to contribute to the discourse among nations
and peoples. Even U.S. diplomats might beneft from
further education on some of these before assignment,
especially those who serve as political appointees.
Recognize the Limits of Power.
If the United States is to use wisely the instruments
of national power, it must recognize that it cannot
solve all of the problems all of the time. It may be able
to solve some of the challenges it confronts by itself.
It may be able to solve some problems with the help
and/or cooperation of others. Some problems it may
not be able to solve at all.
82
Smart power not only requires an understanding
of such elementary truths, but also the knowledge
needed to differentiate among the challenges and the
wisdom to act only where the available resources,
means, and instruments of power are likely to yield a
reasonable probability of success. Humanitarians and
hawks sometimes join hands advocating interven-
tion where authoritarian regimes abuse their power
and infict gross violations of human rights on their
people, recently, for example, in Libya and Syria. In
such situations, if the United States is to use its power
wisely, good counsel suggests caution. Quick action,
without a well-thought-through plan that promises a
reasonable end game and a reasonable probability of
politically desirable outcomes, can spell disaster.
Furthermore, efforts to act everywhere or near ev-
erywhere are likely to be met with suspicion followed
by pushback from others. There always exists within
the international community the concern that the
strong are always inclined to abuse their strength.
The more obvious their superiority, the more suspect
they become.
58
The obvious military strength and
past history of U.S. involvement makes it an especially
prominent target for such suspicion.
Thus the United States must choose carefully
where, when, and how it will become involved, par-
ticularly in the use of its hard power. An intemper-
ate America wears out its own reputation and hence
its ability to infuence others. Moreover, efforts to act
everywhere all of the time are costly in terms of a na-
tions economic, military, and human resources. Fur-
thermore, if ever there was an axiom of state behavior,
one that can be counted on 90+ percent of the time, it
is that if one state is always ready and willing to do
what is diffcult and costly, other nations will let that
83
state take care of the dirty laundry, saving themselves
from the economic, military, and political costs.
Act Within the Limits of Resources.
Great powers have come and gone. One certainty
is that if a nation exhausts its resources, it will face
decline. It would be diffcult to measure the long-term
costs to the United States of its wars of choice in lives
lost and the resultant drain on national treasure and
the American psyche. Americans are a resilient and
optimistic people. But surely the United States would
be in a better position today if it had been more dis-
crete in its choices of wars to fght. There is, of course,
the argument that wars stimulate the economy
through production and therefore wars, rather than a
drain, can be good for the economy. This view is often
supported by the argument that it was World War II
that fnally got the United States out of the Great De-
pression, not the New Deal spending of Franklin D.
Roosevelt. However, I fnd irony in this argument that
those who decry government spending often so argue.
Nevertheless, if true, would not spending on domestic
programs be better?
Of course, wars of choice are not the only drains
on the nations resources, spending more than you are
willing to pay for can run up the national debt to levels
from which recovery can only be achieved by taxing
the future health and welfare of the nation. Indeed, the
combined domestic and foreign spending including
recent wars has run up the national debt from almost
$6 trillion in 2001 to over $15 trillion today, jumping
to nearly $10.7 trillion during the Bush administra-
tion and the rest during the frst 3 years of the Barack
Obama administration.
59
True, some of that spending
84
was on efforts to stimulate the economy. On the other
hand, engaging in two wars without raising taxes to
cover costs has surely affected the U.S. resilience in
recovering from the great recession and contributed to
perceptions both at home and abroad of an American
decline. U.S. soft power potential has been weakened,
and with the economic recession its future hard power
capabilities will surely be reduced.
Maintain Suffcient Military Hard Power.
Military forces equipped and trained to address
the challenges of the 21st century are essential. How-
ever, smart power demands that if Americas re-
sources are to be wisely husbanded, military forces
should be designed to meet the probable threats, not
all possible threats. The latter is a prescription for un-
bounded military expenditures. Today U.S. military
expenditures are about 43 percent of the worlds total.
By comparison, China spends about 7.3 percent, Rus-
sia about 3.6 percent, France about 3.6 percent, and
the UK about 3.7 percent.
60
From an average of about
$450 billion (in 2012 dollars) during the Cold War, the
U.S. defense budget soared following the September
11, 2001 (9/11) attacks to over $700 billion.
Furthermore, today the United States has 11 nu-
clear powered aircraft carriers. In terms of size and
striking power, no other country has a comparable
ship. Several countries do have aircraft carriers. How-
ever, none presently has more than two, though India
and Australia have three under construction.
61
The
currently projected cost of the new Gerald R. Ford class
carrier now under construction is about $13.5 billion.
This does not include the cost of approximately 90 on-
board aircraft, nor does it include the cost of accom-
85
panying forces that compose a carrier strike group
usually one or two guided missile cruisers, at least
two destroyers and/or frigates (for example, Zumwalt
Class approximately $6.5 billion and the Burke Class
approximately $2 billion), and, on occasion, subma-
rines.
62
The United States also has:
Ten large-deck amphibious ships that can op-
erate as sea bases for helicopters and vertical-
takeoff jets. No other navy has more than three,
and all of those navies belong to U.S. allies or
friends. The U.S. Navy can carry twice as many
aircraft at sea as all the rest of the world com-
bined.
Fifty-seven nuclear-powered attack and cruise
missile submarines. More than the rest of the
world combined.
Seventy-nine Aegis-equipped combatants that
carry roughly 8,000 vertical-launch missile
cells. In terms of total missile frepower, the
United States arguably outmatches the next 20
largest navies.
A battle feet displacementa proxy for overall
feet capabilities that exceeds, by one recent
estimate, at least the next 13 navies combined,
of which 11 are U.S. allies or partners.
A 202,000-strong Marine Corps, which is the
largest military force of its kind in the world
and exceeds the size of most world armies.
63
Arguably the fnest air forces in the world, with
an estimated 160-200 fying hours per year for
tactical crews, compared to 100-150 for China
and 25-40 for Russia.
A tactical aircraft inventory of about 2,650 Air
Force, 900 Naval, and 371 Marine combat air-
craft and including today about 140 F/A 22s
86
with a fnal purchase of 183one of the fnest,
if not the fnest, aircraft in the world. It is in the
process of acquiring about 2,400 F-35 aircraft as
a replacement for its older aircraft at a fy-away
cost of over $200 million per copy.
The best equipped Army in the world.
All of this raises the reasonable questions of How
much is enough? How little is too little? How
much is overkill? With an over $15 trillion national
debt and, as of late, annual $1 trillion federal defcits,
the United States is obliged to ensure that military
expenditures are still suffcient to protect Americas
vital interests. However, as has often been noted in
the past, interests tend to expand to meet available
resources. Therefore, it is useful to keep in mind as
the United States sizes and equips its military forces
that all interests are not vital and that military expen-
ditures must be balanced against other expenditures
that protect the homeland from attack and add to
Americas ability to have a favorable impact on world
affairs. The United States is not defcient in offensive
military striking power. Indeed, it is likely to remain
superior in offensive military capabilities, even far
superior to any likely military adversary for some
years to come. Indeed, if there are serious weaknesses
in Americas security, they may well be in the ability
of the U.S. to defend against crippling cyber attacks
on U.S. infrastructure and in its ability to employ its
military forces effectively. Such defciencies demand
signifcant attention.
Today the DoD Budget request for Fiscal Year
(FY)2013 is about $614 billion, including $88.5 billion
for overseas contingency operations, including those
in Afghanistan and Iraq.
64
By way of comparison, the
Presidents FY2013 budget for the Department of State
87
and the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), including Overseas Contingency Operations
to support the extraordinary and temporary costs of
civilian-led programs and missions in Iraq, Afghani-
stan, and Pakistan is $51.6 billion.
65
Thats less than
1/10 of the Defense budget. Looking to the future,
among the most important military investments are
those made in the research, development, testing, and
evaluation (RDT&E) of military hardware, in military
training, and, increasingly today and in the future,
in cyber security. Investments in RDT&E permit the
United States to remain technologically superior to
potential adversaries. Military training and use of ad-
vanced cyber techniques are force multipliers, so-to-
speak. Such force multipliers often permit the United
States to operate successfully against larger militaries,
as was the case in Iraq in 2003.
It is instructive to note that President Eisenhower
cut the defense budget by 27 percent. However, he
also doubled funding for RDT&E in order to maintain
the U.S. technological edge over the Soviet Union.
President Richard Nixon also reduced defense spend-
ing, but ushered in the Total Force concept, which
gave a signifcant role to Reserve and National Guard
forces in times of confict.
66
This would suggest that the
question of military funding in terms of smart power
is what is the appropriate balance between funding for
forces in being versus RDT&E. That is to say, should
forces in being be sized downward while keeping the
R&D base hot? It also raises questions as to how much,
more or less, should be borne today by Reserve and
National Guard forces? However, the larger question
is: What is the proper balance of expenditures not only
among the various foreign and security policy institu-
tions, but also between expenditures on those institu-
88
tions and expenditures on securing and improving
U.S sources of national power?
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
The challenges of coming decades are likely to
be more complex and in many ways more demand-
ing than those the United States confronted during
the Cold War. Future successes in providing for U.S.
national security and advancing American interests
abroad will demand the wise application of both soft
and hard power. As a minimum, this will demand
that the United States have a clear vision of the kind
of domestic and international environment it seeks to
nurture in the decades ahead. Henry Kissinger noted
over 40 years ago: We will never be able to contribute
to building a stable and creative world order unless
we frst form some conception of it.
67
His observation
remains as true today as it did in 1968 and pertains
equally to the domestic as well as international envi-
ronment. Indeed, success internationally will depend
heavily on success at home. It also will demand that
the United States invest carefully in the sources of its
power both domestically and internationally.
Domestically, even more so than in the past, in an
era of globalization, future American power will de-
pend heavily on the strength of the nations economy
and, as it rebuilds its economy, on fnding an appropri-
ate balance between the further development of busi-
ness and industry and environmental concerns that
often have less noticed but none-the-less detrimental
long-term effects on the economy. Americas abil-
ity to infuence events abroad also will demand that
the United States vigorously encourage and support
technological innovation at home, as well as invest
89
substantially in R&D, in the education of its people
in general, and in the education of its diplomats and
military leaders. The latter may require a Goldwater-
Nichols DoD Reorganization Act style specialized
professional education for select nonmilitary, as well
as military offcials engaged in foreign and security
policymaking. Perhaps above all, the future of U.S.
powerboth soft and hardwill depend on effective
governance. Democracy eschews absolutes. Rather,
it demands compromise among competing interests
in order to achieve a consensus for advancement. A
my way or the highway attitude among competing
political factions is a prescription for decline, both at
home and abroad.
Internationally, the wise application of the instru-
ments of American power will depend, among other
things, on cooperative efforts on the part of those
agencies of government involved in foreign and secu-
rity affairs in order to integrate effectively the instru-
ments of American power. It will demand an unwav-
ering investment in the intelligence community and
in developing an understanding of the motivations of
other international actors, a commitment to a norms-
based international community, investments in the in-
ternational common good and public diplomacy with
a touch of humility, and a recognition of the limits of
the ability of any single nation to solve all the worlds
problems and of the need to work with others within
the limits of available resources. The application of
smart power to protect U.S. interests abroad will also
demand that the United States maintain suffcient mil-
itary hard power to deter and, if necessary, defend its
vital interests, as well as the ability to protect Home-
land infrastructure and U.S. military forces from crip-
pling cyber attacks. However, many of the challenges
90
that lie ahead are likely to be more effectively ad-
dressed through the use of soft power than through
the application of hard power. Thus Americas stature
in the global arena and its ability to protect and ad-
vance its interests and those of its allies and friends
demands a proper balance of expenditures among the
various U.S. foreign and security policy institutions,
especially those that strengthen Americas soft power.
Indeed, it is worth keeping in mind that it was not
hard power that brought about the collapse of the So-
viet empire. To be sure, hard military power played
an important role. Nevertheless, Eastern European
peoples did not toss the yoke of communism because
of American military efforts in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America. Mikhail Gorbachev didnt seek to reform the
Soviet system because he had been defeated militarily
or because the United States had halted the expansion
of communism through the use of its military might. In
fact, with the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, the United
States lost the very military confict in which it had
invested most heavily during the Cold War period.
Rather, it was the inability of the communist system
to deliver to its peoples the promises made of a better
life, juxtaposed against the success of the West. It was
the inherent attractiveness of the West and America
and its soft power that won the daythe strength of
its economy, the attractiveness of its political system,
its commitment to international institutions and inter-
national law, and its inherent vitality. Thus while hard
power will remain a must, in the decades ahead, smart
power demands signifcant investments in Americas
soft power.
91
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 4
1. U.S. gross national product was about $200,000 million in
1940. By 1950, it was about $300,000 million (greater than half of
the worlds gross national product) and more than $500,000 mil-
lion by 1960. See World War II and the Post-War Boom, avail-
able from www.nestlepurina.com/postwar.aspx; and The Post War
Economy 1945-1960, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State,
available from economics.about.com/od/useconomichistory/a/post_
war.htm.
2. Christopher J. Tassava, The American Economy during World
War II, Economic History Association, available from EH.net at
eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tassava.WWII.
3. By 1970, U.S. GDP measured by purchasing power parity
(PPP) represented about 24 percent of the world total; nominal
U.S. GDP as a share of the worlds total measured at offcial ex-
change rates peaked in 1985 at 32.74 percent, while remaining
at about 22.5 percent at PPP; by 1997 it had shrunk to about 21
percent at PPP. See Handbook of International Economic Statistics,
Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, February 1999, p.
6 available from permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps2917/hies.pdf. The U.S.
economic output is slightly below that level today. The global eco-
nomic product in 2010 was estimated to be about $63 trillion (using
offcial exchange rates) or 76.16 trillion (using purchasing power
parity), while the U.S. was estimated to be $14.82 trillion or about
23.5 percent at offcial exchange rates or 19.5 percent at PPP of the
global product, respectively. See The World Factbook, Washington,
DC: Central Intelligence Agency, available from https://www.cia.
gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html. Moreover,
some 2012 forecasts see Chinas GDP surpassing the United States
by some estimates as early as 2019 and by 2025, with the United
States producing about 18.3 percent of the worlds output and
China about 21.8 percent. See Global Economic Outlook 2012,
The Conference Board, available from www.conference-board.org/
data/globaloutlook.cfm.
4. Should Iran acquire nuclear weapons, there is a reason-
able probability that other states in the region will seek to acquire
them. Moreover, any further proliferation of nuclear weapons,
materials, and know-how increases the likelihood that such ca-
pabilities will fall into the hands of terrorist or criminal groups.
92
5. For example, see Kenneth E. Boulding, Three Faces of Power,
Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1989, pp. 15-18.
6. Bertrand de Jouvenel, On Power: Its Nature and the History of
Its Growth, Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1962, p. 17.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., pp. 17-26.
9. See Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of
American Power, New York: Basic Books, 1990.
10. Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World
Politics, New York: Public Affairs, 2004.
11. Joseph S. Nye, Jr. The Future of Power, New York: Public
Affairs, 2011.
12. Nye, Soft Power, p. x.
13. Ibid, p. 5.
14. Nye, Future of Power, p. 16.
15. Ibid.
16. Nye, Future of Power, p. 155.
17. Samuel P. Huntington, Clash of Civilizations, Foreign
Affairs, Summer 1993, p. 22.
18. Information provided by government offcials as back-
ground usually refers to information that the media can provide
the public, but without quoting the name of the offcial providing
the information or the offce of government he/she might rep-
resent. Information provided on deep background can be pro-
vided by the media to the public, but without any attribution to
the government at all.
93
19. For example, see Compellence available from
en.citizendium.org/wiki/Compellence.
20. Joseph Nyes three aspects of relational power, the abil-
ity to command change, particularly affecting others preferences,
control agendas, and establish preferences, are, in a large sense,
by-products of previously established relationships that fnd their
roots in soft and hard power, but often in soft powers ability to
infuence behaviors. See Nye, The Future of Power, pp. 10-11.
21. President Dwight Eisenhowers News Conference, April
7, 1954, Public Papers of the Presidents, 1954, p. 382.
22. See John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A critical
Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy, New York:
Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 131.
23. Harry G. Summers, Jr., On Strategy: The Vietnam War in
Context, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War
College, 1981, p. 1.
24. Mary K. Eder, Leading the Narrative: The Case for Strategic
Communications, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 2011, p. xi.
25. Public Diplomacy, available from www.usdiplomacy.org/
diplomacytoday/contemporary/public.php.
26. Michael Howard, Military Power and International Or-
der, International Affairs, Vol. 40, No. 3, Royal Institute of Inter-
national Affairs, July 1964, p. 405.
27. King Louis XIV of France (1643-1715) had the saying,
Ultima Ratio Regum (last Argument of Kings), stamped onto the
barrels of all canons that were forged during his reign.
28. Stanley Hoffmann, Gullivers Troubles, New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1968, p. 34.
29. Raymond Aron, Richard Nixon and the Future of Ameri-
can Foreign Policy, Daedalus, Fall 1972, pp. 15-16.
30. Howard, Military Power, p. 405.
94
31. Eleven of the 16 battleships had been constructed in U.S.
shipyards between 1904 and 1907. See JO2 Mike McKinley, The
Cruise of the Great White Fleet, Washington, DC: Department of
the Navy; Naval History and Heritage Command, available from
www.history.navy.mil/library/online/gwf_cruise.htm.
32. Ibid.
33. Thomas Paterson, J. Garry Clifford, Shane J. Maddock,
Debra Kisatsky, and Kenneth J. Hagan, American Foreign Relations:
Volume 1: A History to 1920, 7th Ed., Boston, MA: Wadsworth,
2010, p. 255.
34. Garett Jones of George Mason University and Tim Kane of
the Kansas City, MO-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
undertook the study. See Amity Shlaes, Why Obamas Pullout
Push May Harm Rather Than Help, Atlanta Journal Constitution,
February 18, 2012. Also see Garett Jones and Tim Kane, Defense
and Peace Economics, Online: Taylor and Francis, 2012.
35. CSIS Commission on Smart Power, Center for Strate-
gic and International Studies, Washington, DC: The CSIS Press,
2007, p. 7.
36. CSIS Commission on Smart Power: A smarter, more secure
America, Washington, DC: The CSIS Press, 2007, p. 7.
37. Karin Zeitvogel, US Falls to Average in Education Rank-
ing, December 7, 2010, available from www.google.com/hosted-
news/afp/article/ALeqM5juGFSx9LiPaur6eO1KJAypB2ImVQ?docId
=CNG.5337504e8f65acf16c57d5cac3cfe339.1c1. Also see PISA 2009
Results: What Students Know and Can DoStudent Performance in
Reading, Mathematics and Science, Vol. 1, OECD 2010, available
from www.oecd.org/dataoecd/10/61/48852548.pdf.
38. PISA 2009 Results, p. 4.
39. Charlotte Mellander and Kevin Stolarick, Creativity
and Prosperity: The Global Creativity Index, Toronto, Canada:
Martin Prosperity Institute, January 2011, pp. 3-7, available from
martinprosperity.org/media/GCI%20Report%20Sep%202011.pdf.
95
40. See for example, Worlds Best Universities: Top 400,
U.S. News, 2011, available from www.usnews.com/education/worlds-
best-universities-rankings/top-400-universities-in-the-world.
41. Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, Chicago,
IL: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., The Great Books, 1952, Sec
5:89, p. 505.
42. Joseph Joffe, Whos Afraid of Mr. Big, The National In-
terest, Summer 2001, available from fndarticles.com/p/articles/mi_
m2751/is_2001_Summer/ai_76560814/pg_10/?tag=content;col1.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century,
Hart-Rudman Commission, April 15, 2001, Vol. 1, pp. xi, 4.
46. Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review Report, Washington,
DC: U.S. Department of Defense, January 2009, p. 31.
47. Address by Secretary Hillary Clinton, Washington, DC,
Brookings Institution, May 27, 2010.
48. National Security Reform: 12 Central Questions for Re-
sponding to the Security Challenges of the 21st Century, in Rob-
in Dorff and Volker Franke, eds., Confict Management and Whole
of Government: Useful Tools for U.S. National Security Strategy?
Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College,
April 2012.
49. Public Diplomacy.
50. Eder, p. 19.
51. Julie A. Mertus, Bait and Switch, New York: Routledge,
2004, p. 53, quoted in Paterson, et al., American Foreign Relations,
p. 483.
52. See John Winthrop, City upon a Hill, 1630, available from
www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/winthrop.htm.
96
53. Important Believers & Quotes, available from www.
originofnations.org/books,%20papers/quotes%20etc/quotes.htm.
54. Loch K. Johnson, Seven Sins of American Foreign Policy,
New York: Pearson Longman, 2007, PP. 249-275.
55. Professor Klaus Schwab, ed., Global Competitiveness Report
2011-2012, Geneva, Switzerland, 2011, P. 362.
56. World Factbook, CIA.
57. Johnson, Seven Sins, p. 249.
58. Raymond Aron, On War, Garden City, NY: Doubleday &
Company, Inc., 1958, p. 99.
59. US National Debt by Presidential Term: Per Capita and
as Percentage of Gross Domestic Product, available from www.
skymachines.com/US-National-Debt-Per-Capita-Percent-of-GDP-and-
by-Presidental-Term.htm.
60. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),
Military Expenditure Database 2011, available from milexdata.sipri.
org displayed in Anup Shah, World Military Spending, Global
Issues, available from www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-mili-
tary-spending.
61. Remarks by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, avail-
able from the Gaylord Convention Center, National Harbor,
MD, May 3, 2010, available from www.defense.gov/speeches/speech.
aspx?speechid=1460.
62. For cost data, see Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2012
Pentagon Spending Request, Feb 15, 2011, The Cost of War. avail-
able from costofwar.com/en/publications/2011/analysis-fscal-year-
2012-pentagon-spending-request/.
63. Remarks by Gates, May 3, 2010.
64. Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request, Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Defense, p. 1-1, available from comptroller.defense.
gov/defbudget/fy2013/FY2013_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf.
97
65. State and USAIDFY 2013 Budget, Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of State, available from www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/
ps/2012/02/183808.htm.
66. For a brief historical comparison of defense budgets, see
Lawrence J. Korb, Laura Conley, and Alex Rothman, A Return to
Responsibility: What President Obama and Congress Can Learn
About Defense Budgets from Past Presidents, Washington, DC:
Center for American Progress, July 14, 2011, available from www.
americanprogress.org/issues/2011/07/defense_budgets.html.
67. Henry Kissinger, Central Issues of American Foreign Pol-
icy, in Kermit Gordon, ed., Agenda for the Nation, Washington,
DC: The Brookings Institution, 1968, p. 614, cited in Henry Kiss-
inger, White House Years, Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Compa-
ny, 1979, p. 66. See also Henry Kissinger, American Foreign Policy
3rd Ed., New York: Norton, 1977, p. 97.
99
CHAPTER 5
A FUTURE U.S. GRAND STRATEGY:
CONFLICT MANGEMENT FOREVER WITH US,
PEACEBUILDING NOT SO MUCH
Michael Lekson
Nathaniel L. Wilson
The world is too much with us, as Wordsworth
noted in a time of political and industrial revolu-
tion.
1
More than 2 centuries later, the world is still
very much with us, and convulsed by a wide range of
rapid changes, few of them seeming to be positive and
most of them posing challenges, and sometimes direct
threats, to U.S. national security. While it is never fair
to require a national strategy to be sized to ft a bumper
sticker or a tweet, it has rarely been harder than now
to summarize the essential elements of the overarch-
ing principles underlying U.S. interactions with the
wider world, along with the prioritized policies with
which the U.S. will seek to manage those interactions.
The times certainly call for a grand strategy. Whether
or not the U.S. is likely to develop and implement one
(both much easier to write about than to do), it ought
to be a useful thought experiment to explore what
such a strategy might look like. In particular, two po-
tential elements of such a strategypeacebulding and
confict managementhave grown in importance in
recent years, and it is worth considering whether this
trend is likely to continue in any future strategy. The
context in which these questions will be addressed
is one in which the overall attitude of the American
public might well be characterized by a classic coun-
try-western song: Make the world go away.
2
At the
100
time of this writing, with the second longest sustained
overseas confict in U.S. history still underway
3
and
facing record budget shortfalls, American attitudes
are decidedly not oriented outward. A January 2012
Pew Research Center poll on public priorities noted:
The publics concerns rest more with domestic policy
than at any point in the past 15 years.
4
Nonetheless,
the world shows no signs of going away.
This chapter frst defnes the terms and delineates
the contours of the concepts described. The subse-
quent section briefy describes some of the ways in
which U.S. strategy has been formally articulated.
Since strategies need to be forward-looking, the prob-
lems inherent in predicting the future are explored,
and the present state of affairs is described. The penul-
timate section argues that although American power
has been the common thread tying together the global
governance institutions and regimes since the end of
World War II, their institutional effectiveness is fray-
ing and the post-World-War-II security order is in
unprecedented trouble. Finally, the conclusion specu-
lates on the respective places of confict management
and peacebuilding in a future grand strategy at a time
when prioritization will be a grim reality rather than a
rhetorical aspiration in managing U.S. relations within
a world that will continue to be very much with us.
DEFINING THE TERMS
In considering the roles of confict management
and peacebuilding in a future U.S. grand strategy, at
least three terms in the preceding clause would ben-
eft from clear defnitions. This chapter is premised on
somewhat broad defnitions for the frst two (both ex-
cerpts from the defnitions in Peace Terms booklet
101
produced by the United States Institute of Peace), and
adopts a standard defnition of the third.
Confict Management:
is a general term that describes efforts to prevent, limit,
contain, or resolve conficts, especially violent ones. . . .
It is based on the concept that conficts are a normal
part of human interaction and are rarely completely
resolved or eliminated, but they can be managed.
5

This concept can apply either to conficts within
states or subunits thereof, or to conficts between or
among states or alliances thereof.

Peacebuilding:
Originally conceived in the context of post-confict
recovery efforts to promote reconciliation and recon-
struction, the term peacebuilding has more recently
taken on a broader meaning. . . . It also includes confict
prevention in the sense of preventing the recurrence of
violence, as well as confict management and post-con-
fict recovery. In a larger sense, peacebuilding involves
a transformation toward more manageable, peaceful
relationships and governance structures.
6

To a much greater extent than with confict man-
agement, even in its expanded form, the term peace-
building remains much more tied to the nation-
building or stabilization context.

Bassani describes Grand Strategy as:
An overarching concept that guides how nations em-
ploy all of the instruments of national power to shape
world events and achieve specifc national security ob-
102
jectives. Grand strategy provides the linkage between
national goals and actions by establishing a deliber-
ately ambiguous vision of the world as we would like
it to be (ends) and the methods (ways) and resources
(means) we will employ in pursuit of that vision. Ef-
fective grand strategies provide a unifying purpose
and direction to national leaders, public policy makers,
allies and infuential citizens in the furtherance of mu-
tual interests [emphasis added].
7

In addition, we argue that if a strategy is truly
grand, it is not about how to solve todays problems.
A grand strategy needs to be developed to deal with
the future, not to provide tactical prescriptions for the
present, which need to be devised within the context
of whatever grand strategy was developed in the past.
Let us frst address the strategy question, then the is-
sue of the future.
WHAT IS OUR STRATEGY?
In the post-World-War-II era, there have been
authoritative highly-classifed documents that made
serious efforts to establish an overall national secu-
rity strategy, most notably National Security Council
(NSC)-68 during the Harry Truman administration.
Whether NSC-68 was truly a grand strategy, the
claim of its successor documents to grandness has be-
come decreasingly plausible. The comprehensiveness
implicit in the utilization of all of the instruments of
national power has generally been achieved at the
expense of coherence. Since it was mandated by the
1986 Goldwater-Nicholas Act, each U.S. President has
been required to issue a National Security Strategy of the
United States, which is the closest approximation to a
U.S. grand strategy that is publicly available.
8
To the
103
best of our knowledge and recollection (supplemented
by some research), these national security strategies
have not been truly strategic, but rather have tended
to become laundry lists (or policy compendia, if that
sounds better). While we express some uncertainty
about the art of prediction, we feel fairly safe in pre-
dicting that this pattern will continue.
The 2010 U.S. National Security Strategy identifes
four enduring national interests: security, prosper-
ity, values, and international order.
9
At that level of
generality, there probably would not have been much
dispute that our strategy sought to preserve, protect,
and defend those interests during the past 30 years, or
even the 30 years before that. It is tempting to predict
that this consensus will continue for the next 30 years,
as well, although, as will be seen, we are less confdent
that there will continue to be an international order
to preserve.
In any case, while these post-1986 strategy docu-
ments have had varying degrees of infuence over
how the executive branch organizes itself and justi-
fes budget requests, their actual strategic content is
hard to pin down. The justifable concern that security
not be too narrowly defned provides entre to almost
anything for which there is a need, an argument, or
a constituency to be presented as promoting national
security. Bureaucratic, institutional, budgetary, and
political constraints conspire to create a document
that may identify a large number of goals, and a num-
ber of things to do that may have some bearing on
trying to achieve each of them, but does not actually
describe the way from here to there.
10
In addition, the
messiness of the outside world, domestic political re-
ality, and the interagency clearance and coordination
process combine to elevate everything into a priority,
104
even when these priorities are mutually incompat-
ible for reasons of policy, resources, or both. In these
circumstances, we should be grateful for what does
ultimately emerge from this process, which is by no
means without its utility, and should resist the temp-
tation of critiquing these documents too harshly from
the armchair strategists perspective. But, on those oc-
casions when it does appear that for a time the United
States actually had a grand strategy and actually fol-
lowed it, that strategy has generally been most clearly
articulated in memoirs after its protagonists had
left offce.
THE FUTURE AINT WHAT IT USED TO BE
For a grand strategy to deal effectively with the fu-
ture, it must be based on some idea of what that future
will be, which for most mortals must be founded on
extrapolating from the present and the past, drawing
on both what has been personally experienced and
what has been learned from history. Let us start with
two inspirational texts: That men do not learn very
much from the lessons of history is the most impor-
tant of all lessons that history has to teach us (Aldous
Huxley).
11
The law of unintended consequences is
the only real law of history (Niall Ferguson).
12
What are the threats, the challenges, and the op-
portunities that a grand strategy should be designed
to manage? No one truly knows what the future holds.
One of the most thought-provoking essays on the gen-
eral subject of planning for the future is the Overture
to The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century, by
George Friedman of STRATFOR. He opens by briefy
revisiting the 20th century, examining how the world
looked at 20-year intervals to those in charge of strate-
105
gizing. He asks what were the threats, challenges, and
opportunities that they faced, and that they devised
their strategies to confront. Almost invariably, what
they were concerned with was either misconstrued or
faded either into the background or away altogether,
while problems that did not loom large, if they were
noticed at all, became central to international security
within the 2-decade time tranche. Of course, there
were some positive surprises as well as the many
negative ones.
13
Looking even 2 decades ahead is quite a stretch
for contemporary strategists. But the world may be at
a point where much longer trends are about to have
a decisive impact. At the conclusion of Why the West
Rulesfor Now, a 663-page analytical survey of world
history from the days of the Neanderthals to the pres-
ent, British archaeologist Ian Morris considers existing
trends and outlines three possible futures, one main-
stream and two outliers: More of the same, only with a
richer China; the Singularity; or Nightfall. To expand
just a little on his mainstream prediction, the method-
ology that Morris follows over the millennia to mea-
sure social development suggests that, no later than
2103 (and probably earlier), the East (especially China)
will surpass the West.
14
On the simpler metric of total
economic output, he cites various experts as putting
the point where China surpasses the United States at
2016, 2020, 2025, 2027, and 2036. If that is, in fact, the
shape of things to come, it should serve as a basis for
developing and implementing a grand strategy.
However, the other two alternative futures which
he presents as serious possibilities are stark con-
trasts, both to the mainstream projection and to each
other. The Singularity as a term derives from the
concept of gravity established in Albert Einsteins the-
106
ory of general relativity; to quote Stephen Hawking,
it is a place where the classical concepts of space and
time break down, as do all the known laws of physics
because they are all formulated on a classical space-
time background.
15

In the analogous sense that it is used by Morris,
it pertains not to fundamental physical properties of
the universe, but rather to the advance of human tech-
nology. In this context, it is a concept long familiar in
science fction (it is said to have been coined by author
Vernor Vinge,
16
but the underlying idea antedates
him) and is perhaps most closely associated now with
Ray Kurzweil,
17
a futurist whose particular vision of it
sees machine-based intelligence as growing so rapidly
that within a few decades, it will absorb and redefne
humanity, transcending biology, and thus effectively
invalidating all that we know and can project from
history or the social sciences.
18

Nightfall is also a science fction reference, in
this case to a story by Isaac Asimov in which, due to
developments beyond its control or understanding, an
advanced civilization on another planet goes mad and
destroys itself.
19
While the particular trigger for night
to fall in the story would not apply in our solar system,
Morris devotes 15 pages to exploring some of the very
down-to-earth ways that Nightfall could come about
for us (including disease pandemics, famine, nuclear
war, and the negative consequences of rapid climate
change, among other potential catastrophes).
20
Both Nightfall and the Singularity are presented as
serious possibilities, and while we are less confdent
than some that the latter would be benign, we believe
they should be treated as such. Nonetheless, trying to
develop a grand strategy that can encompass dealing
not just with the mainstream rise of China prospect,
107
but also with the actual advent of these much more
cosmic prospects, is not likely to produce anything
that in bureaucratese, would be considered action-
able. However, serious thought needs to be given to
the issues they raise, even as grand strategies are de-
veloped that assume, rightly or otherwise, that we are
not headed for such discontinuous developments.
Retreating from the cataclysmic, it would still seem
that any responsible grand strategy needs to take into
account not just the projection of Chinas outpacing
the United States, but also the very real possibility that
China will instead fall victim to a failure to surmount
its governmental, demographic, and environmental
problems, or will fall short of the heights to which it
now aspires for some other concatenation of not fully
foreseeable factors. Whatever happens with China, the
consequences for U.S. national security will be huge.
With all due respect to both Morris and Friedman,
we would personally give more weight than they re-
spectively do to contingent developments that can,
albeit rarely, make a major difference (two examples
important to the context of this chapter would be
Adolf Hitlers decision to declare war on the United
States after Pearl Harbor, and the Democrats 1944
decision to replace Henry Wallace with Harry Tru-
man).
21
Morris is doubtless correct that the vast major-
ity of what we see as decisive turning points in history
are more accurately understood as slight twists and
turns in a river which is going to keep on running to-
ward the sea, even if, like the mighty Mississippi, it
may take the long way around.
22
But for the purposes
of would-be grand strategists, as for General Ulysses
Grant trying to take Vicksburg, those bends in the
river are often exactly what they need to be concerned
with, even while keeping the long-term direction of
108
fow in mind. Some of these happenstance events are
not the freely-made decisions of great leaders, but
are intrinsically not predictable for other reasons.
This is well articulated by none other than Sir Harry
Flashman:
If I had been the hero everyone thought I was, or even
a half-decent soldier, Lee would have won the battle of
Gettysburg and probably captured Washington. That
is another story, which I shall set down in its proper
place if brandy and old age dont carry me off frst [un-
fortunately, they did], but I mention the fact here be-
cause it shows how great events are decided by trifes.
. . . Scholars, of course, wont have it so.
23
The key point is that even if one can see a trend and
project from the past where history seems to be head-
ing, human developments can, not always but some-
times, be altered by small but signifcant events. But
taking a step back from the occasional accident (most
of which do not have the kind of ramifcations that
resulted from whatever Flashman did or did not do at
Gettysburg), there is a major problem for devising any
kind of strategy, let alone a grand one: the strong ten-
dency for human beings to take things for granted.
24
We
are not aware of anyone, ourselves included, who is
free of this trait, although levels of awareness do vary.
Of course, this propensity is in effect the downside of
a positive capabilitythe ability to generalize, to learn
from experience, and to extrapolate from present per-
ceived realitythe absence of which is certainly not
going to produce a useful grand strategy, or much of
anything else.
109
THE END OF AN ERA?
With the above in mind, we would suggest that we
may be coming to the end of the post-World-War-II
order. With every passing day, the ranks dwindle of
those relative few who remember how nations used
to interact before there was an international com-
munity, with structures that underpin it and norms
that seek to give it purpose and coherence. Anyone
who was 10 years old when the United Nations (UN)
Charter entered into force in 1945 would be nearing
80 today. Virtually everyone of that age and younger
takes the current international security order for granted.
But should we? We all grew up with it, so it seems the
natural order of things. But is it natural and guaran-
teed to last, or just the temporary product of equally
temporary circumstances?
This issue is most commonly addressed in terms
of whether America is declining, in either absolute
or relative terms. There have been a number of books
written on this subject recently. Zbigniew Brzezinski,
National Security Adviser to President Carter, thinks
the post-World War II structurewith the United
States at the topis uncertain in the future but for
now remains:
The more immediate risk of the ongoing dispersal of
power is a potentially unstable global hierarchy. The
United States is still preeminent but the legitimacy, ef-
fectiveness, and durability of its leadership is increas-
ingly questioned worldwide because of the complexity
of its internal and external challenges. Nevertheless, in
every signifcant and tangible dimension of traditional
powermilitary, technological, economic, and fnan-
cialAmerica is still peerless. . . . This reality may not
endure for very long, but it is still the current fact of
international life.
25
110
In line with this assessment, the authors of Bend-
ing History contend that the United States is well
situated as the preeminent global power. Moreover,
it can remain so even in a precarious time on the
international scene:
We believe that even though the world is undergoing
rapid, sometimes tumultuous change, it is doing so in
ways that are broadly compatible with the American-
designed post-World War II order, and that America
is well placed to manage the ongoing changes in the
international system as long as it remains strong, re-
spected, and confdent. . . . Gradual, managed change
that accords greater constructive roles to others as they
become successful economies and polities is very much
in Americas national interests.
26
This is not the place, and we are not the authors,
to document how this international order developed.
But it is worth noting that it started with the evolution
of the UN alliance of countries that were the victors of
World War II
27
into a UN organization whose mission
was to keep the peace, with that mission entrusted to
a security council that was given the unprecedented
mandate to determine whether and when sovereign
states could use force for purposes other than indi-
vidual or collective self-defense (and it appears to
govern and place limits even on that right [which it
does recognize as inherent], although legalistic analy-
sis and diplomatic rhetoric have far outpaced actual
state practice in this regard).
28
That organization in
turn grew into a truly global but increasingly feck-
less parliament of almost all the nations of the world.
The UN provided the context for the Universal Dec-
laration of Human Rights and many more such state-
111
ments of good intentions over the years. Similarly, an
unprecedented U.S. political commitment to Europe
in the immediate aftermath of the war grew into an
economic commitment with the Marshall Plan and a
security commitment with the North Atlantic Treaty,
which in turn gave rise to a real military alliance
with forward-deployed American troops as part of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All
this gave rise to a genuine feelingat least, most of
the time, among a majority of the political leadership
in Europe and North America that took an interest
in such mattersof a joint transatlantic community,
confronting a common danger and sharing not just a
common purpose but common values. This transat-
lantic alliance was focused on, but not limited to, the
military dimension and to countering the threat posed
by the Soviet Union. On neither side of the Atlantic
was this in keeping with historical tradition, but by
now we all think of it as normal.
29
This chapter will also refrain from documenting
the roles of the Bretton Woods System, or the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), two
other global structures that have played a major role
in the post-World War II order. Meanwhile, the end
of (primarily European) imperialism and colonialism
brought well over 100 new nations into the UN and
other political, security, and economic systems and
structures that had not been designed with their mem-
bership in mind. It also helped alter both the econo-
mies and aspirations of the European states them-
selves, which began an unprecedented continental
process of unifcation based on free decisions rather
than conquest, leading from the modest coal and steel
communities to the European Union (EU), whose in-
tegrated economy is larger than that of any country in
112
the world. A general move in the direction of increas-
ingly open world trade and globalization has brought
the creative destruction of free markets to all quar-
ters of the globe, with the aggravation of those feeling
the pain often much more acute than the satisfaction
enjoyed by the usually greater numbers enjoying the
gain. While globalization had happened before, the
end of colonialism made it much more a world-wide
reality than the early 20th century precedent, which
was supposed to make general war impossible, but
came to a bad end in 1914 and suffered further indig-
nities following 1929.
Perhaps the single deadliest challenge emerg-
ing from World War IIthe threat posed by nuclear
weaponshas been handled successfully so far,
though only in part by the sort of institutional arrange-
ments outlined above. After it became clear that there
was not going to be any kind of international author-
ity managing them
30
and with the end in 1949 of the
American nuclear monopoly, the solution ultimately
developed was deterrencedirect deterrence for both
the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Re-
publics (USSR), plus extended deterrence provided by
the United States for its NATO and Pacifc allies. The
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), concluded in 1968,
provided a basis both for slowing the spread of nu-
clear weapons to other states, and for a gradual pro-
cess of negotiated limits and then reductions of both
American and Soviet/Russian nuclear arsenals.
One thing all these developments and more had
in common was a strong American hand in bringing
them about, followed by a continuing U.S. commit-
ment to their success. One could argue that this was
motivated by a combination of idealism, realpolitik,
and enlightened self-interest, plus whatever other fac-
113
tors the reader might wish to ascribe.
31
Whatever else
may be said (and much has been and will be), in the
immediate period following the end of World War II,
the United States dominated the world both economi-
cally and militarilyin a way that it had not before,
that it has not since, and will not likely happen again
and chose to demobilize its military and to create
multilateral institutions to share the task of preserv-
ing the peace. Another thing that all the institutions
mentioned in the preceding three paragraphs have in
common, from the UN to the NPT, is that they are in
serious trouble. The diffculties are both fnancial and
institutional; the problems that the key organizations
confront include not having the ability to achieve or
in some cases even defne their very mission and pur-
pose. To add a further complication, without delving
deeper into economic/energy/environmental issues,
the conventional view of trends on those fronts would
seem to suggest a range of major challenges to world
order and international security.
32
PRESENT AT THE NONCREATION
If the current international security order is in per-
haps terminal trouble, what will happen next? While
nothing is certain in politics, we feel confdent in
predicting that it will be a long time, if ever, before a
U.S. President is elected on the platform that America
will be the worlds policeman, let alone the worlds
social worker. This is not because America is neces-
sarily doomed to decline, but because as a result of
brute political and fscal reality, neither the will nor
the resources will be present, either to sustain the or-
der, which may now be coming to an end, or to create
something to replace it.
114
The fscal facts speak for themselves. Americas f-
nancial house is not in order. Even smart power is
not free, and the military component that makes smart
power possible comes with a price tag whose fgure is
more than the market will bear.
As for the political situation, judging both from
historical trends and current realities, the argument
being made here is that it is highly unlikely that there
would be suffcient support for the kind of world role
the United States has been playing even if the money
to do so had not run out. There has to be a politically
compelling reason for any democratic country, and
certainly for the United States, to wish to play the sort
of role that it has taken on since 1945. The U.S. unity of
purpose of World War II was unprecedentedstart-
ing with 1776, no other foreign or domestic confict
has ever enjoyed such solid support among the Amer-
ican people. The international order outlined above,
whose foundations were laid during World War II
and which was constructed in the immediate post-war
years, helped to lock in that support in a way that so
conspicuously did not happen after World War I. This
was possible in large measure because Americans saw
themselves facing a post-war threat from a hostile and
expansive Communist ideology embodied in a nu-
clear-armed, continent-sized superpower. The result
was an acceptance of continued international commit-
ments and engagements alien to American tradition.
But even at its height, the unity of American purpose
during the more than 40 years of Cold War was never
comparable to that of the 4 years of World War II. It
frayed badly during the Vietnam War and never fully
recovered. It nonetheless proved suffcient to the task,
until a confuence of underlying trends and what
were called earlier in this chapter contingent events
115
produced a peaceful and successful outcome of that
global confict.
The unifying theme of American foreign policy in
the 1990s was to do some good in the world, politi-
cal support for which was never very strong or deep
once the various price tags were attached. Following
September 11, 2001 (9/11), there was a brief period of
unity of outrage, but there has been very little lasting
unity of purpose. Whatever else they have achieved,
the two major military conficts that the United States
fought in the past decade have neither strengthened a
sustainable international security order nor bolstered
any sense by American voters and taxpayers that they
want to make any further sacrifces in pursuit of such
an order. In the latter case, the result has been very
much the reverse.
Present at the Creation moments are very rare,
and usually follow the sort of destruction that is an-
nounced with a bang, not a whimper. Two of the best
known such instancesthe Congress of Vienna and
the period from 1945 to roughly 1952each came at
the end of a major armed struggle, with clearly de-
fned victors and vanquished, with the former in a po-
sition to establish structures, such as the 1815 Concert
of Europe and the 1945 UN Security Council, which
are by no defnition fair. Following World War I,
the effort at Versailles to replicate the success of Vi-
enna a century earlier failed for a number of reasons,
including in part that what seemed fair to one party
did not seem so to others, and in particular that the
vanquished were not resigned to that fate and that the
principal victor with a vision did not stay the course
precisely because what was being called for was so
alien to the U.S. sense of its role in the world.
116
Whether the end of the Cold War offered a lost op-
portunity for the establishment of yet another endur-
ing security order is debatable but doubtful. As with
Versailles, though for very different reasons, the na-
ture of the victory was not conducive to reinventing
a sustainable and effective international system. Nor
(and in this case, the post-World-War-I situation is a
closer analogy) was the American body politic recep-
tive to the idea of new overseas entanglements, and
neither Japan nor Europe had the means to play an
appropriate role, even if on some occasions they were
not without motivation. The much less ambitious
idea that did emerge, of a new world order based
on an empowered UN and an increased reliance on
principled multilateralism, can hardly be said to have
enjoyed more than an occasional success.
The record of effectiveness of the much less struc-
tured components of global governance that have
grown up in the penumbra is even less impressive.
The failure of global governance was taken as a given
in Chapter 3 authored by Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
in this volume. A stern but not unfair assessment of
this concept is offered by Professor Randall Schweller:
Most new treaty-making and global-governance in-
stitutions are being spearheaded not by an elite club
of great powers but rather by civil-society actors and
nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] working
with midlevel states. Far from creating more order
and predictability, this explosion of so-called global-
governance institutions has increased the chaos, ran-
domness, fragmentation, ambiguity and impenetrable
complexity of international politics.
33
There are two potentially interrelated possibilities
that are worth consideration as a basis for a new inter-
national order that might have a serious prospect of
117
meeting the challenges that appear to be overcoming
the current one: that the international organizations
and institutions that are depicted above as faltering
and potentially on the verge of mission failure can be
replaced by new ones, better attuned to current real-
ity, or that as America does less to sustain whatever
international order there is, others will do more. Nei-
ther seems likely.
As suggested above, the sort of circumstances that
would offer the prospect of a serious Creation mo-
menton the order of 1815 or post-1945are simply
not in existence now, nor is there any reason to expect
(though as noted more than once above, accidents will
happen) that they will come about in the time that a
new grand strategy needs to address. It is easy to argue
that major changes are desperately needed. It is next
to impossible to imagine how they can actually come
about, at least in a positive direction. A reinvented UN
would need to be established by the same countries
that have failed to make the current UN work. If there
is a politically feasible way to reform the UN Secu-
rity Council to make it more fair, no one has found
it. Making it more effective is even further out of the
question.
The need to reform both the structure as well as
the operational effectiveness of the UN has been
recognized for decades, as documented in and dem-
onstrated by the bipartisan 2005 UN Task Force. An
excerpt from the foreword to its report (written by
co-chairs Newt Gingrich and George Mitchell) sets
the tone:
As it approaches its sixtieth anniversary, the United
Nations needs reform and reinvigoration. Otherwise,
the organization risks declining credibility, and its own
future will be at risk.
34

118
The Task Force cited a long string of reports calling
for reforms in UN management dating back to the late
1940s, but achieving little or nothing, being bogged
down under the weight of the institutions enormous
inertia, a record that reinforces the point that real re-
form is not going to happen. The values that underlay
the UN charter were not universally shared at the time
that it was written, nor are they today. Responsibil-
ity to Protect may have found its high-water mark
in Libya, along with the overall concept of brothers
keeper internationalism as an actual practice rather
than a noble aspiration. The very role of the UN, the
importance of the P-5 (the fve veto-wielding perma-
nent members of the UN Security Council), and the
unique standing of the Security Council in legitimiz-
ing force or other hostile actions against recalcitrant
states are all part of the post-World War II order. This
is not the way that international confict was managed
at any time before 1945. The UN is not working ef-
fectively for its primary purpose. For varying reasons,
those in a position to make it less ineffective by paying
the bills and providing the other resources (including
but not limited to military ones) appear by their ac-
tions to have concluded that it costs more than they are
willing or able to provide. In some cases, they feel that
they are being asked and expected to pay at a level that
ought to but does not grant them the corresponding
status in the structure that they believe they merit. It
would be surprising if the UN itself does not continue,
but its ability to be a practical rather than symbolic
center of an international security order, which never
really took hold in the Cold War years, has continued
to deteriorate following a brief period of better times
in the early 1990s. It would be even more surprising if
that trend does not continue.
119
Like the UNSC, the NPT is the product of the situa-
tion at the time of its creation (the NPT came into being
when there were fve nuclear-weapons states, which
happened to be the same as the UN Security Coun-
cils P-5 victors of World War II). Both the UN Security
Council and the NPT can be logically portrayed as in-
trinsically unfair. But, as with the UN Security Coun-
cil, the same countries that fnd fault with the NPT,
whether members or not, will be the ones that have
to create any plausible amended or successor treaty
regime, which will also need to be satisfactory to those
who are not unhappy with the current arrangements.
While it is not diffcult for experts to imagine a revised
or replaced NPT regime that would be both fairer and
more effective, it is virtually impossible, for us at least,
to imagine how to reach universal agreement to any
change that would actually strengthen it.
One assumption implicit in all of the above is
the continuing centrality of the nation-state. Despite
the importance of issues that regularly cross borders
(which is one of the major reasons for having multi-
lateral organizations in the frst place), and of transna-
tional belief systems, both religious and ideological,
which can inspire both states and nonstate actors, the
fundamental security structures continue to be states,
and, in some special cases (NATO being the most
prominent and most successful), assemblages thereof
that scrupulously respect their members sovereignty.
For a time, there was a feeling that an ever deeper EU
might invalidate this observation. The Euro crisis is
a strong counterargument. Whether nation-states
are here to stay, they will retain their central role in
international security for at least as long as any new
grand strategy remains relevant, and probably much
longer. It is more diffcult to predict the nature of the
120
structures in which states will aggregate themselves
in quest of security. Survival is a core interest. Thus,
over a fnite period of time, in the presence of a clearly
defned threat or threats, a collective security arrange-
ment can continue, if the cost is not too high. In the case
of NATO and the EU, among others, shared values
also have strengthened the bonds among their found-
ing states and thus of the organizations themselves,
and the accession process has fortifed those values in
many of the states that sought to join both organiza-
tions over the years. But both have now reached the
point where further expansion is decreasingly plausi-
ble, and the bruised feelings of unsuccessful aspirants
to membership will be refected in new geopolitical
fault lines.
Although NATO and the EU have never been im-
mune to a similar failing, the UNs concept of uni-
versal membership soon made it impossible to con-
ceal the disjunction between noble aspirations and
frequently ignoble reality, especially as related to the
conduct, both internal and external, of member states.
Moreover, while actually acting on the basis of shared
values can in many circumstances increase the attrac-
tiveness of such organizations, both the costs and risks
of doing so, the many incomplete successes, and the
painful reality that good deeds are rarely done consis-
tently can undercut internal cohesiveness, especially
with respect to perceived free riders, including
those in positions of authority. Institutional inertia
and clever efforts at reinvention can keep organiza-
tions going much longer than many might have pre-
dicted, but such measures can sometimes conceal the
fact that the organizations themselves are hollowing
out. The League of Nations did not formally disband
until 1946, but beginning with the Japanese invasion
121
of Manchuria in 1931, it had ceased to be a serious part
of the security landscape.
Looking forward, global power is realigning itself,
and not in a peacebuilding-friendly way. Even more
than was the case in the 1990s, neither Europe nor Ja-
pan has the resources or the domestic political base
to take on additional international burdens, either to
maintain or reinvent the international security order.
None of the newly aspiring powers of the 21st cen-
tury, even China, is going to achieve the level of global
dominance that, combined with an attractive set of
political, economic, and cultural ideas, made possible
Americas post-1945 creation moment and sustained
it thereafter. Even in the unlikely event that some
partial, and probably fragile, successor order were to
emerge, anyone expecting that it would be based on
the values that have underlain the post-World War II
order as described above should examine the reasons
for making such an assumption.
QUO VADIMUS?
Following this rather melancholy overview of the
origins, present state, and prospects of the interna-
tional security order, any who have read this far might
well wonder what this all portends for peacebuilding
and confict management as part of a future American
grand strategy, even keeping in mind the diffculties
of political prediction.
Referring back to the way those terms were defned
at the outset of this chapter, peacebuildingin the
sense of outsiders moving into a troubled nation-state
to end its conficts, stabilize its society, build its insti-
tutions, and set it on a secure path to democracy and
prosperityis likely to play a very much decreased
part of such a strategy, and an even smaller part in
122
actual practice. Peacebuilding in this sense is simply
not an endeavor which there is any good reason to ex-
pect that the American body politic can be persuaded
is a good investment of scarce discretionary resources.
With the possible exception of Bosnia, popular sup-
port for serious and sustained efforts in this regard has
come about only when they have been seen as an ele-
ment of the active conduct of a specifc kind of armed
confict (primarily Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan)the
sort of confict for which popular support can be guar-
anteed to wane over time, with a consequent collapse
of support for the peacebuilding supplement to the
military mission. But in the coming years, this sort of
peacebuilding is not likely even to be given a chance
to have the rug pulled out from underneath it, since
for political, economic, and military reasonsand in
the expected absence of anything comparable to the
Cold War containment of Communist expansion
argument that underlay Vietnam, or the 9/11-related
rationales for Iraq and Afghanistanthe political and
economic barriers to American entry to another con-
fict of that sort are now so high as to be almost insur-
mountable, and are likely to remain so for the life of
any potential new grand strategy.
Nonetheless, peacebuilding will remain an active
and important component of international relations.
This is particularly true with regard to work done by
NGOs around the world. A wide range of organiza-
tions specialize in different facets of peacebuilding.
Much of their funding comes from U.S. agencies, or
counterparts from other developed countries, as well
as from various parts of the UN family. This will likely
continue, although probably at reduced levels. There
is a vibrant peacebuilding community, which has
developed increasing and impressive coherence and
patterns of collaboration.
35
This kind of peacebuilding
123
work will continue to be noted in future National Se-
curity Strategies of the United States, along with many
other important endeavors. But to the extent that
these documents actually refect a governmentally
crafted and executed grand strategy to which major
government resources are devoted, peacebuilding is
not likely to be a central element of it.
Humanitarian relief (as distinct from humanitarian
intervention) will continue to enjoy popular support,
to a much greater extent than traditional develop-
ment efforts. However, for either relief or develop-
ment, both the executive and especially the legisla-
tive branches are likely to be increasingly tight-fsted
with funding, and ever vigilant against being drawn
down the slippery slope into stabilization, let alone
counterinsurgency. This will almost certainly mean
that many dangerous situations threatening Ameri-
can interests will not be directly addressed, and that
the hard-learned lessons of how to do these jobs right
will not get a chance to be applied. Failed, failing, and
fragile states are not conducive to international sta-
bility, but from a cost-beneft standpoint, Americans
(or Europeans, Japanese, Australians, or Canadians)
are not likely to devote much beyond token resources
to trying to address this problem. To put it mildly,
peacebuilding success stories are scarce, at least on a
strategic scale, and money is even more scarce. When
it comes to peacebuilding, we should thus expect to
see a lot less of the same.
Confict management, however, was defned in
a broader way. Confict itself is not going away, and
there will be an abiding U.S. concern to protect, and if
possible advance, its own interests and equities. For
reasons of self-interest (enlightened or otherwise), it
will wish to try to help keep such conficts from turn-
ing violent, particularly (perhaps almost exclusively)
124
between and among states. Conficts of particular con-
cern as of this writing would include the nuclear pro-
liferation-generated standoff between Israel and Iran,
the perennial enmity between India and Pakistan, and
Beijings growing assertiveness in the South China
Sea. More could be added to the list even now, and if
the argument outlined above about the potential end
of the post-World-War-II security order is valid, other
sources of confict, including some problems long
thought resolved or even forgotten, could well join
the list in coming years. Economic and resource con-
fictsnot always violent, though often having that
potential, but in any case directly threatening domes-
tic prosperity in the United States and elsewhere
also loom on the horizon.
The need to manage such conficts is likely to be
much more compelling, and the prospects of success
to appear at least somewhat less unpromising, than
on-the-ground peacebuilding. Not long after the fall
of the Berlin Wall, one of the few American diplomats
who foresaw that development told one of us that the
coming years would bring a return to traditional diplo-
macy, by which he meant a much more complex set of
international interactions than those which had been
governed by the structure that the East/West divide
had provided during the Cold War. For those who ex-
perienced it, the Cold War was complex enough, and
the risks of getting it wrong were sometimes quite
high. It took a bit longer than the diplomat anticipated
for what he predicted to come about, with much of
one decade taken up with efforts at what was referred
to above as brothers keeper internationalism, and
much of another focused on trying to solve problems
in and emerging from the Islamic world. Neither of
these two attempts at a unifying principle has proved
a satisfactory basis for an international security order,
125
and neither is likely to provide a central principle for
any U.S. grand strategy.
What we are likely to see instead is the need for
even more confict management, if this is understood
as a mix of at least two of the three Ds (defense and
diplomacyas indicated above, we are less sanguine
about the role of development). Recalling the con-
cerns explored above both about the dangers of taking
trends for granted and the possibilities of contingent
events having disproportionate consequences, both
the diplomats and the military will have to place a
premium on fexibility.
36
They will also need to prac-
tice selective engagement, since the threats and chal-
lenges will be multifold and all elements of national
power are going to be on tight rations for some time
to come. Doing more with less is a fne phrase, but
as a guide to policy, it is too often used as a pretext to
avoid prioritization.
While keeping in mind the precursors to the
Nightfall threats noted above, as well as the rise of
China (see Chapter 12 by Liselotte Odgaard in this
volume) and, the decline and possible fall of the post-
World War II security order, challenges that a U.S.
grand strategy will need to address include aggres-
sive nonstate actors of all kinds (including, but by no
means limited to, terrorists); the possible end of the
taboo on the actual use of nuclear weapons, which,
paradoxically coupled with the extended deterrence of
the U.S. nuclear guarantee, has been a key element of
the post-World War II order; revolutionary develop-
ments in technology; the vulnerability of Information
Technology (IT)-centric infrastructure; and continuing
uncertainty over whether economic growth can be re-
stored, sustained, and made more widespread, as well
as how to manage access to vital and sometimes scarce
natural resources. (The reasons why a would-be grand
126
strategy becomes just another policy compendium are
all too apparent.) Recalling the comments earlier in
this chapter about the diffculties of prediction, there
will be many developments that in retrospect may ap-
pear obvious, but which to those who have to discern
them looking forward are not obvious at all. In short,
there will be no shortage of conficts to manage, and
we will all need to keep getting better at it if we want
this story to have a happy ending.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 5
1. The title of a sonnet by English poet William Wordsworth,
frst published in 1807. It is readily accessible in print and online.
2. Written by Hank Cochran, sung by artists ranging from
Elvis to Ray Price to Dean Martin and, of course, Willie Nelson;
Eddy Arnold took it to #1 in 1965. Available from en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Make_the_World_Go_Away.
3. While Vietnam still holds the distinction of being the lon-
gest war in American history, the overall context in which Amer-
icans confront the issues addressed in this chapter needs to be
appreciated. In his presentation at the XXIII Annual Strategy Con-
ference held at the U.S. Army War College on April 10-12, 2012,
Under Secretary of the Navy Robert Work distributed a chart that
compared the war-to-peace ratio of the Cold War and post-Cold-
War periods. For the 506 months of Cold War (starting in 1950,
and including both Korea and Vietnam), the United States was
at war for 138 months. For the 271 months looking back from
April 2012, the United States had been at war for 130 months and
still counting. The Cold War ratio was thus 1 month at war for
every 2.67 months at peace. What the chart called the post-1990
Forever War ratio was 1 month at war for every 1.08 month at
peace. By April 2013, that latter ratio of war-to-peace was greater
than 1:1. The full set of slides for Under Secretary Works pre-
sentation is available from www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/
fles/2012-strat-conf-work.pdf.
4. The report is available from www.people-press.org/2012/01/23/
public-priorities-defcit-rising-terrorism-slipping/.
127
5. Dan Snodderly, ed., Peace Terms: Glossary of Terms for Con-
fict Management and Peacebuilding, Washington, DC: Academy for
International Confict Management and Peacebuilding, United
States Institute of Peace, 2011, p. 15.
6. Ibid., pp. 40-41.
7. Joe Bassani, Jr., Saving the World for Democracy: An His-
torical Analysis of Americas Grand Strategy in the 21st Century,
Thesis, Norfolk, VA: Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced
Warfghting School, 2005, p. 2, available from www.au.af.mil/au/
awc/awcgate/ndu/bassani_jaws_american_grand_strategy.pdf.
8. James Locher, Are We Strategically Inept? speech, XXIII
Conference, The Future of U.S. Grand Strategy in an Age of Aus-
terity: Challenges and Opportunities, Strategic Studies Institute,
U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA, April 11, 2012; John K. Bar-
tolotto, The Origin and Developmental Process of the National
Security Strategy, Strategy Research Project, Carlisle, PA: U.S.
Army War College, May 3, 2004, p. 1. In particular, this and the
next two paragraphs draw extensively on the Bartolotto paper.
9. Barack Obama, The National Security Strategy of the United
States, Washington, DC: The White House, May 2010, p. 17, avail-
able from www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/fles/rss_viewer/national_
security_strategy.pdf.
10. A paraphrase of Locher.
11. Andrew Roberts, ed., What Might Have Been: Leading His-
torians on Twelve What Ifs of History, London, UK: Phoenix, 2005,
p. 8. Roberts takes the quote from a framed letter written by Al-
dous Huxley in 1959 which he has by my desk at home.
12. Niall Ferguson, Europes Lehman Brothers Moment,
Newsweek, June 18, 2012, pp. 34-37. Quote is from p. 37.
13. George Friedman, The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st
Century, London, UK: Allison & Busby, 2010, pp. 1-13. In pp. 1-3,
Friedman looks back at the 20th century. The remaining 10 pages
of the overture look forward.
128
14. Ian Morris, Why the West RulesFor Now: The Patterns of
History, and What They Reveal About the Future, New York: Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux, 2010, pp. 582-583. His social development
metrics are explained in an appendix, pp. 623-645. See also pp.
591 and 608.
15. Stephen Hawking, Breakdown of Predictability in Gravi-
tational Collapse, Physical Review D, Vol. 14, No. 10, 1976, p. 2460,
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.14.2460; Hawking deals with this concept
in a way more accessible to the general reader in A Brief History
of Time: The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition, New
York: Bantam Books, 1998.
16. Vernor Vinge, The Coming Technological Singularity,
presentation, VISION-21 Symposium, NASA Lewis Research
Center and the Ohio Aerospace Institute, Westlake, OH, March
30-31, 1993, available from www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/
singularity.html; James Gardner, The Intelligent Universe, Ste-
ven J. Dick and Mark L. Lupisella, eds., Cosmos & Culture, Wash-
ington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
2009, p. 366.
17. Morris, p. 593 et seq.
18. Ray Kurzweil describes the Singularity thus:
Its a future period during which the pace of technological
change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will
be irreversibly transformed. Although neither utopian nor dys-
topian, this epoch will transform the concepts that we rely on
to give meaning to our lives, from our business models to the
cycle of human life, including death itself. Understanding the
Singularity will alter our perspective on the signifcance of our
past and the ramifcations for our future. To truly understand it
inherently changes ones view of life in general and ones own
particular life.
See also Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Tran-
scend Biology, New York: Viking Penguin, 2005, p. 7.
19. Nightfall, frst published in 1941, can be found in a
number of science fction anthologies, as well as in Asimovs
own collections. The Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA)
129
professional association voted it the best science fction story of
all time, where story means short story and all time means
1929-64, following which the SFWA began making annual awards.
Together with the other stories that were selected, Nightfall can
thus be found in Robert Silverberg, ed., The Science Fiction Hall
of Fame, Vol. I, New York: Tor Books, 2003 [orig. 1970]). Morriss
bibliography cites Isaac Asimov, The Complete Short Stories I, New
York: Bantam, 1990).
20. Morris, pp. 598-613.
21. Since, as will be seen, the central importance of the legacy
of World War II is one of the premises of this chapters analy-
sis, two further what ifs are noted from Roberts, p. 3, citing
Conrad Russell:
If we [the British] had not invented, during the winter of 1938/39,
a new alloy and a new furnace to make it which hardened the
propeller casing of the Spitfre, and made it 50 m.p.h. faster than
the Messerschmitt instead of 50 m.p.h. slower, it is surely likely
that Hitler would have won the war.
He also cites, pp. 11-12:
. . . what so nearly happened on Thursday 16 October 1941, a
date that some historians . . . see as the most important date of
the twentieth century. For it was on that day that Stalin decided
not to take the special train that he had made ready to get him
out of Moscow to beyond the Urals, but instead to stick it out in
the capital, come what may.
22. Morris, p. 29. Morris draws on the felds of biology, soci-
ology, and geography, broadly defned to include human/eco-
nomic as well as physical geography, to explain humanitys de-
velopment paths.
23. George MacDonald Fraser, ed., Royal Flash: from the
Flashman Papers, 1842-3 and 1847-8, New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1970, p. 3.
24. Aldous Huxley, Maine de Biran: The Philosopher in His-
tory, Collected Essays, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers,
1959, p. 226.
130
Most human beings have an almost infnite capacity for taking
things for granted. By the mere fact of having come into exis-
tence, the most amazing novelty becomes in a few months, even
a few days, a familiar and, as it were, self-evident part of the
environment.
25. Zbigniew Brezezinski, Strategic Vision: America and the Cri-
sis of Global Power, New York: Basic Books, 2012, pp. 21-22.
26. Martin S. Indyk, Kenneth G. Lieberthal, and Michael E.
OHanlon, Bending History, Washington, DC: Brookings Institu-
tion Press, 2012, p. 279.
27. Declaration by the United Nations, The American Journal
of International Law, Vol. 36, No. 3, Supplemental: Offcial Docu-
ments, July, 1942, pp. 191-192, available from www.jstor.org/sta-
ble/2213575. One lesson that President Roosevelt appears to have
learned from President Wilsons ill-fated League of Nations was
to use the same name for the wartime alliance that would also be
used for the peacetime collective security arrangement.
28. Mark P. Popiel, Redrafting the Right of Self-Defense in
Response to International Terrorism, Gonzaga Journal of Interna-
tional Law, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2002, pp. 7-9, available from www.gon-
zagajil.org/pdf/volume6/Popiel/Popiel.pdf, see especially pp. 4-12.
Chapter 5: The Security Council, Article 23, Charter of the United
Nations, June 26, 1945, available from www.un.org/en/documents/
charter/chapter5.shtml.
29. For an interesting history of transatlanticism, see Kenneth
Weisbrode, The Atlantic Century, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press,
2009. Whether or not we are in the early years of a possible Pa-
cifc Century, it is very hard to imagine the circumstances which
would generate a transpacifc community or an awkwardly
pronounceable transpacifcism. This is at least partially due
to the geographic factors (it was maps, not chaps) that Morris
(Chap. 8) identifes as the primary reason, in contrast to culture,
the actions of individual leaders, and happenstance for the fact
that Europe rather than China reached, conquered, and colonized
the Americas, helping ensure the subsequent 500-year ascendance
of the West.
131
30. Accounts of the efforts to put atomic energy and associat-
ed weaponry under international control include John H. Barton
and Lawrence D. Weiler, eds., International Arms Control: Issues
and Agreements, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976, p. 70;
United Nations Department of Political and Security Council Af-
fairs, The United Nations and Disarmament: 1945-1970, New York:
United Nations, 1970; Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation: My
Years in the State Department, New York: W. W. Norton & Com-
pany, 1969, pp. 149-156.
31. For a provocative discussion on this topic, see Michael
Mandelbaum, The Case for Goliath, New York: Public Affairs, 2005.
There is no shortage of books, articles, studies, and the like to sup-
port any perspective that appeals to the reader.
32. While rendering no judgment on the pros and cons of
peak oil or other such arguments, it should be noted that there
are a number of nongeological reasons why counting on cheap oil
(or any kind of cheap energy) is a risky proposition. It is worth
citing a recent judgment in The Economist: Just as the industrial
revolution was built on coal, the post-second-world-war economy
was built on cheap oil. There will surely be a signifcant impact if
it has gone for good. Feeling Peaky, The Economists Button-
woods Notebook Blog, April 21, 2012, available from www.econo-
mist.com/node/21553034. On the other hand, a more upbeat look at
our energy future is now beginning to gain some prominence; as
of this writing, the most interesting thinking of its implications for
international security that we have seen has been done by Walter
Russell Mead, Energy Revolution 3: The New American Centu-
ry, available from blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/07/18/
the-energy-revolution-3-the-new-american-century/. As noted, ener-
gy issues, although highly important, are beyond the scope of this
chapter, as refected in their being addressed only in a footnote.
Mead notes, as do others writing about tar sands, shale oil, and
the like, that it is too soon to tell just how much of this potential
can be unlocked, and that there are environmental issues that
will need to be addressed. From the standpoint of this chapter,
and on frst consideration, there does not appear to be any intrin-
sic reason why Meads vision of the United States as an energy
superpower would entail its adopting what he might call a Wil-
sonian approach to multilateralism, rather than a Hamiltonian
132
commitment to open markets. Our initial assessment is that while
there are many reasons to welcome a possible future of U.S. en-
ergy abundance, in and of itself such a development is not likely
to remedy our economic woes, nor to turn back the receding tide
of political support for maintaining the post-World War II inter-
national security order as described below. In any case, even the
cursory treatment of this footnote illustrates the importance of
carefully considering what one is taking for granted when think-
ing about the future.
33. Randall L. Schweller, Ennui Becomes Us, The National
Interest, December 16, 2009, January-February 2010, available
from nationalinterest.org/article/ennui-becomes-us-3330.
34. Task Force on the United Nations, American Interests and
UN Reform: Report of the Task Force on the United Nations, Wash-
ington, DC: The United States Institute of Peace, 2005, esp. pp.
41-61. This quote is from p. vi; those in the following sentence
are from p. 43. The report is available from www.usip.org/fles/fle/
usip_un_report.pdf. Further information about the UN Task Force
is available from www.usip.org/node/3690.
35. For example, see Steven Ruder, Peacebuilding Expands
Across Disciplines, Study Shows, available from www.usip.org/
publications/peacebuilding-expands-across-disciplines-study-shows.
36. In this regard, it is worth exploring the emergent phenom-
enon of collective confict management characterized as
a relatively new pattern of cooperation in international affairs
with no organizational center or universal rules of the road. . . .
A defning feature of these relatively cooperative ventures is
that they span global, regional, and local levels in terms of their
institutional membership or actor composition.
Quote is from Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pa-
mela Aall, eds., Rewiring Regional Security in a Fragmented World,
Washington, DC; The United States Institute of Peace Press,
2011, p. 545.
133
CHAPTER 6
THE ROLE OF PEACEBUILDING
AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
IN A FUTURE AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY:
TIME FOR AN OFF SHORE APPROACH?
Charles J. Dunlap, Jr.
INTRODUCTION
As the post-September 11, 2001 (9/11) wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan wind down, it is the right time to
examine the role of peacebuilding and confict man-
agement in a future American grand strategy. With
the enormous cost in blood and money these efforts
have tallied, it seems clear that nations, to include es-
pecially the United States, need to consider alterna-
tive approaches to accomplish their strategic goals.
As unpopular as the recent conficts have become in
the American body politic, it seems inevitable that
circumstances arise where peacebuilding and confict
management operations are needed.
Accordingly, it is incumbent upon the Armed
Forces to develop methodologies to accomplish these
missions, and to do so in a way that is supportable by
the public. The purpose of this chapter is to examine
what that approach might be and how it might ad-
dress the existing defciencies in peacebuilding and
confict management techniques, and to do so in the
context of an American grand strategy. It will propose
an off shore approach, one that leverages American
asymmetric capabilities, while realistically assessing
the diffculties occasioned by manpower-intensive
approaches that are extant. The chapter begins with
134
a discussion of the threshold questions, the ones that
will provide the necessary context for the proposal:
What is grand strategy? Does America have one?
WHAT IS GRAND STRATEGY?
Answering this question presents a daunting chal-
lenge, as there are so many respected authorities who
believe that America does not have a grand strategy
now, and has little prospect of formulating one that is
suitable for planning purposes in the near future.
1
Yet
defnitions for grand strategy exist. For example, the
American Grand Strategy Program at Duke Univer-
sity defnes grand strategy as a quintessentially inter-
disciplinary concept, approach, and feld of study.
2
It
goes on to say that:
Grand strategy is the art of reconciling ends
and means. It involves purposive actionwhat
leaders think and want.
It operates in peacetime and wartime, incor-
porating military and nonmilitary tools and
aggregating subsidiary tactics, operations, and
policies.
Grand strategy begins with theory: leaders
ideas about how the world is, or ought to be,
and their states roles in that world. Yet it is
embodied in policy and practice: government
action and reaction in response to real (or per-
ceived) threats and opportunities.
It lends itself to vigorous interpretive academic
debates, yet it is so realistic that practitioners
can and must contribute for it to be properly
understood.
3
135
With that understood, the Duke program defnes
American grand strategy as:
the collection of plans and policies by which the lead-
ership of the United States mobilizes and deploys the
countrys resources and capabilities, both military and
nonmilitary, to achieve its national goals.
4
One might say, then, that American grand strategy
simply seeks to create an environment where Ameri-
can values can fourish, to include especially the free
enterprise system as well as a liberal democratic pol-
ity. This is not intended to be yet another expression
of American exceptionalism, but rather a manifesta-
tion of the idea that these two principles offer the best
hope of realistically harnessing human nature for not
just American interests, but for the global common
good writ large.
This is not to advocate unbridled free enterprise.
Free enterprise that is exploitive of individuals, espe-
cially those in a society whofor any number of rea-
sonsfeel themselves dispossessed or unable to ac-
cess the means of upward mobility, can be the source
of societal discontent and disorder. Additionally, free
enterprise that is indifferent to the environment in a
world increasingly aware of the global consequences
of environmental mismanagement can generate hos-
tility across a range of actors from individuals to non-
governmental groups to nation-states and even to
consortiums of nation-states.
Democracy, qua democracy, can itself be the source
of alienation if it is permitted to devolve into majori-
tarian tyranny. Liberal democracy, with its respect for
individual rights and the rule of law, has an architec-
ture that includes freedom of the press, an indepen-
136
dent judiciary, and other attributes that help to avoid
the kinds of pressures that can manifest themselves in
violence when individuals and groups feel hopelessly
subjugated by governments who simplistically cater
to an undifferentiated version of popular will.
Yet it is nevertheless true that these conceptsfree
enterprise and liberal democracywhen tempered
by the considerations just discussed, provide the best
hope of reconciling mankinds inherent impulse to act
in its own best interests, with a parallel need to act col-
laboratively in a complex and interconnected world.
Certainly these values have imperfect characteristics,
but overall, they have proven superior to other con-
cepts of human organization.
AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY
AND CONFLICT
Quite obviously, the values of an American grand
strategy so defned thrive best in a confict-free envi-
ronment. Historicallyand, indeed, to this daythe
primary purpose of the state is to create that environ-
ment. The means of doing so frequently wasand, it
seems, still isto organize the means of violence on be-
half of the stateor collection of statesand to apply
it whenever the condition of peace was disturbed or
threatened. In a perfect world, individuals and states
inclined to disrupt peace would be deterred from do-
ing so by the prospect of confict that, as a matter of
logic, would be an ineffcient and cost-prohibitive
means of resolving disputes.
It is not, of course, a perfect world. Some individu-
als and states have perceived, and likely will continue
to perceive, a security asymmetry that can be exploited
to their beneft. What is more, for a variety of reasons
137
religion, ideology, cultural identity, and morethey
can rationalize a sense of entitlement of superiority for
themselves. Such perceptions can translatehowever
illogicallyinto a belief that those so disposed pos-
sess the power to achieve their ends by force. Efforts
to dissuade such conclusions can be effective, but have
their limits simply because intransigence can also be a
feature of the human mind, and one that can contami-
nate the thinking of entire societies, to include those
who are otherwise cosmopolitan and even generally
pacifc.
Plato reportedly adroitly observed that only the
dead have seen the end of war. Thus, we must accept
that the nature of the human condition is such that
for the foreseeable futureirrespective of any grand
strategythe vagaries of the human conditionnot to
mention humanitys aggressive impulseswill con-
tinue to challenge the success of an American grand
strategy as I defned it.
Yet the inevitability of human confict does not
mean we should abandon efforts to avoid it. Every
instance of success represents lives saved and futures
preserved. Even where violence cannot be avoided,
efforts to ameliorate and limit its effects are patently
worthy endeavors because they readily encourage a
minimization of human suffering, as well as help cre-
ate a space, so to speak, for liberal democracy and free
enterprise to take root and prosper.
The question then is how best to create those
spaces in an era of the ever present risk of violence? In
an interesting article in the March/April 2012 issue of
Foreign Affairs entitled A Clear and Present Safety,
the authors Micha Zenko and Michael A. Cohen as-
sert that America is safer and more secure than ever
before, and faces no great power rival and no serious
138
threats.
5
According to Zenko and Cohen, the United
States needs a foreign policy that refects that reality.
The article also contends that:
because of the chronic exaggeration of the threats fac-
ing the United States, Washington overemphasizes
military approaches to problems (including many that
could best be solved by nonmilitary means).
6

It goes on to insist that:
although U.S. military strength has occasionally con-
tributed to creating a conducive environment for posi-
tive change, those improvements were achieved mostly
through the work of civilian agencies and nongovern-
mental actors in the private and nonproft sectors.
7
Zenko and Cohen are not alone in their views. In
his recent book, Winning the War on War, Joshua Gold-
stein made a similar claim, arguing that, in fact, the
world is becoming more peaceful.
8
Goldstein gives
great credit not to the United States, but to the United
Nations (UN) for its peacekeeping and other opera-
tions that he argues could be even more successful
were they better funded and supported.
While there is much to commend about Zenko
and Cohens essay (as well as the Goldstein book), the
problem with the thesis that both propound is the in-
suffcient appreciation of what the world will be like
if U.S. military power is perceived as compromised.
If that were to become the case, there is the extraordi-
narily dangerous prospect that opportunistic nations
will destabilize the world if they get the impression
that U.S. military power is on the wane, let alone be-
ing deliberately diminished. Some around the globe
139
may cheer but, unfortunately, many are not necessar-
ily the friends of peace.
The real value of U.S. military power is that its mere
existence in many instances permitsand gives gravi-
tas tothe very civilian/nongovernmental organiza-
tion (NGO) soft power concepts Zenko et al. endorse.
To be sure, it is quite true that many successes in the
past were the product of diplomatic, humanitarian,
economic, and other distinctly nonmilitary efforts, but
they were accomplished in a world where enormous
American military power was always lurking in the
background. The reality, as uncomfortable as it may
be for many, is that the U.S. military is the irreplace-
able peace enabler in todays world.
There is little reason to assume that the same kind
of soft-power victories that Zenko and others celebrate
would be possible if the military equation is altered
in a serious way. Should the overwhelming U.S. con-
ventionaland unconventionalcapability recede,
adversaries may see opportunity, perhaps not today,
but in the foreseeable future. Once a capability is dis-
mantledas has been done by the United States with
the F-22 manufacturing line
9
it is very diffcult, if not
impossible, to resurrect it. We must never forget that
U.S. military power takes the military option off the
table for many competitors. Economic, social, politi-
cal, etc., competitions remain, but creating an environ-
ment where the military option becomes conceivable
is hardly a desirable outcome.
To be clear, one might rightly agree that U.S. mili-
tary spending must come down to some degree in or-
der to help get our economic house in order, and that
the nonmilitary elements of American power need to
be better brought to bear in the execution of Ameri-
can grand strategy in the years to come. Yet, some still
140
believe that U.S. military might must remain the fun-
damentalif not centralelement of American grand
strategy for as long as we can imagine.
PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT: THE LESSONS LEARNED
Of course, devising a fresh approach to peacebuild-
ing and confict management requires an unvarnished
examination of the operations of the past decade, and
there are certainly many lessons to be learned from
the conficts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The effort to re-
orient entire societies in Iraq and Afghanistan via a
strategy that was manpower-intensive and ground-
centric has proven to be fawed.
Certainly, the American Soldier, given enough
time and enough resources, can accomplish almost
anything, to include the remaking of entire countries.
The problem is that doing so frst requires the applica-
tion of military force to the existing ruling cadre and
its instruments of power so sternly and persistently as
to imprint upon the society a sense of defeat so com-
plete that the environment is created where a com-
pletely new andit is to be hopedmore peaceful
and democratic society can emerge and the likelihood
of resistance is markedly diminished.
Norman Friedman suggests this in his 2004 article
Is Modern War Too Precise?
10
In it, he indicates that for
all its faults and shortcomings, the devastating World
War II aerial bombardment of Germany may not have
won many hearts and minds among the German
people but it did help preclude any post-surrender
violence like what is now being seen in Iraq.
11
Regret-
tably, in Iraq, an ill-considered race to Baghdad in
2003 stretched logistic lines and enabled Saddams Fe-
141
dayeen to achieve some tactical success against sup-
port troops poorly prepared for infantry combat. This
became something of a proof of concept for Iraqi
insurgents that U.S. troops were, in fact, vulnerable.
It would have been far better to have exercised
more patience and allowed American air and artil-
lery to progressively devastate Iraqs elite military
formations. Instead, they were allowed to melt away
and form the core of the insurgency, which was never
really crushed in nearly a decade of occupation. The
Iraqi peopleto include especially those who became
the resistancenever internalized the shattering sense
of defeat that enabled the Germans and Japanese at
the end of World War II to abandon their deeply em-
bedded militaristic, racist, and totalitarian ideologies.
Despite the experience with Japan and Germany,
American leaders do not seem to fully comprehend
what it takes to truly transform entire societies in a
timeline shorter than several generations. Curiously,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin
Dempsey admitted that the aim of purging Afghani-
stan of the Taliban could have been achieved militar-
ily, since the United States:
could have started at one end of Afghanistan and fun-
damentally overrun it, destroyed it, created a situa-
tion where we would make it a near certainty that the
Taliban couldnt come back, because there wouldnt be
anything to come back to. . . .
12
General Dempsey hastened to add that such a
forceful effort was not who we are.
13
There are, of
course, several observations to be made here, start-
ing with the idea that American values extant during
World War II are not necessarily ones to be abandoned.
More specifcally, if the suggestion is that focusing
142
on the destruction of the enemythe Taliban in this
instanceinvariably involves the wholesale oblitera-
tion of civilians and their property, he underestimates
the revolutionary capabilities of a technological revo-
lution that allows force to be applied in a discrete
way that is fully lawful and moral. That technologi-
cal revolution has, according to retired General Barry
R. McCaffrey, fundamentally changed the nature of
warfare by allowing the rise of persistent, long-term
reconnaissance and precision strikes.
14
It is becoming increasingly clear that forcepar-
ticularly in counterinsurgency (COIN) situationsis
the proven solution, especially when rapid results are
needed. As Professor Anna Simons of the Naval Post-
graduate School contends:
Not only does COINs own history refect the need
for a stunning amount of brutality, but the fact that in
campaign after campaign, commanders have found
themselves desperate to be able to apply decisive force
reveals what every generation ends up (re)discover-
ing the hard way: soft approaches dont impel enough
people to change their ways fast enough.
15
Her conclusion fts with that of an ever-widening
range of experts. Jill Hazelton of Harvards Belfer
Center contends, contrary to popular wisdom, that
[s]uccess in COIN does not require the protection of
the populace, good governance, economic develop-
ment, or winning the allegiance or the loyalty of the
great majority of the population.
Importantly, she says it does not require build-
ing up all of the institutions of the state.
16
The grim
realities of which she speaks should give pause to
143
COIN theorists who disparage the effcacy of force.
In April 2011, the Washington Post reported that in
Afghanistan, the:
security improvements have been the result of intense
fghting and the use of high-impact weapons systems
not normally associated with the protect-the-population
counterinsurgency mission.
17
Nevertheless, because the U.S. military establish-
ment was dominated by ground-centric thinkers, the
solution to the challenge of peacebuilding and con-
fict management necessarily had to involve ground
forces, and lots of them. In the case of COIN, that so-
lution doctrinally eschewed force. Such was the na-
ture of Field Manual (FM) 3-24,
18
published in 2006. It
was, as one pundit put it, warfare for northeastern
graduate students and other people who would
never own a gun.
19
Among other things, it called for
enormous numbers of counterinsurgents (to comprise
about 5 percent of the populations), with each Soldier
prepared, as the FM said, to become a social worker, a
civil engineer, a school teacher, a nurse, a boy scout.
20

Nation building quite obviously was a critical element
of the doctrine.
Executing the doctrine espoused in FM 3-24 justi-
fed huge increases in the size of American ground
forces. Unfortunately, it ignored some key history
about COIN operations and the presence of a large
number of foreign troops. COIN expert William R.
Polk insists that the fundamental motivation for
insurgents is an aim primarily to protect the integ-
rity of the native group from foreigners.
21
Likewise,
in 2008, former Army Chief of Staff General John
Wickham warned that [l]arge military forces alien-
144
ate local populations, succeed less and cost more.
22

More recently, John Brennan, Assistant to the Presi-
dent for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism,
pointed out:
Countries typically dont want foreign soldiers in their
cities and towns. In fact, large, intrusive military de-
ployments risk playing into al-Qaidas strategy of
trying to draw us into long, costly wars that drain us
fnancially, infame anti-American resentment and in-
spire the next generation of terrorists.
23
THE FUTURE: OFF SHORE
PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT
So what does all this mean for the future of peace-
building and confict management, given the grand
strategy I have outlined? At the outset, it is essential
to understand that it does not mean that the United
States should abandon peacebuilding and confict
management efforts. Nor does it mean that it is ut-
terly inconceivable that the United States might again
conduct a large-footprint operation la Iraq or Af-
ghanistan. What it does mean, however, is that large-
footprint operations for peacebuilding and confict
management missions need to undergo fundamental
rethinking.
Part of this requires the acceptance, however un-
wanted, of certain cold political realities, which in-
clude the fact that public support for the large-foot-
print war in Afghanistan is collapsing. Not only do
78 percent of Americans favor withdrawing troops,
24

66 percent believe that the war has not been worth
fghting.
25
With respect to the latter, beyond the hu-
man cost, our present strategy is extremely costly. The
145
expense of deploying one American Soldier to Af-
ghanistan for 1 year has ballooned to $1.2 million,
26
a
fgure to which planners must be especially sensitive
now that the U.S. public is supporting substantial cuts
in defense spending.
27
While it does seem that it might be cheaper to
deploy civilians to accomplish many of the nation-
building tasks currently performed by the military,
the viability of that option is suspect.
28
As a Congres-
sional Research Service report dated February 2, 2012,
entitled Building Civilian Interagency Capacity for Mis-
sions Abroad: Key Proposals and Issues for Congress, re-
veals, the U.S. Governments ability to conduct such
missions remains deeply fawed, if not in disarray.
29

In any event, there is a tyranny of numbers involved,
as even the most optimistic assessments do not con-
template many more than 2,000 experts would be
involved, even if resources outside of government
were tapped.
30
Just as problematic is the sheer diffculty of peace-
building and confict management in deeply fawed
societies under circumstances where, as indicated
above, the political decision has been made not to use
force to the extent that has proven successful in past
situations, even if it can be applied in a way that is
fully lawful and moral. Still, in confict management
situations, force will necessarily have to be employed,
but likely not via large numbers of American ground
forces. The models for the future are more likely to be
along the lines of the Kosovo intervention of the late
1990s and Libya in 2011. As the New York Times put it:
Libya proved that the leaders of some medium-size
powers can be overthrown from a distance, without
putting American boots on the ground, by using weap-
146
ons fred from sea and air with the heaviest load car-
ried by partner nationsin the case of Libya, European
allies and even some Arab states.
31
In essence, this might be called offshore confict
management. This is not an especially new concept,
and has been suggested for a number of scenarios of
potential confict. Retired Marine Colonel Thomas X.
Hammes has, for example, developed a proposal he
calls Offshore Control aimed at leveraging U.S. tech-
nical advantages as a means of addressing the security
challenge of China without necessarily putting a large
mass of American troops on the Chinese mainland.
32
In a sense, options for confict management that
avoid large troop deployments seem consonant with
the Barack Obama administrations emphasis on coun-
terterrorism operations aimed at key enemy leaders
conducted by drones and special operations forces.
In fact, the President recently explicitly stated that
in Afghanistan, his goal is not to build a country in
Americas image but rather to destroy [al-Qaeda].
33

To the extent this involves drone attacks against al-
Qaeda leadership, it has enormous support from
the American people, with 83 percent approving of
their use.
34
Of course, not all confict management can be
accomplished by drones, or even special operation
ground strikes like that which eliminated Osama bin
Laden. That does require American ground forces, but
with rare exceptions, the face of such operations ought
to be indigenous personnel. In order to build the kind
of capacity that host nations need, on-site trainers and
mentors may be required, as is currently being done
in Afghanistan. On-site mentorship does, however,
carry an increased risk of a rogue killing a foreign
147
trainer. As of this writing, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) lost 19 soldiers to such attacks
in 2012 alone.
35

A FRESH ENVIRONMENT
How, then, to do it? Perhaps what is needed is a
massive program to take people out of their environ-
mentto include even to the United Statesso they
can focus on the kind of transformative training, in-
deed, thinking that is essential to truly reforming and
remaking the societies of failed or failing states. Doing
so can also facilitate access to the necessary training
personnel and resources. This would be as applicable
for building expertise in the civilian sectorgovern-
ment administrators as well as people from private
enterprisesas it would be for the security services.
There is strong rationale for such an approach.
Now retired Army Colonel-turned-university profes-
sor Peter Mansoor noted in a 2005 interview that train-
ing Iraqi forces outside of Iraq had its benefts:
The great advantage is the security is much better. You
dont have to guard the installation to the degree you
have to in Iraq. . . . Another advantage is if its staffed
by foreign offcers, they dont have to come into Iraq
and become targets in order to teach. Also, existing
facilities can be used that dont require a lot of renova-
tion or rebuilding, as is the case with many buildings
in Iraq.
36
Obviously, a similar approach elsewhere would
not eliminate the risks. But the chance of a rogue aris-
ing in such an environment can be minimized with
careful vetting. The advantages are, in any event,
manifold. For example, the diffculties of recruiting
148
and deploying skilled and experienced civilians to
remote and dangerous locales would be markedly
eased, especially if facilities could be located in the
United States. Importantly, there are models already
existing in the U.S. military of such programs working
successfully. For example, the U.S. Air Force operates
the Inter-American Air Forces Academy at Lackland
Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, where techni-
cal courses are taught, in Spanish and in English, to
students from more than 22 countries every year.
37
To be successful, the scope of such schools and
other educational facilities must be large and diverse.
Even for a country the size of Afghanistan, this could
involve tens of thousands of individuals each year.
While certainly costly, it can hardly compare with
the $1 million plus cost of sending a U.S. person to
Afghanistan for a peacebuilding operation. Creating
such a structure within the United States (or, perhaps,
another country) may not be practical, but it may be
possible to build a dedicated program within the ex-
isting American educational structure. For example,
a program for advanced education might be con-
structed under the aegis of Kennesaw States Program
in International Confict Management, where interna-
tional students are given the opportunity to learn in
the relative safety and security of an authentic Ameri-
can settingand evaluate for themselves the potential
application to their native country.
An important element of such an off shore ap-
proach would be the availability of training and edu-
cation in the native language of the students, while
at the same time making English-language instruction
available. Further, opportunities could be crafted for
the students to learn about American culture and val-
ues. This is, emphatically, not intended to displace the
149
culture and values of the students home countries, but
rather to help dispel the misperceptions of the United
States that can arise in nations needing peacebuilding
and confict management.
This educational process can be supplemented by
in-country and online programs (in the indigenous
language) by means of equipment and facilities sup-
plied by the United States but manned by local nation-
als. Moreover, mentoring relationships can be built
and maintained through daily interactions via Skype
or similar technologies, to include social media for-
mats. Again, the physical presence of some U.S. per-
sonnel cannot (and, likely, should not) be eliminated,
but the numbers could be reduced to the level that re-
alistically can be accommodated by programs such as
the Civilian Response Corps.
CONCLUSION
The proposal this chapter advocates is certainly not
a perfect one and will not satisfy every stakeholder.
Unquestionably, for example, this kind of off shore
proposal can be rightly criticized as a too lengthy,
costly, and political capital-consuming methodology.
Yet this back-to-basics approach may be the only way
to realistically create the environment for genuine
change, a process that can well take several genera-
tions. The quick fxes (e.g., build a school, equip a
clinic, or grade a road) so attractive to the American
mindset just do not work as effectively as one might
hope.
Consider the work of researchers Daron Acemo-
glu and James A. Robinson. Although not focused
on peacebuilding qua peacebuilding, their research
leads them to the relevant observation that nations
fail when they have extractive economic institutions,
150
supported by extractive political institutions that im-
pede and even block economic growth.
38
This cannot
be offset merely by digging wells, building clinics, or
even economic development projects; it may necessi-
tate dramatic changes in attitudes among leadership
and other elites. Indeed, without appropriate institu-
tional leaders, any physical assets provided become
yet one more cause for confict as corrupt power bro-
kers scramble for control of anything of value.
It is a mistake to underestimate the diffculty of
rooting out venality writ large in less than a genera-
tion. This is one reason our efforts in Afghanistan
remain stymied. As General David Petraeus said in
2010, theres no question that corruption has been,
for however long this country has probably been in
existence, been part of theliterally the culture,
39
a
point reiterated recently by former Secretary of De-
fense Leon Panetta.
40
Indeed, too much corruption,
along with too many Afghan deserters and too few
NATO trainers, has been reported as a key obstacle
to training Afghans to take over security duties once
NATO departs.
41
Even those disposed to be optimistic about the
outcome in Afghanistan have no illusions about the
depth of this societal faw and what it will take to over-
come it. Major General H. R. McMaster, who led a task
force to root out corruption, was recently reported as
saying that:
[T]he root of Afghanistans corruption problem goes
deeper, to three decades of trauma that its been
through, the legacy of the 1990s civil war . . . [and]
the effects of the narcotics trade. Add to that the un-
intended consequences of sudden Western attention
starting in 2001: We did exacerbate the problem with
lack of transparency and accountability built into the
151
large infux of international assistance that came into a
government that lacked mature institutions.
42
While it may not necessarily take decades to excise
the corruption endemic to Afghan society, it is clearly
a long-term task. Selected uses of force employing off-
shore and light-footprint capabilities for confict man-
agement can help buy time for nonmilitary processes
to work if, and only if, a major effort is made to grow
the next generation of political, military, and eco-
nomic leaders with a sophisticated understanding of
the damaging effects of corruption on Afghanistans
future. Much the same can be said for otherand fu-
tureAfghanistans around the globe.
There are many unique factors about Afghanistan
that make it an imperfect example of the kind of peace-
building and confict management issues that will
arise in the coming years as the United States grap-
ples with building an approach that meets the needs
of U.S. grand strategy, yet is one that is sound in the
political reality of an austere funding environment. To
be politically viable, we must develop options that are
less demanding in blood and money.
Off-shore peacebuilding and confict manage-
ment will not work in every instance, but the basics
of itthat is, the idea of a light footprint approach
that leverages Americas asymmetric advantages in
high technology
43
might perhaps be a useful starting
point when the next such challenge arises, as it inevi-
tably will. At the end of the day, the approach must be
grounded in the idea that notwithstanding whatever
assistance any outside entity can provide, the ultimate
responsibility is upon the people themselves, and de-
veloping their capabilities (as opposed to ours, per se)
is the central task of peacebuilding and confict man-
agement as we look ahead.
152
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 6
1. See, for example, Rosa Brooks, Obama Needs a Grand
Strategy, Foreign Policy, January 23, 2012, p. 1, available from
www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/23/obama_needs_a_grand_
strategy?page=0.
2. What is Grand Strategy? Durham, NC: Duke University Pro-
gram in American Grand Strategy, available from www.duke.edu/
web/agsp/index.html#grandstrategy.
3. Ibid.
4. Duke American Grand Strategy, Durham, NC: Duke Univer-
sity Program in American Grand Strategy, available from www.
duke.edu/web/agsp/index.html.
5. Micha Zenko and Michael A. Cohen, A Clear and Present
Safety, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2012, p. 79.
6. Ibid., p. 81.
7. Ibid., p. 91.
8. Joshua S. Goldstein, Winning the War on War: The De-
cline of Armed Confict Worldwide, Boston, MA: Dutton/Plume
(Penquin), 2011.
9. John Tirpak, The F-22 and Clout Defcit, Air Force Mag-
azine, July 23, 2012, available from www.airforce-magazine.com/
DRArchive/Pages/2012/July%202012/July%2023%202012/TheF-
22andCloutDefcit.aspx, quoting Air Force Chief of Staff Norton
Schwartz as saying there is no chance of restarting the F-22
manufacturing line.
10. Norman Friedman, Is Modern War Too Precise? U.S.
Naval Institute Proceedings, December 2004, p. 4.
11. Ibid.
153
12. A Conversation with General Martin Dempsey, Washington,
DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May 1, 2012,
available from carnegieendowment.org/fles/050112_transcript_
dempsey.pdf.
13. Ibid.
14. As General Barry McCaffrey, USA (Ret.) has observed:
We have already made a 100 year war-fghting leap-
ahead with MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, and Global
Hawk. Now we have loiter times in excess of 24 hours,
persistent eyes on target, micro-kill with Hellfre and 500
lb. JDAM bombs, synthetic aperture radar, and a host of
ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] sen-
sors and communications potential that have fundamen-
tally changed the nature of warfare.
General Barry R. McCaffrey, Memorandum for Colonel Mike Meese,
United States Military Academy, Subject: After Action Report, Octo-
ber 15, 2007, p. 5 (italics added), available from www.mccaffreyas-
sociates.com/pages/documents/AirForceAAR-101207.pdf.
15. Anna Simons, Soft War + Smart War? Think Again, E-
Notes, Philadelphia, PA: Foreign Policy Research Institute, April
2012, available from www.fpri.org/enotes/2012/201204.simons.soft-
war-smart-war.html.
16. Jacqueline L. Hazelton, The Hearts-and-Minds Approach
Versus The High-Force Low Accommodation Approach, Compel-
lence and Accommodation in Counterinsurgency Warfare, September
2010 (unpublished manuscript on fle with author) (Italics added).
17. Rajiv Chandrasekaren, In Afghanistans South, Signs
of Progress in Three Districts Signal a Shift, Washington Post,
April 16, 2011, available from www.washingtonpost.com/world/
in-afghanistans-south-signs-of-progress-in-three-districts-signal-a-
shift/2011/04/14/AF7gBwqD_story.html (Italics added).
18. Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency, U.S. Department of
the Army, December 15, 2006, p. D-8 (hereafter FM 3-24), also des-
154
ignated by Headquarters Marine Corps Development Command,
Department of the Navy, as Marine Corps Warfghting Publication
No. 3-33.5, Counterinsurgency, December 15, 2006, p. 1, available
from www.scribd.com/doc/9137276/US-Army-Field-Manual-FM-324-
Counterinsurgency.
19. The full paragraph stated:
[The COIN Manuals] reception refected Petraeuss con-
siderable media networking skills as well as the appeal of
counter-insurgency doctrine among sections of the coun-
trys liberal-minded intelligentsia. This was warfare for
northeastern graduate studentscomplex, blended with
politics, designed to build countries rather than destroy
them, and fashioned to minimize violence. It was a doc-
trine with particular appeal to people who would never
own a gun. The feld manual illustrated its themes with
case-study vignettes whose titles suggested the authors
ethical ambitions: Defusing a Confrontation, Lose
Moral Legitimacy, Lose the War.
See Steve Coll, The Generals Dilemma, The New
Yorker, September 8, 2008, available from www.newyorker.com/
reporting/2008/09/08/080908fa_fact_coll?currentPage=all.
20. FM 3-24, note 18, para 2-42.
21. William R. Polk, Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency,
Terrorism & Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq,
New York: Harper, 2007, pp. xiv-xv.
22. John A. Wickham, Why a Smaller Footprint is Good,
Arizona Daily Star, November 9, 2008, available from gunnyg.word-
press.com/2008/11/15/large-military-forces-alienate-local-populations-
succeed-less-and-cost-moreby-john-adams-wickham/.
23. Remarks of John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for
Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, The Ethics and Effcacy
of the Presidents Counterterrorism Strategy, Washington, DC: The
Wilson Center, April 30, 2012, available from www.wilsoncenter.
org/event/the-effcacy-and-ethics-us-counterterrorism-strategy.
155
24. Fox News Poll (conducted by Anderson Robbins Research
(D) and Shaw & Company Research, April 22-24, 2012, available
from www.pollingreport.com/afghan.htm.
25. ABC News/Washington Post Poll, April 5-8, 2012, available
from www.pollingreport.com/afghan.htm.
26. Todd Harrison, Analysis of the 2012 Defense Budget, Wash-
ington, DC: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, July
15, 2011, p. 7, available from www.csbaonline.org/wp-content/
uploads/2011/07/2011.07.16-FY-2012-Defense-Budget.pdf.
27. R. Jeffrey Smith, To Trim the Defcit, Americans Favor
Much Deeper Reductions at the Pentagon than Their Leaders Do,
iWatch News, Washington, DC: Center for Public Integrity, May
10, 2012, available from www.iwatchnews.org/2012/05/10/8856/pub-
lic-overwhelmingly-supports-large-defense-spending-cuts.
28. Yochi Dreazen, Afghanistans Civilian Surge Comes with
Enormous Price Tag and Uncertain Results, The National Journal,
September 8, 2011, available from www.nationaljournal.com/nation-
alsecurity/afghanistan-s-civilian-surge-comes-with-enormous-price-
tag-and-uncertain-results-20110908.
29. Nina M. Serafno, Catherine Dale, and Pat Towells, Build-
ing Civilian Interagency Capacity for Missions Abroad: Key Proposals
and Issues for Congress, Washington, DC: Congressional Research
Service, January 23, 2012, available from fpc.state.gov/documents/
organization/183725.pdf.
30. Nina M. Serafno, Peacekeeping/Stabilization and Confict
Transitions: Background and Congressional Action on the Civilian Re-
sponse/Reserve Corps and other Civilian Stabilization and Reconstruc-
tion Capabilities, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Ser-
vice, January 12, 2012, available from www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/
RL32862.pdf.
31. Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, Seeing Limits to New
Kind of War in Libya, New York Times, October 21, 2011, avail-
able from www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/world/africa/nato-war-in-
libya-shows-united-states-was-vital-to-toppling-qaddaf.html.
156
32. Thomas X. Hammes, Offshore Control: A Proposed Strat-
egy, Infnity Magazine, Spring 2012, p. 10, available from www.in-
fnityjournal.com/article/53/Offshore_Control_A_Proposed_Strategy.
33. Transcript of President Barack Obamas speech from Ba-
gram Air Base, Afghanistan, May 2, 2012, available from world-
news.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/01/11492424-transcript-of-pres-
ident-barack-obamas-speech-from-bagram-air-base-may-2?lite (Italics
added.)
34. Scott Wilson and Jon Cohen, Poll Finds Broad Support
for Obamas Counterterrorism Policies, Washington Post, Febru-
ary 8, 2012, available from www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-
fnds-broad-support-for-obamas-counterterrorism-policies/2012/02/07/
gIQAFrSEyQ_story.html.
35. NATO Soldier Killed in Afghan Shooting, Al-
jazeera, May 6, 2012, available from www.aljazeera.com/news/
asia/2012/05/201256131119330234.html.
36. Lionel Beehner, Interview with Colonel Peter Mansoor on
Training Iraqi Forces, New York: Council on Foreign Relations,
October 6, 2005, available from www.cfr.org/publication/8984/inter-
view_with_colonel_peter_mansoor_on_training_iraqi_forces.html.
37. See Inter-American Air Forces Academy, U.S. Air Force,
Lackland AFB, TX, available from www.lackland.af.mil/iaafa/
index.asp.
38. Warren Bass, Book Review of Why Nations Fail, by Daron
Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Washington Post, April 20,
2012, available from www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/
book-review-why-nations-fail-by-daron-acemoglu-and-james-a-robin-
son/2012/04/20/gIQAcHs8VT_story.html (quoting the authors).
39. Kate McCarthy, Petraeus Denies Resignation Threat;
Backs President Karzai, ABC News, December 5, 2010, available
from abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/12/exclusive-gen-david-pe-
traeus-denies-resignation-threat-backs-president-karzai/.
40. Secretary Panetta Interview with Judy Woodruff at the
Pentagon, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense, May
157
3, 2012, available from www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.
aspx?transcriptid=5025:
Corruption, you know, has been part of that culture, just
as it was in Iraq, just as it is in other areas of the Middle
East. Its one of the things youve got to deal with. If you
eventually want to develop a stable, governing operation
there that provides stability, theyre going to have to do
a better job in trying to control the level of corruption
thats there.
41. Julie Cavanaugh, Why Its So Hard for NATO to Train
Afghan Forces, Christian Science Monitor, April 22, 2012, avail-
able from www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/1202/
Why-it-s-so-hard-for-NATO-to-train-Afghan-forces.
42. David Feith, H. R. McMaster: The Warriors-Eye View
of Afghanistan, Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2012, available from
online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230445110457739228114687
1796.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop#printMode.
43. See, for example, General Douglas M. Fraser, USAF and
Major Wendell S. Holmes, Haiti Relief: An International Effort
Enabled through Air, Space, and Cyberspace, Air & Space Power
Journal, Winter 2010, p. 5, available from www.airpower.au.af.mil/
airchronicles/apj/apj10/win10/2010_4_03_fraser.pdf.
159
CHAPTER 7
ALWAYS AN OUTSIDER:
U.S. MILITARY ROLE
IN INTERNATIONAL PEACEBUILDING
William Flavin
The U.S. military has been involved in peacebuild-
ing for most of its history. The U.S. military developed
the Western United States, supported Reconstruction
in the Southern United States after the Civil War, su-
pervised the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s
and assisted with other depression era programs.
However, these activities inside the United States in
support of the building of the U.S. nation differ from
what was called for in the overseas adventures in
Mexico, the Philippines, Central America, Cuba, Ja-
pan, Germany, South Korea, Africa, the Balkans, Iraq,
and Afghanistan where the U.S. military action was
transitory and alien to the culture and society. This
chapter will look at the challenges and opportunities
that the military must face when attempting to sup-
port international peacebuilding enterprises.
International peacebuilding, at its heart, is a
national (host-nation) challenge and responsibil-
ity, and national factors will shape its pace and se-
quencing. Even though the international community
will be directly engaged in assisting a country, lo-
cal political processes will be fundamental for suc-
cess and will include extensive political mediations
and compromises.
The U.S. military will always remain an outsider to
this peacebuilding process and the country it is trying
to assist. It can never have suffcient knowledge about
160
the host country and the other international actors be-
cause of its institutional processes and the temporary
nature of its involvement. The military will be asked
to undertake a wide variety of tasks beyond its basic
combat skills because of its ability to plan, organize,
respond, and mobilize resources. It is an institution
noted for seizing the initiative, taking action, and get-
ting results. Those are the qualities that will be most
needed initially in stabilizing a situation and allowing
peacebuilding to proceed.
This chapter will consider just what can be known
by the U.S. military about another society, its struc-
tural issues, its resilience, its long-term grievances,
and its vision for the future. What can the military re-
alistically be expected to understand about the other
international and regional actors? By its actions, the
military will have an effect on the host nation but is
it capable of understanding and controlling what that
effect will be? How much is the military self-aware of
the consequences of its actions in supporting peace-
building? Does the military have institutional inhibi-
tors that proscribe what it can reasonably be expected
to do? It is an organization whose main focus is on
fnding, fxing, fghting, and fnishing an enemy. How
does this institutional bias advance or retard peace-
building? Does the militarys culture prevent that
level of collaboration that is needed within the whole
of U.S. Government and with the nongovernmental
organization (NGO) and international government
organization (IGO) community to support successful
peacebuilding missions?
In many instances the military will be necessary, so
the chapter will propose a way ahead, building upon
the strengths of the military institution. It will look at
the knowledge, skills, and abilities that the military
161
can and should possess and how to address the gaps
that will exist.
UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS
Understanding the problem is always the best
place to start. Any number of frameworks, assessment
tools, and methodologies has been developed to de-
termine drivers of confict and long-standing struc-
tural grievances of the host nation. Yet even with all of
these tools, there is a limit to what can be understood
by military units and acted upon.
1
The Type of Intelligence that the Military
Traditionally Collects Does Not Support
Peacebuilding.
Military intelligence has traditionally been focused
on the threat rather than on the environment. Even
though the doctrine on stability and counterinsur-
gency stresses the need to look deeply into the people
among whom the military is operating, the institu-
tional default position is threat based. The most recent
description of these shortfalls was identifed by Major
General Michael Flynn, the Chief of CJ2, International
Security Assistance Force, and CJ2, U.S. ForcesAf-
ghanistan, in his paper titled Fixing Intel:
Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. intel-
ligence community is only marginally relevant to our
overall strategy. Having focused the overwhelming
majority of our collection efforts and analytical brain-
power on insurgent groups, our vast intelligence ap-
paratus still fnds itself unable to answer fundamental
questions about the environment in which we operate
and the people we are trying to persuade. Ignorant of
162
local economics and landowners, hazy about who the
powerbrokers are and how we might infuence them,
incurious about the correlations between various de-
velopment projects and the levels of cooperation of
villagers, and disengaged from people in the best posi-
tion to fnd answerswhether aid workers or Afghan
soldiersU.S. intelligence offcers and analysts can do
little but shrug in response to high level decision-mak-
ers seeking the knowledge, analysis, and information
they need to wage a successful counterinsurgency
2
Any number of frameworks and approaches has
been tried, from the Interagency Confict Assessment
Framework to the District Stability Framework. All of
these tools are great innovations trying to get at the
essence of determining what is driving the confict,
but they require understanding, fnesse, collaboration,
and time. Their value is enhanced if the analyst pos-
sesses linguistic and cultural skills and direct knowl-
edge of the piece of the earth in question. Those who
can successfully implement such tools are few and far
between and are diffcult to recruit and retain. The
U.S. military has tried to obtain such knowledge by
developing ad hoc organizations such as the Hu-
man Terrain Teams, a program employing personnel
from the social science disciplines such as anthropol-
ogy, sociology, political science, regional studies, and
linguistics to provide military commanders and staff
with an understanding of the local population and the
environment. The results of this initiative have been
mixed, but the commanders have gotten some beneft
out of the attempt. These tools have their limitations,
depending upon the willingness of the various peo-
ples and factions in the host nation to cooperate.
163
Visitors Are Only Told What the Host Wants
Them to Know.
The military force engaged in peacebuilding that
attempts to transform confict will always be an out-
sider, a temporary visitor in the country. The military
personnel may only be in the country for a few months
or a few years. At best, they can acquire an incomplete
knowledge of the host government and its people.
The knowledge they do acquire will be infuenced by
the source of information. In the fractured society in
which the military will be required to operate, there
will be many competing elements trying to fll the
gaps and exploit the opportunities created in the wake
of major confict. Each will be providing the military
key bits of information designed to enhance their po-
sition. The United Kingdom (UK) Doctrinal Manual
on Military Support to Stabilization discusses this very
challenge. It identifes at least three major groups with
which the military must deal: the government, elites,
and the general population. All of these groups have
objectives they will be trying to pursue and will be
trying to see how they can leverage the military forces
on their behalf. The military will be trying to leverage
these groups, while at the same time trying to under-
stand what is going on. This tension will always be a
problem for the outsider.
3

The U.S. military occupation force that landed in
Korea in 1945 was ignorant of even the basic informa-
tion on Korea. Thousands of soldiers had been trained
to understand Japanese customs and organization by
the U.S. Army Military Government School, but policy
prohibited the study of Korea in Army Schools. There
was no adequate intelligence, so the XXIV Corps,
fresh from the fghting in Okinawa, arrived hungry
164
for information. The source of their information was
to be the former Japanese occupiers, Koreans who had
collaborated with the Japanese, and Korean elite who
possessed an excellent grasp of English. Each of these
groups had an agenda, and the military force was not
able to clearly understand to what extent they were
being manipulated. The U.S. military government
formed their initial ideas about Korea during the frst
months of occupation on the 350 separate memoranda
drafted by Japanese offcials. Based on this biased
input, the U.S. occupational command looked upon
Korea as hopeless as a society, and this informed
future planning and decisions. Many of the crises and
problems faced by the United States during the occu-
pation, and their approaches to those problems, were
based on questionable local sources of information,
each of which had an agenda.
4

There are symbols, rituals, behavior models, and
linguistic practices that take many years to master,
and the military just does not have the time to develop
such an understanding. Additionally, the military
must depend on sources that may be hostile to military
forces in general. Many times, external sources must
be relied upon that may not be telling the complete
story. It is also in the host nations interest to maintain
the initiative so that the outcomes can be shaped in ac-
cordance with its agenda and therefore will shape the
information provided. The host nation knows that the
U.S. military will not be there forever and therefore
must continually shape its environment for life when
the U.S. military departs.
165
Policymakers Develop Goals Based on this
Inadequate Understanding and Wishful Thinking.
Richard Millets study of the U.S. engagements be-
tween the Spanish American War and World War II in
nation building and constabulary development makes
the point that reality on the ground at times does not
get in the way of policy in Washington. When assess-
ing the U.S. Policy toward Cuba, the Philippines, Ni-
caragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, Millett
makes the following observation:
But, when polices were being formulated, no American
offcial, civilian or military, appears to have asked if re-
placing such forces with a better trained and equipped
constabulary would change their relation to the rest of
society or in any way alter the traditional political equa-
tion which made force the fnal arbiter. Nor does there
appear to have been any questioning of how national-
ist sentiments would react to a foreign-created security
force, or how that force, itself, would react once foreign
control was ended. . . . Instead of asking such ques-
tions, policymakers seem to have assumed that a con-
stabulary created with American instructors and under
American-imposed regulations would behave like an
American military force. There was no understanding.
5
There have been many studies on the lack of
knowledge and invalid assumptions that framed the
U.S. approach to both Iraq and Afghanistan and the
subsequent struggle to gain situational understand-
ing. Many times, the policymakers will assume that
the U.S. systems and procedures are superior to those
of the host nation, and therefore all that needs to be
done is to introduce the locals to the U.S. systems
and procedures.
6
In her article in Prism, Laura Cleary
makes this point as she examines what is and is not
166
possible in exporting the U.S. model of civil military
interaction to another country. There are differing cul-
tural reference points between the U.S. military train-
ers trying to impart a concept of a military in a demo-
cratic society to another country that has a different
historical perspective. It will not be enough just to
professionalize the host nations military force. Millet
has recorded how the United States professionalized
several militaries in Central America, only to see them
impose military rule.
7

The Military Force Will Have an Incomplete
Knowledge of the U.S. Government and the
International Community.
Ever since the 1994 engagement in Haiti, the U.S.
Government has attempted to develop a whole-of-
government approach to coordinate its actions and
share knowledge among the agencies of government.
Various presidential directives and proposed congres-
sional legislation have been developed to encourage
the agencies of government to cooperate with each
other. There have been a number of initiatives de-
signed to increase the knowledge, understanding, and
coordination for the whole of the U.S. Government.
Still, there is a challenge among all agencies to under-
stand what each is about. The U.S. Government was
designed to ensure that power would not be consoli-
dated in the hands of the few in order to protect the
liberty and freedom of the many. There are obstacles
embedded in the U.S. governmental system that work
against coordination and understanding. Overcoming
these obstacles requires a signifcant political price;
one that most are unwilling to pay. This presents a
challenge, as institutions are chartered as stovepipes
167
and provided requisite authorities and funding that
reinforce separation. Over time, the U.S. bureaucracy
has grown into a maze of overlapping, redundant,
and conficting structures that has compounded the
challenge. A study of com plex contingency operations
found that:
a key lesson learned has been that personnel in the
various agencies and military services involved do not
possess an adequate knowledge of the function, orga-
nization, capabilities, and limitations of the other enti-
ties with which they are expected to coordinate their
activities.
A study by the joint staff revealed that 35 percent
of Joint Staff offcers were work ing directly with the
interagency for the frst time; 70 percent of them said
that they had received no formal training in joint,
multinational, or interagency activities. Seventy-six
percent of senior leaders said that their staff offcers
required improved skills in supervising interagency
personnel.
8
Military Forces Are Not Aware of the Impact of
Their Actions.
Additionally, the military force itself is not self-
aware. It most often does a poor job at understanding
what effect its presence is having on the situation.
In support of the 1994 Unifed Task Force (UNI-
TAF) deployment to Somalia, the United States es-
tablished its support function in Mogadishu with no
assessment on how this would affect the local social
and economic situation in the country. Young Somali
males were encouraged by the prospects of U.S. em-
ployment and moved into the city. Few of them were
168
hired. But the result was that they left their traditional
clan areas and the infuence of the clan elders and
became the unemployed, shiftless, and desperate ele-
ments in the city. Here, war lords such as Mohammad
Farah Aidid could prey upon them. The U.S. military
force was unaware that the presence of their support
base was destabilizing the social contract within So-
mali society and that the lure of flling contracts was
having a destabilizing social impact.
9

The problems can be even more subtle and can in-
fuence ideas and attitudes and affect the legitimacy of
the operation. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, rumors
were started at various times that the U.S. command
was contracting local men to work in the dining fa-
cilities, forcing these devout Muslims to handle pork.
Many of the workers that were actually employed
were third country nationals, some of whom were
indeed Muslim. Additionally, many Muslim contrac-
tor employees who were secretaries and support staff
ate at these dining facilities where forbidden fare was
served. The All American Food served at the din-
ing facilities by the contractor not only provided fare
for the propagandist, but also failed to build the local
capacity that the mission was all about.
None of the succulent tomatoes or the crisp cu-
cumbers grown in Iraq made it into the salad bar.
U.S. government regulations dictated that everything,
even the water in which hot dogs were boiled, was to
be shipped in from approved suppliers in other na-
tions. Milk and bread were trucked in from Kuwait,
as were tinned peas and carrots. The breakfast cereal
was fown in from the United States, made in the USA.
Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes at the breakfast table
helped boost morale.
10
169
In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is
substantially engaged in development activities en-
abled by a signifcant funding tool, the Commanders
Emergency Response Program (CERP). Over 60 per-
cent of the U.S. funds supporting reconstruction in Af-
ghanistan are allocated via the Department of Defense
(DoD). The effects of this funding on Afghanistan are
signifcant. Yet by all accounts, in both Iraq and Af-
ghanistan, there has been an inability to determine
just what effect this spending has had in the long term
on accomplishing the overall U.S. objectives. The Spe-
cial Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR)
has conducted over 370 audits and inspections, fve
lessons learned reports, and hundreds of investiga-
tions, and has had problems connecting programs
with outcomes. There have been repeated calls to bet-
ter monitor these programs so as to understand the
connections between the actions of the U.S. military,
who are addressing the drivers of confict, and oth-
ers, who are building the appropriate local capacity to
reach sustainable peace.
11

Military Tends to Stereotype New and
Unfamiliar Environments.
Prejudices and stereotypes are always there and
hinder peacebuilding. The effect of stereotyping can
lead not only to a failure of programs and long-term
success, but also to violence, discontent, and the loss of
legitimacy for the mission. There are many examples
from the early engagements in Latin America and the
Philippines. Post-September 11, 2001 (9/11), the mili-
tary has come with the stereotypical approach to the
Arab world that is shared on main street America, and
that a number of cultural awareness programs have
170
attempted to address. Sebastian Junger, in his book
War, records these stereotypes, prejudices, and the
effects they have on the relationships with the people
and the ability to gain valuable information from the
people. This also relates to the ability to use the lan-
guage. Again, the need for interpreters also isolates
the Soldier. The interpreter creates his own reality,
manipulating both sides of the engagement, either
intentionally or unintentionally. There are many ex-
amples of this happening. The U.S. military has at-
tempted to deal with this issue by arranging training
sessions with interpreters, but usually only for staff
and commanders and not for the infantryman who is
in contact with the locals.
12

Members of the U.S. military will come with an un-
derstandable cultural bias about how a military force
should be organized and the relationship of that force
to the democratic organs of government. That bias will
inform their approach toward the security force assis-
tance mission. The recipient military may come from
an entirely different tradition with an entirely differ-
ent outlook. Unless that bias can be overcome and a
workable solution reached, skills can be transferred,
but transformation will not be achieved.
13

INSTITUTIONAL REALITY
The military is a can do positive organization
that is oriented toward results. Inadequate informa-
tion is not a deterrent for action. Militaries abhor vac-
uums and disorder. Militaries will impose order frst
and ask questions later.
171
The Military Is Used as a Stop Gap Because of Its
Response and Resources.
The military has been called upon to make the
trains run in Kosovo, run the banking system in the
Dominican Republic, and conduct agricultural exten-
sion services in Afghanistan. None of these are core
competencies of the military but, because of the wide
range of expertise that can be resident in the military
and the can do attitude in dealing with any demand,
the military flls in when civil expertise is either not
available or inadequate. This may be better than let-
ting situations disintegrate, but all of the studies and
after action reports clearly state that early transfer
from the military to a whole-of-government approach
is the only hope for balanced development. The United
States Institute of Peace (USIP)/U.S. Army War Col-
lege Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute
(PKSOI) Guidelines for Stabilization and Reconstruction
is clear that a comprehensive approach is the only
way to attain a viable peace. When the military is left
to run projects other than training military forces or
when even the training of military forces is not part
of a comprehensive security sector reform, the results
have not been encouraging. Historians of the U.S. mil-
itary interventions in Latin America have concluded:
Efforts to change a society by altering one institution
never produce the desired effect and inevitably bring
undesired effects.
14
172
Military Designs Measurements to Meet Its Needs
and End States.
Because the engagement of the military is tem-
porary and the units themselves rotate throughout
this engagement, this tends to drive the various units
toward achieving objectives in the short term. The
military must achieve results on the watch of the cur-
rent commander. The commander and unit will get
graded on their performance, and therefore they will
be results oriented. Therefore, the military will seek
metrics that can demonstrate success not just for the
organization, but also for the leaders whose careers
depend upon such success. The tendency is to focus
on measures of progress rather than effectiveness,
given that the latter have an incubation period longer
than individual unit deployments. Peacebuilding is
a long-term venture the time horizon of which does
not ft the military deployment schedule. Therefore,
units tend to look at high visibility projects that can
have immediate impact. The initial focus of projects
in Afghanistan in 2002 was to search for quick impact
programs that would provide the most visibility for
the limited funds available and win the hearts and
minds of the people in support of the United States. It
was not focused on performing surveys and establish-
ing long-term projects in coordination with the U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID). Over
time, this mind set shifted. Still, by 2007, commanders
were still being evaluated for committing all of their
commanders emergency response program monies
and starting more projects than the previous unit.
15
173
Military Focus Is on Short-Term Security as the
Sine-Qua-Non, and Peacebuilding Is Secondary,
Supporting, and of Lesser Importance.
This is refected in the organization and orienta-
tion of the military. For example, the development of
police forces in Afghanistan under military lead re-
sembles auxiliary infantry to fght insurgents rather
than community police. This tendency was also pres-
ent in the development of constabularies in the Phil-
ippines, Nicaragua, and Haiti earlier in the century.
Because of the lack of civil affairs structure, the mili-
tary assigned civil military duties to other branches.
For example, in Afghanistan, artillery offcers would
be assigned the duty of negotiating with local authori-
ties to establish the conditions for peaceful confict
transformation. They were provided with money and
instructions but little or no training for this most sen-
sitive and strategically signifcant job. They often had
no experience dealing with interpreters, other govern-
mental agencies, and local political situations. Obvi-
ously, these jobs were considered less important than
combat-related jobs because the military would never
have taken a civil affairs offcer and placed him in an
artillery position without extensive training. Yet, they
thought nothing of taking anyone and placing them
into a civil military position.
16

The Center for Complex Operations (CCO) in its
survey of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) ob-
served that the structure of the units facilitated a ki-
netic maneuver approach to security frst and the rest
of the peacebuilding activities secondary. Although
the Diplomacy, Defense, Development (3D) approach
was the overall objective of the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) commander, his civil/military
174
plan was not being implemented properly because
structurally and procedurally units are optimized for
combat. The S-3 Operations section focused on secu-
rity, and other parts of the civil/military approach
were run out of the civil military operations (CMO)
section that was separated from the operational sec-
tion. In traditional military staffs, the S-3 runs the
operation and has primacy, so naturally, security in
a military sense takes priority. How a unit organizes
and assigns responsibilities for security and peace-
building functions does not refect current Army doc-
trine as found in Field Manual (FM) 3-07, Stability, or
FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency, but refects the structures
that were developed post-World War II where CMO
became a separate but subordinate staff section.
17

The military focus on the security sector tends
to force the other sectors to a secondary status, and
this can infuence other actors approaches with un-
fortunate long-term results. Javid Ahmad and Lousie
Langeby of the German Marshall Fund make this very
observation about Afghanistan. They conclude that the
focus on security has placed economic development
secondary, and the development that was done was
based around the international security presence.
18
Similarly, reports from some members of the Hu-
man Terrain Teams support the observation that, in-
stitutionally, military forces focus on short-term sta-
bility rather than long-term peace building. Mathew
Schehl, who ran a Tactical Human Intelligence Team
in Central Iraq during 2003-05, wrote in his blog that
commanders he dealt with were focused on the imme-
diate, and not the long-term, transformational aspects
of the mission:
175
Success is defned in the short term . . . specifc objec-
tives are pursued without necessary regard for long-
term implications.
Information produced will tend toward a narrow con-
ception of culture and social systems, i.e., that informa-
tion which is only as relevant as its immediate utility to
the feld commander, fostering a simplifed ideation of
good guy, bad guy, without regard to social or his-
toric contexts and processes. . . .
The utilization of such information is subject to the
whims and spot decisions of the feld commander.
19

Military Excels at Transferring Technical Skills but
Transferring Values is Diffcult.
Military forces have demonstrated that they can
transfer technical skills quite well to other countries.
Many of the forces in Asia and Latin America have
been recipients of this technical training. But how well
are values and understandings transmitted and inter-
nalized? How well are they taken on board? How long
do those values last beyond the engagement period?
Without a long-term commitment, such as the exten-
sive program of in-country engagement and training
of offcers in the United States extended to the Korean
army for over 30 years, it is diffcult to affect values in
a short-term post-confict environment.
Military and Community Police Frameworks Clash.
The military framework is to organize the world
into friends, enemies, and others. The approach is to
fnd, fx, fght, and fnish the enemy. Collateral civil-
ian damage and death is considered a risk that can be
176
accepted to fnish the enemy and is sanctioned under
international law. Police framework is to protect civil-
ians and property, while bringing violators of the law
into the justice system. Collateral damage is not ac-
ceptable, and the focus is not on fnishing an enemy,
but arresting a suspect and allowing a rule of law sys-
tem to process that suspect.
Information is handled differently in each system.
In the military, intelligence is developed to fnd and
fx the enemy so that enemy can be defeated. In the
justice system, information is gathered to prosecute a
suspect. That information must meet the criteria of the
rule of law system to be admissible.
The military has often been required not only to
perform police duties, but also to train and equip po-
lice. This is caused either by a lack of civil police assis-
tance or frustration of the military with the progress of
police development. The results have not always been
successful. Based on the frameworks above, police
trained by the military tend to resemble mini-infantry
units. In Afghanistan, they were designed to supple-
ment the counterinsurgency (COIN) fght. Police
trained solely by the military, and not as part of a com-
prehensive security sector reform package, tended not
to be responsive to local controls, and they exhibited
centralized control outside of state controls. Order and
security often trumped justice and the development of
a rule of law system. It sought to increase the power of
the central government to provide security but ended
up supporting nondemocratic processes.
20
177
Reality of Long-Term Development Clashes with
Short-Term Reality of Military Engagement.
There are many stories of locals taking advantage
of the short-term focus of the military force. The Offce
of the Special Inspector General for Reconstruction
(SIGIR) in Iraq has recorded many such incidents. For
example, three separate commanders of three differ-
ent units that replaced each other spent Commanders
Emergency Response Program (CERP) monies for
a local generator that was never purchased. No one
was in one place long enough to follow through. That,
coupled with inadequate records, lack of good met-
rics for evaluating peacebuilding activities, lack of a
whole of U.S. Government oversight, and a short-term
time horizon for each military unit, has allowed such
situations to develop.
21

TIME AND RESOURCES
There will not be enough time or resources to do
the job the way it should be done. Therefore, there will
always be pressure to hurry up, when hurry up is of-
ten the wrong approach.
Goals Established Do Not Match Realistic Time
Frames Nor Resources.
The time needed to transform a post-confict coun-
try though peacebuilding methods is often underes-
timated. It is not realistic that broken societies and
dysfunctional systems of governance can be altered in
a few years. Often, the goals laid down are unrealistic,
and the infuence of outsiders exaggerated. These is-
sues were demonstrated with the building of the Af-
178
ghanistan and Iraq armies. The initial approach was a
quick fx to get into the feld forces capable of handling
the insurgent threat. Both programs went through
growing pains requiring restarting the programs with
more realistic objectives and longer lead times.
When the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
for Iraq was established in 2003, it had neither the time
nor the resources to plan and execute effectively. The
CPA was asked to provide results immediately but re-
ality overcame the enterprise, and the largest rebuild-
ing program in history grew far beyond what was
envisioned. Between May and July 2003, planned U.S.
expenditures had increased nine-fold over what was
anticipated. The story of the mismatch between goals,
time, and resources in both Afghanistan and Iraq has
been described by many SIGIR reports and in other
books and journals.
22

Rotation of Forces Limit What Is Possible.
The force generation of the military rotates forces
and individuals from 2 to 6 to 12 months and occa-
sionally 24 months. Given the long time needed to
transform post-confict societies, this rotation places
constraints on what is possible. Each unit must dem-
onstrate progress and let the command know that it
has done better than the previous unit. This has led
to new programs being started and existing programs
being modifed. The story of the generator noted
above is emblematic of a deeper problem and a source
of tension between the military and the development
community. Time horizons between what the military
would like to see to stabilize a situation and what the
development community needs to prove to be success-
ful are a constant source of friction. The implementa-
179
tion and expectations of programs that are, in essence,
development programs take many years to be proven
successful.
23

Political Pressure to Withdraw Trumps All.
Once the national policy starts to shift, and over
time it will, then the pressure to get out will over-
whelm all of the concerns. Vietnamization was a case
study. The goals were to:
expand, equip, and train South Vietnams forces and
assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the
same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat
troops.
The frst was:
strengthening the armed force of the South Vietnamese
in numbers, equipment, leadership and combat skills.
The second component is the extension of the pacifca-
tion program in South Vietnam.
The frst was achievable, but it would take time.
For the United States, it was trivial to have a U.S. he-
licopter pilot fy in support, but helicopter operations
were too much part of ground operations to involve
U.S. personnel. As observed by Lieutenant General
David Palmer, to qualify an Army of the Republic of
Vietnam (ARVN) candidate for U.S. helicopter school,
he frst needed months of English language training to
be able to follow the months-long training, and then
additional feld time to become profcient. In other
words, adding new capabilities to the ARVN would
often take 2 or more years. Palmer did not disagree
that the frst component, given time and resources,
was achievable.
180
Pacifcation, the second component, presented the real
challenge . . . it was benevolent government action in
areas where the government should always have been
benevolently active . . . doing both was necessary if
Vietnamization were to work.
But the U.S. domestic shift away from support
for the war was translated down to the troops on the
ground as pass and run. End date rather than end
state became the reality.
24
Such pressure has already
been applied to Iraq and Afghanistan.
WHAT IS POSSIBLE
Knowing the Unknowns.
As discussed above, although it will not be pos-
sible to understand all the nuances involved in deal-
ing with a host nation, there are some steps that can be
taken that will reduce the level of uncertainty. Work-
ing toward an agreed whole-of-government assess-
ment tool, improving education and training in the
areas of stability concepts and doctrine, broadening
assignment opportunities with other U.S. agencies,
increasing engagement with other countries and cul-
tures, enhancing the whole-of-government scenarios
and training opportunities at military training centers,
incorporating cultural and social aspects into appro-
priate training venues, and seeking every opportunity
to expand the intellectual horizon of the military will
go a long way toward nurturing understanding of
what is possible and what is not possible when en-
gaged in supporting peacebuilding.
The last attempt to create a whole-of-government
assessment tool was in 2008 with the Interagency
181
Confict Assessment Framework (ICAF). It was based
on USAIDs confict assessment framework that bor-
rowed from the World Banks tools. It was the basis for
the Tactical Confict Assessment Framework (TCAF)
and the subsequent District Stability Framework used
in Afghanistan. Its purpose was to develop a common
understanding among all agencies of government of
the dynamics driving and mitigating violent confict.
Although approved by the Deputies Committee and
written into the stability doctrine of the military, it has
not found universal application. It has been used in
support of embassies over 35 times since its inception,
but there is neither systemic application nor training
in the U.S. military on its application. This initiative
needs to be continued and improved.
25
Leader education is key and essential to under-
standing. The Center for New American Securitys
February 2010 report, Keeping The Edge: Revitalizing
Americas Military Offcer Corps, concludes that the
education for offcers is inadequate to address the cur-
rent and emerging security concerns, and an overhaul
of the education programs is essential.
26

There is substantial tension in offcer training programs
between cultivating excellence in tactical and techni-
cal competencies and developing the qualities needed
for operating in complex environments in concert with
multiple partners. A more holistic offcer development
program is required to counteract a disproportion-
ate focus on tactical training over strategic education.
Strategy and warfghting are integrative tasks, requir-
ing not only the ability to operate specialized equip-
ment or to command a tactical unit, but also an under-
standing of how different pieces ft together to ensure
the achievement of national objectives.
27
182
There are other calls for action along with several
recent articles to institutionalize proper education at
all levels of military offcers that address full spec-
trum operations. The Winter 2009-10 issue of Param-
eters, U.S. Army War College, devoted a major section
toward developing the strategic leader. The articles
have identifed the challenge in the past in institution-
alizing such subjects as cross-cultural understand-
ing that are critical for full spectrum operations and
recommending solutions. Additionally, the House of
Representatives Report on Professional Military Education
examined to what extent the U.S. military services are
incorporating irregular warfare and stability into their
curricula. It concluded that although there has been
some progress, it is not enough. It stated that the:
Offcer Professional Military Education Policy (OP-
MEP) has no distinct Learning Area for stability opera-
tions, despite those operations being recognized as a
core military mission comparable to combat operations
since 1995 by Departmental policy, which directed
that stability operations be explicitly addressed and
integrated across all DOD activities, including those
involved in education.
28

To fght stereotyping, there are a number of cul-
tural tools and courses that have been developed as
a result of the U.S. engagement in Operation IRAQI
FREEDOM (OIF) and Operation ENDURING FREE-
DOM (OEF). Centers such as the Air Force Cultural
and Language Center have many products and out-
reach to deal with stereotyping and help the military
understand the environment.
How can the military know itself? This is the most
diffcult problem, but, again, there are tools. Knowing
yourself is part of the standard doctrine for deception.
183
That doctrine stresses the need to understand how your
unit and its actions appear to the enemy before you
can hope to manipulate the enemys perceptions. The
same concept of understanding yourself and the con-
sequences of your actions should be applied concern-
ing peacebuilding. The most basic question should be
asked: What are the indirect effects of conducting op-
erations like running a fre base? Just the presence of a
large logistical military footprint in a country can alter
the operational environment. If the command has not
completed an in-depth assessment as the framework
requires, then it will be operating in the blind and ex-
ecuting support contracts that will counteract what
the comprehensive development programs are trying
to achieve. Displacement of local capacity or alteration
of the social economic factors needs to be considered
when building a large U.S. footprint in a country. This
understanding of the force must include contract sup-
port. Direct contracting affects the host government,
the elites, and the people of the country and there-
fore can have immediate and long-term impact. The
purpose of this contracting is to interact directly with
the locals to produce an effect that supports mission
accomplishment. Examples are training, educating,
and advising host nation military, paramilitary, and
police forces; training, educating, and advising all
ministries of the government, both national and lo-
cal, on conducting security sector reform that includes
reform of penal, judicial, and legal codes as well as
disarming, demobilizing, and reintegrating into civil
society; assisting in intelligence operations to include
interrogations, providing security forces, both static
and mobile, in support of the movement and delivery
of people and goods; and establishing and managing
command, control, and communication centers. These
184
are the contractors that are most likely to be armed
and the most likely to use deadly force. All of these
activities directly advance the U.S. mission in theater.
This effort must focus foremost on building effective,
legitimate, and resilient states. The ultimate responsi-
bility for the stabilization and reconstruction process
belongs to the host nation. This means all efforts of
both the U.S. Government and their contractors must
assist the host nation government and civil society
to ensure that they lead and participate in both plan-
ning and implementation. Utilization of host nation
processes and structures, both formal and informal,
builds ownership. The key issue is how to meet imme-
diate needs, yet also build long-term capacity. There
is a tradeoff between relying on private contractors
or U.S. governmental agencies to meet the immediate
needs of the population and thereby reduce the risk
of instability; while laying the more time-consuming
groundwork for state institutions to deliver essential
services and strengthen the legitimacy and effective-
ness of a nascent democracy. The other concern is de-
termining what tasks should be contracted and what
tasks need to remain in the hands of U.S. governmen-
tal agencies. The tendency in Iraq and Afghanistan has
been to use the United States or third country nations
as an immediate solution to obtain stability. As of June
2009, nearly 88 percent of the contractors in Iraq and
Afghanistan were third country nationals, only 8 per-
cent were local, and the rest were US nationals. What
are the implications of using third country nationals?
29
The division between what should be a U.S. Gov-
ernment face versus a contractor face must be deter-
mined by the outcomes. The U.S. objective is to instill
a concept of democratic governance that is responsive
to the needs of the people. A U.S. governmental face
185
in key advisory positions sends a different message
from a contractor face, even if that contactor is a sub-
ject matter expert. There must be a collaborative ap-
proach and a determination as to what messages need
to be sent to achieve the effect desired. A combination
of current federal employees and contracted person-
nel providing expert assistance can work well to in-
still the ideas of democratic control. It becomes dif-
fcult to convince local governors, chiefs of police, and
politicians in Afghanistan not to hire their own illegal
and unlicensed private military companies (PMCs)
when the United States leads by example in its de-
pendence on such organizations. Dennis Keller made
the following evaluation of the U.S. role in foreign
police training:
Simply using a contracting mechanism to conduct po-
lice training does not create the kind of institutional ca-
pacity in the USG that is required for a consistently ef-
fective approach to enable local police to establish and
maintain a safe and secure environment in a recovering
state. Contracted police trainers often cannot or will
not operate in non-permissive environments, thus con-
fning their training to the capital city or secure areas,
leaving unsecured remoter areas of a country without
desperately needed police trainers and mentors, as is
often the case in Iraq and Afghanistan today. If a par-
ticular contracted police trainer/mentor is identifed as
having superior ability to impart police skills and val-
ues in a foreign environment, there is no mechanism to
keep that person on at DoS INL [Department of State,
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforce-
ment Affairs] or elsewhere in the USG to help estab-
lish institutional knowledge and long-term capacity to
manage and conduct foreign police training.
While DoS INL seems to be most involved in foreign
police training, with Department of Justices ICITAP
186
[International Criminal Investigative Training As-
sistance Program] somewhere behind it in this arena,
neither of these offces nor any other USG agency has
assumed a defnitive lead role for foreign law enforce-
ment assistance to coordinate the diverse, multi-agency
array of foreign police training that has slowly grown
as a result of institutional creep to fll a police train-
ing void created by the U.S. Congressional cutoff of
USAID police training activities in 1974. The lack of a
lead agency with overall responsibility for foreign po-
lice training, similar to DoDs responsibility for foreign
military training, carries with it a number of conse-
quences. The USG has no International Military Educa-
tion and Training (IMET) Program-equivalent to sys-
tematically bring police offcers to the U.S. for training,
such as DoD has for foreign military offcers. The USG
does not have a comprehensive assessment program,
though one is in development, to identify the state of
law enforcement and police in a foreign country. The
USG has not developed what the military would call
doctrine, or agreed upon procedures and principles,
to integrate State INLs emphasis on the enforcement
aspect of police training, with USAIDs community
policing and overall justice sector and ministerial
reform programs.
30

CONCLUSION: UNDERSTANDING AND
DEALING WITH INSTITUTIONAL REALITY
Understanding what the institutional constraints
and restraints are and understanding what is possible
and not possible is a starting point. Efforts to change
a society just through the military changing its secu-
rity force or providing a temporary safe and secure
environment never produces the desired effect. Using
the comprehensive approach always works better as
the USIPs Guidelines for Stabilization and Reconstruc-
tion have amply illustrated. The United Nations (UN)
187
capstone doctrine states under the Peacebuilding
Activities section:
While the deployment of a multi-dimensional United
Nations peacekeeping operation may help to stem
violence in the short-term, it is unlikely to result in a
sustainable peace unless accompanied by programmes
designed to prevent the recurrence of confict.
31

No matter what the military will try to do to shape
the outcome, the host nation has its own objectives
and its own ideas, and over time as the infuence of
the military force wanes, local imperatives take over.
Host Nation ownership is a key principle in both the
U.S. and UN doctrine, and the military must be com-
fortable with that concept. What the military builds
will, over time, evolve into something else. Korea is
the case in point. At the end of the day, Korea exerted
its national agenda. But the United States maintained
a long-term relationship with Korea, and that helped
shape the outcome.
Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means
First, do no harm. This is one of the key tenets of
physicians and frst responders, and should be con-
sidered when dealing with the military contribution
to peacebuilding. There is no standard approach nor
formulas that can apply in each situation. The military
must not only try to understand local conditions, but
also their own institution and what effects it is having
on the environment. Great attention should be paid
to unintended consequences of actions that may affect
power relationships, societal dynamics, and even poli-
cymaking in capitals. This concept needs to be consid-
ered in the doctrine, planning, and training of military
forces and will require an adjustment. This do no
harm approach should also be in collaboration with
188
the whole of the U.S. governmental approach and the
host nation itself so that at the end of the day, the host
nation will have ownership with the ability to deal
with drivers of instability.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 7
1. Some examples of assessment tools are the Interagency
Confict Assessment Framework developed by USAID, the Dis-
trict Stability Framework developed by ISAF in Afghanistan,
Measuring Progress In Confict Environments by USIP, and the
Confict Assessment Framework by the World Bank.
2. Major General Michael Flynn, Captain Matt Pottinger, and
Paul Batchelor, Fixing Intelligence: A Blue Print for Making Intel-
ligence Relevant in Afghanistan, Afghanistan: ISAF, January 10,
2010, p. 1.
3. United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defense, Joint Doctrine
Publication 3-40, Security and Stabilization: The Military Contribu-
tion, Shrivenham, Wiltshire, UK: The Development Concepts and
Doctrine Center, November 2009, pp. 2-24 and Chap. 3.
4. Ronald H. Spector, In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Sur-
render and the Battle for Post War Asia, New York: Random House,
2007, pp. 150-153.
5. Richard L. Millett, Searching for Stability: The U.S. Develop-
ment of Constabulary Forces in Latin America and the Philippines, Oc-
casional Paper 30, Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Insti-
tute Press, 2010, p. 124.
6. Authors experience as a Special Forces Staff offcer in U.S.
Central Command (CENTCOM). In 1983, after the attempted
coup by the Kenyan Air Force, a Special Forces advisor team was
sent to the country. The Chief of Special Operations for CENT-
COM, without any knowledge of Kenyan society or the structure
of the Kenyan armed forces, presented a plan for the restructur-
ing of the Kenyan armed forces. When the author asked how he
could do that without any local understanding, he stated that the
U.S. model was the best in the world, so there was no need to
189
understand local issues. If the Kenyans would just adopt the U.S.
model, all would be OK. Kenya rejected this recommendation.
7. Laura R. Cleary, Lost in Translation, The Challenge of Ex-
porting Models of Civil-Military Relations, Prism, Vol. 3, No. 2,
March 2012, pp. 25, 33.
8. Joint Staff J-7, Joint Staff Offcer Study: Preliminary Findings,
PowerPoint Presentation, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Defense, March 10, 2008; Center for Law and Military Operations,
U.S. Government Interagency Complex Contingency Operations Orga-
nizational and Legal Handbook, February 24, 2004; William J Olson,
Interagency Coordination: The Normal Accident or the Essence
of Indecision, Gabriel Marcella, ed., Affairs of State: The Interagen-
cy and National Security, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute,
U.S. Army War College, December 2008, p. 223; Nora Bensahel
and Anne M. Moisan, Repairing the Interagency Pro cess, Joint
Force Quarterly, Vol. 44, 2007, pp. 106108.
9. Walter Clarke, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy, So-
malia, during Operation RESTORE HOPE, and Mark Walsh, Dis-
trict Administrator in Baidoa, Somalia, for the UN Offce for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), interviewed
by the author at PKSOI in 2000, where all three were employed.
10. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Excerpt: Imperial Life in the Em-
erald City: Inside Iraqs Green Zone, October 10, 2007, linked
from Media Bistro Home page available from www.mediabistro.
com/articles/cache/a8798.asp.
11. Cleary, p. 95; Stuart W. Bowen, No More Adhocracies;
Reforming the Management of Stabilization and Reconstruction
Operations, Prism, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2012, p. 4.
12. Sebastian Junger, War, New York: Hachett Book
Company, 2011.
13. Cleary, p. 25.
14. Richard L. Millett, Limits of Infuence, Creating Security
Forces in Latin America, Joint Force Quarterly, Vol. 42, 3rd Quar-
ter, 2006, p. 15.
190
15. William Flavin, Civil Military Operations: Afghanistan, Car-
lisle, PA: Peacekeeping Stability Operations Institute, March 23,
2004, pp. 20-21; Captain Devin Flavin, artillery offce, 173rd Af-
ghanistan, 2007, interview by author in Carlisle, PA, 2010.
16. Flavin, interview with author.
17. Dale Erickson, CivMil in the U.S. Sector Afghanistan,
briefng to PKSOI by the Center for Complex Operations, National
Defense University (NDU) at PKSOI, Carlisle, PA, June 15, 2011.
18. Javid Ahmad and Louse Langeby, Can the Afghan Econ-
omy be saved? Foreign Policy, February 3, 2012, e mail message to
author dated February 5, 2012.
19. Roberto J. Gonzalez, American Counterinsurgency: Human
Science and the Human Terrain, Chicago, IL: Prickly Paradigm
Press, 2009, p. 69.
20. Dennis E. Keller, U.S. Military Forces And Police Assistance
In Stability Operations: The Least Worst Option To Fill The U.S. Ca-
pacity Gap, Carlisle, PA: Peacekeeping and Stability Operations
Institute, U.S. Army War College, April 2010, p. 18. These insti-
tutional shortfalls in U.S. capacity for police training were identi-
fed by a State Department offcial at the Conference for Building
Capacity in Stability Operations: Security Sector Reform, Gover-
nance, and Economics, jointly sponsored by the Association of the
United States Army (AUSA), Center for Naval Analyses (CNA),
and PKSOI, Washington, DC, April 6, 2009.
21. Cleary, p. 95.
22. Ibid; Bowen, p. 6.
23. Major Gregory Johnson, Vijaya Ramachandran, Julie
Walz, CERP in Afghanistan; Refning Military Capabilities in
Development Activities, Prism, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2012, p. 85.
24. David Palmer, Summons of the Trumpet, Novato, CA: Presi-
dio Press, 1978 , pp. 219-220.
191
25. Caroline Earle, Taking Stock: Interagency Integration in
Stability Operations, Prism, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2012, pp. 41-42.
26. Dr. John A. Nagl and Brian M. Burton, ed., Keeping The
Edge: Revitalizing Americas Military Offcer Corps, Washington DC:
Center for a New American Security, February 2010.
27. Ibid., p. 6.
28. Allison Abbe and Stanley M. Halpin, The Cultural Im-
perative for Professional Military Education and Leader Develop-
ment, Parameters, Vol. 39, No 4, Winter 2009-10, p. 29; U.S. House
of Representatives Committee on Armed Services Subcommit-
tee on Oversight and Investigations, Another Crossroads? Profes-
sional Military Education Two Decades after the Goldwater-Nichols,
Washington, DC: April 2010, p. 73.
29. Joint Forces Command, Handbook for Private Security
Contractors in Contingency Operations, III; Moshe Schwartz, De-
partment of Defense Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: Background
and Analysis, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service,
December 14, 2009, p. 11; Moshe Schwartz, The Department of De-
fenses Use of Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan:
Background, Analysis, and Options for Congress, Washington, DC:
Congressional Research Service, December 19, 2010, p. 8.
30. Dennis E. Keller, U.S. Military Forces And Police Assis-
tance In Stability Operations: The Least Worst Option To Fill The U.S.
Capacity Gap, Carlisle, PA: PKSOI, U.S. Army War College, April
2010, p. 18. These institutional shortfalls in U.S. capacity for po-
lice training were identifed by a State Department offcial at the
Conference for Building Capacity in Stability Operations: Security
Sector Reform, Governance, and Economics, jointly sponsored by
AUSA, CNA, and PKSOI, Washington, DC, April 6, 2009.
31. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations
Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines, New York: Unit-
ed Nations, Department of Field Support, 2008, p. 25.
193
CHAPTER 8
THINKING GLOBALLY, ACTING LOCALLY:
A GRAND STRATEGIC APPROACH TO
CIVIL-MILITARY COORDINATION
IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Christopher Holshek
Thank God were a great country. We can stand a lot of
this nonsense. But lets not test it too closely.

General Andrew Goodpaster
Given the grand strategic imperatives of the 21st
century, the civil-military nexus of confict manage-
ment and peacebuilding is more relevant to interna-
tional engagements and American grand strategy
than ever. However, the U.S. civil-military approach
to foreign policy and national security needs over-
hauling because it remains largely based on an out-
dated national security paradigm, itself predicated
on an imbalanced interpretation of the fundamental
civil-military relationship in American society that
was forged under the exigencies of the Cold War era
and revitalized since September 11, 2001 (9/11). There
is plenty of evidence for this growing incongruity as
of late, given the tremendous diffculties, for example,
in post-confict Iraq, in stabilizing Afghanistan, in
counterterrorism operations in Africa, and in the mili-
tarys strained relations with many nongovernmen-
tal organizations (NGOs).
1
Given the constraints and
restraints of the emerging strategic and operational
environments, however, the full potential of the civil-
military nexus in international engagements cannot
194
come to bear unless: frst, civil-military coordination
is seen as strategic rather than merely operational or
tactical; and second, that civil-military coordination
must essentially be the application of the democratic
civil-military relationshipand thus military action is
through, and in support of, civilian organizations and
local government entities. This is in the best interest
of all stakeholders, especially the military. To attain
such economies of effort, cost, and risk at all levels,
the actions of uniformed state instrumentalities must
be consonant with their own societal values. In policy
and practice, civil-military coordination has to walk
the talk.
This is actually good news for the United States, for
no other nation is better suited to lead this transforma-
tion, given its dynamic, multicultural civil society and
its democratic national values and tremendous social
capital, as well as the U.S. militarys extensive insti-
tutional experience in civil-military coordination
if, of course, the United States makes the necessary
adjustments.
This strategic opportunity requires exploring: frst,
how the grand strategic context for civil-military co-
ordination has changed between the 20th and 21st
centuries; second, the U.S. civil-military relationship
over this time; third, understanding civil-military co-
ordination strategicallyi.e., thinking globally; and
fourth, understanding civil-military coordination in
applicationi.e., acting locally.
A TALE OF TWO CENTURIES
The global context for civil-military coordination
2

has changed. Top-down, power-driven Western no-
tions of national sovereignty and security of the 20th
195
century are less relevant than the emerging, values-
based, bottom-up human security actualities gain-
ing ascendency in a now hyper-connected, global-
ized worldin other words, the referent for security
is increasingly the individual or community rather
than the state.
3
The constraints of this transformed
international environment, along with the restraints
of growing resource scarcity and capital shortages
for the United States, other Western countries, the
United Nations (UN), and the wider donor commu-
nity form the two grand strategic imperatives of our
times. These have correspondingly transformed the
functioning paradigm for security, humanitarian re-
lief, and development across the full range of confict
prevention and management as well as for peace op-
erations, with associated changes in the approach to
the civil-military nexus as a whole.
From a broader perspective, the fundamental shift
in the international order between the 20th and 21st
centuries has been more infective than intrinsic, par-
ticularly in the balance and interplay between what has
been called soft (coercive) and hard (persuasive)
power. National power in both its source and applica-
tion is characterized by an industrial-era, state-centric,
top-down, zero-sum, empirical, and calculable game
of war and peace played largely by diplomats and sol-
diers, interest-driven, and manifested mostly in hard
currency and armies. It reached its zenith in the 20th
century. What is now beginning to hold greater sway
is infuence, derived from national, societal, and orga-
nizational strengths, rather than state-centric power
post-industrial, bottom-up, and values-based involv-
ing myriad nonstate and intrastate actors across an
ambiguous spectrum (or cycle) of confict and peace
and associated complexities. In this new ecosystem,
196
Napoleons observation that in war, the moral is to
the physical as three is to one takes on an even more
appropriate meaning.
Concentrated military, fnancial, and other forms
of coercive power are the ultimate expression of a
state-centric international order. But what now in-
creasingly characterizes that order is the warp and
woof of a struggle for sociopolitical and economic or-
ganization in the spaces beyond and between states,
amplifed and accelerated by the 24/7 media and so-
cial networks that make the narrative predominant.
In the 21st century, coercive power is losing both its
dominance and appropriateness. Hard power is more
threats-based, resource-intensive, zero-sum, reactive,
and short-term (i.e., tactical). It is, however, faster-
acting, more controllable, and more measurable. Soft
power, in turn, is more suitable to collaborative, hu-
man security settings. It is community-based, largely
resident in civil society and the private sector, and is
more adaptable, economical, renewable, engaging,
synergistic, and durable (i.e., strategic). It is normally
slower to take effect across a broad, unpredictable
front, although social networking technologies as of
late have had accelerating and amplifying effects.
This is not to say that hard power is obsoletejust
no longer as overriding. In truth, this rebalancing is a
return to a historical American grand strategic equilib-
rium predating the Cold War. Despite National Secu-
rity Council (NSC)-68s emphasis on diplomacys con-
tinued lead in American grand strategy and George
F. Kennans refrain to frst use moral authority, the
militarization of applied American power in the lat-
ter half of the 20th century had soft power (in policies,
programs, and budgets) functioning more as a com-
bat multiplier. In form as well as function, the face of
197
U.S. foreign policy has been a military one. In truth,
what brought down the Berlin Wall was the tipping
point of rising expectations of Eastern Europeans (not
unlike the social unrest seen in many places today),
while allied military power contained the Soviets. In
other words, hard power was the holdingor con-
tainingaction, while soft power was the offensive
dynamic. The North Atlantic Treaty Organizations
(NATO) vast arsenals enabled what NSC-68 called the
corrosive power of freedom to go to work on the
self-contradictions of the Soviet state over time. Self-
determination, an ideal frst socialized on an interna-
tional scale by President Woodrow Wilson in the wake
of World War I, became a prime security mover. With
the collapse of that order, the recontextualization and
rebalancing that should have taken place as far back
as 1989 is now more obvious a quarter-century later.
This epochal reality is truer for the United States
than any other country, as the worlds only global
power for the last generation. But its national strategic
style goes much further back in history. Since the Civil
War, the United States has looked to win its wars, de-
ter its adversaries, and assure its allies through over-
whelming industrial and technological superiority
predicated on an abundance of cheap resources, cheap
labor, cheap energy, and cheap capitalit could af-
ford a wasteful, surplus mentality. Since 1945, it had
been the dominant power in the worldit could af-
ford its own interpretation of exceptionalism, while
everyone else was internationalizing.
Of equal importance to the grand strategic impera-
tive of environment constraints are resource restraints.
For the frst time in centuries, the United States is enter-
ing a newfound era of relative strategic scarcity. It can
no longer take an abundance of resources for granted.
The economic and fnancial basis of traditional state-
198
centric power is diminishing through a globalization
process that the United States itself has largely set in
motion. Beyond reducing Americas throw-weight in
general, it is translating into an end of unilateral free-
dom of action. Asymmetric threats and the rise of
regional powers have already been mitigating long-
standing U.S. advantages, while global competitors
can now better bankroll their own agendas. Perhaps
most importantly, information and social networking
technologies and low-cost socio-cultural enterprises
now present inexpensive equalizers to older, more
costly, and more centralized industrial-era forms of
power. The moral, or psychological, is now plainly
overtaking the physical.
In the 21st century, there is no dominant power as
seen in the prior century. Although the United States
will remain the premier world power for decades to
come, its ability to wield especially more traditional
forms of power will be much more constrained and
restrained by factors less and less within its span of
control. Indeed, the heyday of state-centric power
per se in the new international arena is diminishing.
Power is dissipating into more distributed forms. As
the upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa are
demonstrating, the dynamic is now more about the
strength, infuence, and reach of ideas, globally arche-
typical but community-based. More importantly, it is
about how these ideas communicate and work in peo-
ples livesin a word: innovation. In fact, the power
of nation-states alone is becoming less relevant than
the infuence of people and organizations networked
outside of and within governments. These are almost
entirely civilian.
In the much more chaotic, unpredictable, and un-
controllable international order of the 21st century,
199
the United States no longer dominates. It can still lead,
albeit with a more strategic, rather than tactical, lead-
ership style. You can use a more coercive and direc-
tive style when you dominate; but when you do not,
you have to lead more persuasivelyfrom behind as
well as the frontas will be explained later.
Along with the changed context for national and
international power is the changed nature of secu-
rity. Security has become more than globalized; it
has also become more humanized, civilianized, and
democratized. Waves of popular unrest in response
to everything from jobs, food prices, public pensions,
poor educational and job opportunities, wealth dis-
parities, and energy and the environment evince a
groundswell of discontent with the inability of elites
to deliver on socioeconomic fundamentals and essen-
tial public services. Security, prosperity, and social
welfare are increasingly intertwined, making it every-
bodys business. In the American psyche, security was
something someone else in a uniform did somewhere
over there. But in an intricate, hyper-connected
global ecosystem where minor disturbances can have
worldwide ripple effects in a matter of hours, this is
all changing.
In Africa, for example, home to the bulk of security,
development, and civil-military challenges for de-
cades, human securitytermed civilian security
by the U.S. State Department in predictably exception-
alist fashionand civil society problems such as pov-
erty and food security, rule of law and justice, gover-
nance, economic development and job creation, and
public health have long defned the security problem,
4

calling for approaches going well beyond whole of
government to whole of society.
5
Comprehensive
and collaborative approaches to confict prevention
200
and post-confict operations in multilateral, human
security settings are everyday for civil society organi-
zations working there and elsewhere. They stress the
long-term, legitimacy, and relationship-building char-
acteristics of development. In this more normative
paradigm, development, appropriately done, is there-
fore not a component of security, it is security. This
is vital to understanding the difference from security
in the 21st century not as simply an expansion of the
state-centric national security paradigm into social
disciplineswhich seems to be the current interpre-
tation in the United States government. Rather, U.S.
development policy is seen more as an instrument of
foreign policy, serving national (security) interests
and aimed at the proliferation of the American model
of political order.
Given the growing limitations of hard power com-
mensurate with the rise of soft power, increasing
interconnectivity of global communities, the integra-
tion of security and development, and burgeoning
resource restraintsall driving more comprehensive,
collaborative, and coordinated approaches, the recon-
textualization, rebalancing, and proper alignment of
the civil-military nexus remains at the locus of inter-
national intervention, whether for humanitarian, de-
velopment, or reasons of state interest.
Yet, the instrumentalities featured in the Ameri-
can approach to the worldindeed, the entire for-
eign policy and national security apparatus of the
United Statesremain predicated on a 20th century
paradigm for which national security concerns have
trumped all other prerequisites. This national security
paradigm, which has pervaded practically all aspects
of applied U.S. foreign and national security policy,
is itself predicated on an interpretation of the funda-
201
mental civil-military relationship in American society
that was forged under the exigencies of the Cold War
era and revitalized since 9/11. (The last major over-
haul of the organization of U.S. national security was
the National Security Act of 1947.) It should therefore
be no wonder that most U.S. civil-military approaches
to applied foreign and national security policy are cor-
respondingly out of synch.
Beyond Eisenhowers prescient warning about the
military-industrial complex, Americans are now ac-
customed to a vast national security state that, with
the war on terrorism, permeates life at home and not
just in policies abroad:
Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has cre-
ated or reconfgured at least 263 organizations to tackle
some aspect of the war on terror. Thirty-three new
building complexes have been built for the intelligence
bureaucracies alone, occupying 17 million square
feetthe equivalent of 22 U.S. Capitols or three Penta-
gons. The largest bureaucracy after the Pentagon and
the Department of Veterans Affairs is now the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security, which has a workforce of
230,000 people. The rise of this national security state
has entailed a vast expansion in the governments pow-
ers that now touch every aspect of American life, even
when seemingly unrelated to terrorism. Some 30,000
people, for example, are now employed exclusively to
listen in on phone conversations and other communi-
cations within the United States. In the past, the U.S.
government has built up for wars, assumed emergency
authority and sometimes abused that power, yet al-
ways demobilized after the war. But this is, of course,
a war without end.
6
The biggest reason for this has been in how U.S.
grand strategy since World War II has been threat-
202
based, fear-driven, and enemy-centric, embedded in
American culture:
Since the end of the Cold War, America has been on
a relentless search for enemies. I dont mean a search
in the sense of ferreting them out and defeating them.
I mean that America seems to have a visceral need
for them. Many in the United States have a rampant,
untreated case of enemy dependency. Politicians love
enemies because bashing them helps stir up public sen-
timent and distract attention from problems at home.
The defense industry loves enemies because enemies
help them make money. Pundits and their publications
love enemies because enemies sell papers and lead eye-
balls to cable-news food fghts.
7
THE FAULT LIES NOT IN OUR STARS . . .
Most scholars and commentators on the subject of
the civil-military relationship in the United States turn
frst to Samuel Huntingtons seminal work, The Sol-
dier and the State, to begin discussion. It is more ftting,
however, to go back nearly two more centuries to the
Constitution of the United States, whose division of
powers and authority, along with its system of checks
and balances, has succeeded not only in defending
the nation against all enemies foreign and domestic,
but in upholding the liberty it was meant to preserve.
8

The American way of the civil-military relationship is
thus fundamental not only to the profession of arms;
rather, it is fundamental to American civil society:
Civil-military relations in a democracy are a special ap-
plication of representative democracy with the unique
concern that designated political agents control desig-
nated military agents. Acceptance of civilian supremacy
and control by an obedient military has been the core
203
principle of the American tradition of civil-military re-
lations. U.S. military offcers take an oath to uphold the
democratic institutions that form the very fabric of the
American way of life. Their client is American [civil]
society, which has entrusted the offcer corps with the
mission of preserving the nations values and national
purpose. Ultimately, every act of the American mili-
tary professional is connected to these realities [that] he
or she is in service to the citizens of a democratic state
who bestow their trust and treasure with the primary
expectation that their state and its democratic nature
will be preserved.
9
This was, by and large, the civil-military consen-
sus in the United States until after World War II. Until
then, the typical pattern was to maintain a small, pro-
fessional force, which could be augmented in the event
of national emergency through the militia (todays Re-
serves), thus placating the general distrust of the mili-
tary among the American public (refected, arguably,
in the Second Amendment). In the wake of World War
IIfor the frst time in U.S. historya large, stand-
ing (and eventually professional) peacetime military
force has persisted. Huntingtons book appeared in
1957, the same year as Sputnik, when, also for the frst
time in its history, the United States was faced with
the clear and present danger of nuclear Armageddon.
Given this historic departure and the existential
exigencies of the Cold War, Huntingtons interpreta-
tion of the civil-military relationship is understand-
able. Paradoxically, Huntington concluded that to
preserve democracy, society should grant the mili-
tary substantial autonomy in managing international
violence, in exchange for submission to civilian direc-
tion. For his theories, critics excoriated Huntington as
overly militant, students staged protests during lec-
tures, and Harvard fred him.
10
Huntingtons model,
204
which suspended the traditional consensus and bal-
ance of the American civil-military relationship, made
more sense under the conditions of the Cold War and
the international order it maintained. Once those con-
ditions changed and that order began to break down,
however, frst with the fall of the Berlin Wall and then
resuming with the diffculties of applied American
power in the post-9/11 years (as explained above),
the inherent faws of Huntingtons model became in-
creasingly obvious: the most signifcant shortcoming
of Huntingtons construct was its failure to recognize
that a separation between political and military affairs
is not possibleparticularly at the highest levels of
policymaking.
11
In other words:
Huntingtons claim that an autonomous military pro-
fession should . . . develop its expertise free from out-
side involvement is also problematic. For one thing,
it underestimates the impact of service culture and
service parochialism. Left to their own devices, the
services may focus on the capabilities they would like
to have rather than the capabilities the country needs.
Even beyond this concern, an emphasis on autonomy
heightens the risk of creating a military unable to meet
the requirements set out in the U.S. militarys own
doctrine, which talks of the need to integrate all instru-
ments of national power (diplomatic, informational,
military and economic) to further U.S. national inter-
ests. . . . Effective partnerships in war are likely to re-
quire collaborative education, training, planning and
capabilities. . . . This applies to foreign partnersmili-
tary and civilianas well as American. . . . This logic
led Huntington to the extraordinary argument in his
concluding chapter that the solution was for American
society to become less liberal and more like the military
in its culture and values. This proposed solution is ex-
traordinary because it is a clear reversal of endsmeans
logic: instead of the military serving to protect Ameri-
205
can values, American society should change its values
to serve the interest of military effectiveness. Only the
existence of an existential threat would seem to justify
such a proposition.
12
This idea of the military as social role model is not
as arcane as one might think. President Barack Obama
expressed similar ideas in his 2012 State of the Union
address. After beginning his speech by lauding the
achievements of the U.S. Armed Forces, he said:
At a time when too many of our institutions have let
us down, they exceed all expectations. Theyre not con-
sumed with personal ambition. They dont obsess over
their differences. They focus on the mission at hand.
They work together. Imagine what we could accom-
plish if we followed their example.
13
With the popularity of the military in American
society at an all-time high and that of politicians at an
all-time low, the civil-military societal imbalance that
began with World War II is now over 70 years old:
The veneration and outright hero-worship, now at a
crescendo, is an unhealthy distortion of our time-hon-
ored yet taken-for-granted civil-military relationship,
for a number of reasons . . . over time, it has also lent
to a psychology of greater readiness to call upon the
military in the pursuit of our national interests abroad,
or to perform tasks, such as humanitarian or disaster
relief or nation-buildingcontributing to the militari-
zation of our foreign policy and the securitization of
foreign assistance. We have even seen a greater pres-
ence of the National Guard in our relief responses at
home, despite the intent of the Posse Comitatus Act of
1878. Another is the perpetuation of a military indus-
trial complex that is now a detriment to our prosperity
and which we can less afford.
14
206
This decoupling and distortion of the traditional
American democratic civil-military relationship is not
only manifest in the horizontal dysfunctions of inter-
agency and civil-military coordination, it has also con-
tributed to a vertical imbalance with an overemphasis
on operations and tactics, leading to what strategist
Colin S. Gray has called a persistent strategy defcit
in the United States, pointing out that:
If you do not really function strategically, it does not
much matter how competent you are at regular, or ir-
regular, warfareyou are not going to collect the po-
litical rewards that American blood and money have
paid for.
15

Interestingly, Gray points out that the awesome
tactical power and performance of the U.S. military,
in contrast to its strategic retardation, is similar to that
seen by Germany during World War IIof course,
a nightmarish case of civil-military co-ordination
(Gleichschaltung)
16
that proved catastrophic. James R.
Locher III, principal architect of the Goldwater-Nich-
ols Act of 1986 and President of the now-defunct Proj-
ect on National Security Reform, further notes that, in
addition to having no grand strategy since the Cold
War, the United States has had no national security
strategy, either:
Yes, we have had a document that we call the Na-
tional Security Strategy. But it is a collection of goals
and objectives without any actual plans for achieving
them. The 2010 National Security Strategy is more of the
same. It is a strategic-communications documentnot
a strategy. It was even written by the Strategic Com-
munications Directorate of the National Security Staff,
not the Strategy Directorate.
17
207
The vertical disparity between policy and opera-
tions is thus very real, underscoring the connection
between the global and the local, between the strategic
and the tactical:
As military organizations expand their work into civil
governance areas, it is not only the distinction between
soldiers and civilians that blurs. It is also the social cod-
ing that military and nonmilitary agents use to describe
the military organization and its particular ethos and
rationality. As a result, it become unclear what kind
of organization the military is and what it could and
should be used for. It becomes diffcult to communi-
cate in an exact manner about military affairs.
18
THINKING GLOBALLY: UNDERSTANDING
THE CIVIL-MILITARY NEXUS AS
FUNDAMENTALLY STRATEGIC
In truth, the alignment of civil and military in-
fections of power and infuence has always been the
central challenge to anyone and everyone involved in
trying to prevent, mitigate, or manage confict and en-
force, keep, or build peace. Given the grand strategic
imperatives of the 21st century, however, this locus
has only grown in signifcance. Context being what it
is, if there is to be a paradigm shift in civil-military ap-
proachesviewed from both sidesmore in line with
the emerging Zeitgeist, then two fundamental realities
must be appreciated. First, civil-military coordination
(cooperation and operations) is inherently thinking
globally (or strategically). Second, to be both effective
and credible, civil-military coordination must be an
application of the democratic civil-military relation-
ship that is morally consistent and symmetricas
above, so below.
208
With respect to the frst insight, when looking from
the more global, human security vantage point of the
21st century, a more comprehensive and collaborative
understanding of civil-military engagement becomes
possible. As such, context takes precedence over con-
tent, partnership more than predominance, strategy
more than operations and tactics, and human more
than organizational enterprises. In the information
age, legitimacy and credibilityexpressed through
and conveyed in the narrativepreponderates.
This is no doubt especially true in the culturally
charged Muslim world, where the United States, hav-
ing broken the eggs of autocracy in Iraq, can perhaps
help Arab civil society make the omelet of self-gover-
nance, albeit in a more indirect and limited way. Ironi-
cally, a good example of the moral over the physical is
how the United States is currently paying for its less
than credible image on the Arab Street earned over
the years, especially in its inability to be an agent of
change in Egypt. In this sense, therefore, the most
important lesson of the war in Iraq is not that better
planning, operational approaches, and tactics may
have changed its outcome. Instead, the real solution
is re-thinking American grand strategy.
19
This insight
may be leading the Obama administration, for exam-
ple, to shift delivery of aid and technical assistance
through international civil society organizations, the
UN, and other partners rather than directly from U.S.
Government run programsin a sense, leading from
behind in fostering peace as it did in supporting the
war in Libya. The Middle East and North Africa In-
centive Fund proposed for Fiscal Year 2013 will also
work much this way.
It is also true, as the United States shifts its global
geopolitical priorities away from its near-obsession
209
with the Middle East and Central Asia to East Asia
and the Pacifc: When the only global power be-
comes obsessed with a single region, the entire world
is unbalanced. Imbalance remains the defning char-
acteristic of the global system today.
20
The growing
competition between American and Chinese models
in Asia-Pacifc societies and bodies politic will defne
the real, ongoing challenge there, as opposed to the
latent contingency of some kind of great showdown
between U.S. and Chinese forces. In fact, civil-military
coordination as a strategic enabler for the U.S. Pa-
cifc Command took place more than a half-dozen
years before the Obama administration. Within the
context of its theater engagement strategy, the Pacifc
Command has long been conducting civil affairs
projects to help secure basing rights and, conversely,
deny them to potential adversaries such as China.
21

The relevance of human security is most apparent
in the weak and fragile states of Africamore impor-
tant than a lower-level U.S.-Chinese competition than
in the Asia-Pacifc region. Africa, where the nation-
state is hardly the established operating organizing
principle of governance (and in some places may never
be), is where the majority of conficts, fragile and fail-
ing states are concentrated globally.
22
Particularly in
Africa, security is as much a socio-psychological issue
as it is a power political issue:
Most of todays African fghters are not rebels with a
cause; theyre predators. Thats why we see stunning
atrocities like eastern Congos rape epidemic, where
armed groups in recent years have sexually assaulted
hundreds of thousands of women, often so sadistically
that the victims are left incontinent for life. . . . Child
soldiers are an inextricable part of these movements.
The LRA, for example, never seized territory; it seized
210
children. Its ranks are flled with brainwashed boys
and girls who ransack villages and pound newborn
babies to death in wooden mortars. In Congo, as many
as one-third of all combatants are under 18. Since the
new predatory style of African warfare is motivated
and fnanced by crime, popular support is irrelevant to
these rebels. The downside to not caring about winning
hearts and minds, though, is that you dont win many
recruits. So abducting and manipulating children be-
comes the only way to sustain the organized banditry.
And children have turned out to be ideal weapons:
easily brainwashed, intensely loyal, fearless, and, most
importantly, in endless supply.
23
While the kind of human security challenges such
as youth and gender-based violence in Africa may
characterize the greatest threats to international secu-
rity, they simultaneously present the greatest oppor-
tunities for infuence and partnering on many levels
and in many ways. The development communitys
greater attention to and collaboration on these two
issues is one evidence of this.
Despite numerous advances in policy and doc-
trine, the paradigm shift in U.S. international se-
curity approaches has yet to occur. Not until changes
in policy and doctrine are refected in programs and
budgets: Dollars continue to fow overwhelmingly to
defense over diplomacy and developmentthrough-
out American involvement in Afghanistan, the vast
majority of aid went to the Afghan security forces and
not development.
24
The military, for quite under-
standable reasons, has espoused many tasks civilian
agencies have been either slow or incapable of taking
up. The truth of the matter is that, while commenta-
tors argue that a deeper merging of civil and military
objectives and capabilities has taken place, evidence
from the ground informs us that the sophisticated
211
wording of academics and policymakers (such as
concerted action, integrated approach, 3D, holistic
approach, security-development nexus) seldom fnd
their way into the concrete conduct of applied civil-
military relationsor civil-military coordination.
25

The problem with the militarization of foreign
policy and the securitization of aid, of course, is
that the U.S. militarys chief focus is security, so its
relief and development activities emphasize winning
the hearts and minds of a population, not the human-
itarian imperative of saving lives, doing no harm, and
ensuring local ownership of reconstruction efforts.
26

This largely explains the rub with humanitarian
organizations. Yet, size or assignment should not mat-
terwith the possible exception of major combat op-
erations, the Department of Defense (DoD) is not (nor
should ever be) the lead agency. Even then, beyond
Carl von Clausewitzs famous dictum that war is
merely an extension of policy by other means, strate-
gist B. H. Liddell Hart reminds us that the aim in war
is to achieve a better peace.
Yet, bad-guy baiting has long been the way
for congressional appropriation of national security
driven security assistance or foreign aid funding. U.S.
operations abroad thus remain threats-based and
command-and-control managed. They are primarily
operational and tactical in their focus, and rarely rep-
resentative of regional let alone grand strategy. It is
not only that such legacy approaches to security and
civil-military coordination are less and less effective
witness the growing realization of the ineffcacy and
ephemeral effects of winning hearts and minds
they are no longer affordable.
27
Civil-military coordi-
nation and other engines of 21st century collaboration
must be more strategic from the outset. In fact, Sol-
diers themselves must become post-modern.
28
212
The potentialities and economies of effort, cost,
and risk at all levels of the central civil-military nexus
of international engagements cannot, therefore, reach
fulfllment unless this nexus is understood from a fun-
damentally strategic perspective:
Civil-military coordination is inherently com-
prehensive and collaborative. Like strategy it-
self, it is holistic, cumulative, and convergent in
ends, ways, and means. It is best suited to man-
age the seams of power and the gaps between
organizations and processes.
Civil-military coordination inherently bridges
(state centric) whole of government with the
whole-of-society/community. It leverages all
forms of power and infections of infuence
at all levels in order to create conditions for a
transition to greater civilian lead and control
and promote self-sustained civil society. In
doing so, it keeps hard power more implied
than applied at best; or at worst, minimizes
or mitigates its costs and risks when it must
be applied.
Civil-military coordination is inherently in-
formationala human search engine that
evaluates and offers a coping mechanism for
uncertainty and complexity. As such, it helps
minimize fog and frictions existing in seams,
gaps, and transitions, as well as facilitates col-
laborative decision cyclesa key strategic and
operational advantage over competing entities.
It is synergistic, innovative, and persuasive
enabling, moderating, and balancing. It pro-
motes unity of purpose and economy of effort
while managing change, risk, and expectations.
Like Generation Flux, it draws together dis-
213
parate players across stovepipes toward a
medium of cooperation and crowd wisdom
largely through brainstorming and co-cre-
ationbut for which information transparency
and sharing is absolutely vital.
Civil-military coordination is inherently socio-
cultural. Because it is a human enterprise, it is
in essence about relationship-building, which
is how things get done in human security en-
vironments. Because it involves engagement of
the local populace, it demands cultural aware-
ness, helping the credibility and legitimacy of
the whole effort.
By enabling a more proactive use of civilian and
soft power, it elicits the military principle of of-
fense. By enabling more effective leveraging of
less costly and more sustainable civilian power
over more costly and risk-laden hard power, it
evokes the military principle of economy-of-
force (or economy of effort, cost, and risk).
Civil-military coordination is inherently an-
ticipatory (and less reactive) due to the need to
collaborate in advance in order to reach desired
common objectives or manage disparate inter-
ests. It calls for an approach more like Hall of
Famer Wayne Gretzky, who observed: A good
hockey player plays where the puck is. A great
hockey player plays where the puck is going to
be. In other words, it induces its practitioners
to think and act with greater foresight.
Applied civil-military coordination involves a
strategic, enabling style of leadership, invoking
persuasion, political bargaining, collaboration,
consensus and relationship-building. Another
way to describe the strategic leadership style
214
is leading from behindcreating conditions
for the success of others so the full menu of op-
tions may be brought to bear (and blood and
money spared). Moreover, it should emphasize
managing expectations all-around.
Finally, it is adaptive and co-creative, more
characteristic of learning organizations,
29
as it
is inherently a learning activity, constantly con-
scious of situation and environment.
In essence, civil-military coordination at its best is
a form of applied grand strategy. In other words, it
is thinking globally and acting locallyor, in military
terms, thinking strategically at the operational and
tactical levels. It is a compass, not a cookbook; a mind-
set, rather than a skill set.
30
The paradox of strategically applied civil-military
coordination is that, while it can generate transfor-
mative outcomes, the operational purpose of civil-
military coordination is not to transform the host
countryonly the host country can do that, with the
assistance of external actors, among them a foreign
military. The purpose of civil-military coordination
is more pragmaticto channel the militarys engage-
ment efforts in such a way as to maximize their im-
pacts while minimizing the commitment of military
resources, preserving them for core security tasks.
ACTING LOCALLY: THE APPLIED
CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONSHIP
AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES
In order to realize the above potentialities of civil-
military coordination, policymakers and practitioners
need to do more than think globally (or strategically).
215
Civil-military coordination in local action must, in
turn, be refective of and conducive to this strategic
conscientiousness. The focus here is thus on the na-
ture of the relationship between civil and military ele-
ments and players.
This is where one aspect of Huntingtons analysis
of the civil-military relationship is constructive:
The military institutions of any society are shaped by
two forces: a functional imperative stemming from the
threats to societys security and a societal imperative
rising from the social forces, ideologies, and institu-
tions dominant within the society. Military institutions
which refect only social values may be incapable of
performing effectively their military functions. On the
other hand, it may be impossible to contain within the
society military institutions shaped purely by func-
tional imperatives. The interaction of these two forces
is the nub of the problem of civil-military relations.
31
What we could say about the current imbalance in
terms of civil-military coordination is that there has
been too much emphasis on the functional imperative
in an era when the societal imperative is more ap-
propriate. What we could also say is that, as in civil-
military relations, strategically driven civil-military
coordination is managing the tensions between those
two imperatives. Thus, civil-military coordination in
practice (in whatever form or institutional point of ref-
erence) is mainly about two things:
First, managing the relationship and interaction
between civilian and military actors that maxi-
mizes the comparative advantages of these ac-
tors as they apply to the situation; and,
Second, enabling, shaping, and supporting the
process of transition to peace, stability, and
216
self-sustained development along civil-military
lines, with the aims of civilianizing external
assistance and localizing essential internal
public services and governance functions.
Civil-military coordination is thus frst and fore-
most a management functionspecifcally, the risk-
reward structure. As the private sector is teaching us:
What accounted for fundamental shifts in longer term
advantage was not operational-level innovation. It
wasnt technology or product innovation, or new busi-
ness models, or a new way of thinking about the whole
industry. Again and again, it was management innova-
tionbreakthroughs in how to organize and mobilize
human capabilities.
32
Given an understanding of the nub of civil-
military relations, the basic management functions
of civil-military coordination, and a more global and
strategic understanding of civil-military coordination
in an environment mostly in human security terms,
it becomes clear that civil-military coordination is
not just a matter of linking strategy and tactics, secu-
rity with development, and hard and soft power. It
is a matter of how to organize and mobilize human
capabilities.
Thus, the replication of the civil-military relation-
ship in democratic societies in operational approaches
in human security settings becomes all-important. It
demands unprecedented moral and ethical commit-
ments, in which the military is subservient to and
supportive of civilian power (to use the term in the
Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review) and
that the militarys roleas the major (but not leading)
civil-military actoris that of an enabler, especially
217
with respect to the security sector. More appropri-
ate civil-military approaches are thus an application
of Liddell Harts strategy of the indirect approach,
demonstrably placing the military in a supporting
and not supported role. They are less concerned with
winning hearts and minds, which is a tactic and not
a strategy:
The goal is not simply to be liked. It is to be more infu-
ential and therefore more effective at lower cost. In a world
where foreign public opinion has ever greater impact
on the success or failure of vital American national
interests, it should be weighed in making policy deci-
sions and should shape how the United States pursues
its policies and how U.S. leaders talk about American
policies. Listening, understanding and engaging makes
for better policy, helps to avoid unnecessary conficts,
and should ideally allow policymakers to foresee and
pre-empt objections to policies that sound worse in the
feld than they do in Washington.
33
More democratic civil-military approaches have
currency and effect on the narrative not because of
their direct appeal to democracy per se, but because
they resonate with more universal values, such as
those encoded in the 1948 Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, that lead to democracy. Even in hard
power terms, it appears to be no coincidence that
democracies are unusually successful in war. The
reasons for this seem to be superior human capital,
more harmonious civil-military relations, and West-
ern cultural values and normsonce again, invoking
Napoleons dictum.
34
Civilian control of the military is inclusive within
and not exclusive from civil societysomething very
much taken for granted in the United States but yet
218
far from a given in most developing countries. Yet,
civilian control means more than the absence of a
military coup. As long as the military possesses au-
tonomous decisionmaking power, the democratically
elected authorities power to govern and the quality
of democracy remain limited.
35
Harmonized with the
democratic civil-military relationship, civil-military
coordination as explained in this chapter is an appli-
cation of democratic values, a way to an end and not
an end in itself. More importantly, it helps to close the
say-do gap that has bedeviled especially American
applied foreign and national security policy for de-
cades. It also reduces the image of U.S. domination
and strong-arming and facilitates internationalizing
the overall effort, thus giving it greater cumulative
power, persuasiveness, and infuence and making it
much more diffcult to counter. Moreover, it helps
promote a democratic culture in general in which the
military itself becomes a civil society organization:
Democratic military professionals do not pursue their
responsibilities to the state in isolation. They are part
of a broader national security community comprised
of national security professionals from both the civilian
and military spheres, other actors such as journalists
and academics who contribute intellectual capital and
foster debate, legislative bodies with constitutional re-
sponsibilities to oversee and provide resources for na-
tional security policy, and, fnally, the public at large
to whom all of the above are ultimately responsible.
36
Whether for us or them, the full integration of the
military in civil society, and refexively its integra-
tion into the engagement of that society, including its
government institutions and the private sectorwith
the all-important caveat of the primacy of civilian
219
authoritywill ensure that the civilianization of se-
curity occurs more than the militarization of aid and
development. The idea of third-generation civil-
military coordination is intriguing, and deserves fur-
ther examination. The Focused District Development
(FDD) program in Afghanistan, as an example of this
approach, is certainly more collaborative, partnering,
and broadens the civil-military relationship contact
face to local governance and political authorities.
However, the FDD is a military-driven police men-
toring program.
37
Thus, precisely because the distinc-
tion between military and civilian work practically
vanishes under this concept, the supreme qualifer of
civil authority becomes even more vital:
If militaries are to be mobilized to assist in addressing
the challenges facing much of Africa, the clear expecta-
tions need to be established and safeguards need to be
put in place. . . . Trust can only be built if the military
communicates effectively and regularly with the popu-
lation. . . . In pursuing this mobilization goal, the essen-
tial element that helps ensure success is maintaining
civilian oversight of the military and its projects. Do-
ing so begins with clearly defning the militarys new
role as temporary and supplemental to the public and
private sectors. Projects should be designed in such a
way that it is always clear that the military is not tak-
ing over or dominating but rather is assisting the other
sectors and alleviating the pressure being placed upon
them. . . . The circumstances in which the military can
be mobilized to deal with nontraditional security con-
cerns need to be clearly outlined in the states national
security policies and in law.
38
Although a more democratic approach to civil-mil-
itary coordination has yet to be socialized across the
board, there are numerous examples of exceptional
220
best practices, including the authors own experience
as Chief of Civil-Military Coordination for the UN
Mission in Liberia:
. . . the CIMIC [civil-military coordination] intent in Li-
beria has been to use the capabilities of the Force to . . .
enable and multiply civilian initiatives, and conducted
in coordination with the UNMIL [United Nations Mis-
sion in Liberia] civil component (jointly) and UN agen-
cies as well as NGOs and the GoL (collaboratively).
This entails a more indirect role for military assets
more clearly in support of civilian agencies and leading
less from the front and more from behind the UNMIL
civil component, UN agencies, and the GoL, aligned
with them and their frameworks and benchmarks, in
order to promote local ownership of civil administra-
tion and essential public services responsibilities, and
to help build civil authority and public confdence. To
de-emphasize winning hearts and minds, the moni-
ker for UNMIL CIMIC became: its not about us; its
about them.
39
Like good aid workers, good practitioners of civil-
military coordination engage in an enabling process
of helping their civilian partners build local capacity
as well as confdenceteaching locals how to fsh
rather than simply giving them a fsh. As a former
Commander of the NATO International Security As-
sistance Force in Afghanistan stated: At the end of
the day, its not about their embrace of us, its not
about us winning hearts and minds; its about the Af-
ghan government winning hearts and minds.
40
Put
another way:
Military involvement in aid is driven in part by the
winning hearts and minds (WHAM) theory. This
operates on the basis of a charity paradigm, which
sees benefciaries as the deserving poor, and provides
221
handouts and services while ignoring the complexity
of the local context, and the unintended consequences
of injecting resources into confict-affected communi-
ties. NGOs have been working for many years to erase
the handout mentality, emphasizing the importance
of ownership, involvement and empowerment of
benefciaries.
41
The visualization of this more strategic, indirect,
and democratic approach to civil-military coordina-
tion, as applied in Liberia, is depicted in Figure 8-1.
The idea is to work the military out of a job by provid-
ing its stabilization efforts increasingly through civil-
ian and local entities in an enabling process.
Figure 8-1. Civil-Military Echelons of Assistance.
Another important aspect of this approach is that,
in order to facilitate the end state depicted in Figure
8-1, the military must adopt the rule sets, ways, mea-
sures, and means of the civilians it is supporting. An-
other CIMIC aphorism used at UNMIL: Their game
plan is our game plan.
While this model was designed originally with
transitional civil-military coordination (the second
major management function of civil-military coordi-
nation) in mind, the principles of civilianizing ex-
222
ternal assistance and localizing essential internal
public services and governance functions by gradu-
ally placing the military to the rear of the assistance
chain (behind civil society organizations and local
government structures) and taking on an increasingly
indirect and enabling role do not apply just to post-
confict transition management. Indeed, it could apply
to confict prevention and building partner capacity
efforts such as in the Horn of Africa and the Trans-
Sahel. U.S. involvement, for example, in low-level
counterinsurgency operations in the Philippines after
9/11 eventually took the approach of following local
lead in civil action programs. Filipino doctors, den-
tists and veterinarians come in to provide free care. Of
utmost importance . . . is putting a Filipino face on all
these operations.
42

Perhaps even more illustrative of the shifting para-
digm is the U.S. civil-military response to the earth-
quake in Haiti, where the military clearly played a
supporting role, and the U.S. Government sought to
work within multilateral frameworks rather than ex-
pend the resources to create a parallel structure, exem-
plifying a prepositional term that has gained currency
among U.S. civil affairs and other special operations
personnelby, with, and through:
Early on, the United States decided not to create a
combined Joint task force. With the UN already on
the ground, a robust multinational force was in place.
In addition, MINUSTAH countries contribut ing ad-
ditional resources and personnel already had links to
their local UN representatives. Creating a combined
Joint task force would have conficted with those ef-
forts. Instead, Joint Task Force-Haiti deployed to con-
duct humanitarian assistance and disaster response
operations. The purpose of Joint Task Force-Haiti was
223
to support U.S. efforts in Haiti to mitigate near-term
human suffering and accelerate relief efforts to facili-
tate transition to the Government of Haiti, the UN, and
USAID. The military possesses signifcant capabilities
that are useful in emergencies, but long-term plans for
relief and reconstruction are best left to nonmilitary
government agencies.
43
As mentioned earlier, however, the paradigm has
not yet shifted for everyone. From its inception, AFRI-
COM has been beset with problems of credibility on
the continent, due largely to the say-do gap of an es-
sentially military organizationa regional combatant
commandthat originally tried to look and act like a
whole-of-government organization.
The new U.S Africa Command was created with the
intention of a more deliberate (rather than ad hoc) civil-
military and interagency teaming approachfrom the
top down, and with a much heavier civilian content
and lead, and thus with more soft than hard power
at play, than in other combatant commands. . . . The
real problem, however, at AFRICOM is that, despite its
large civilian component, it still largely serves military
missions (in particular, counterterrorism) rather than
vice-versaat least on the ground. This conficts with
AFRICOMs central message. By and large, the mili-
tary staff there defnes security requirements. This is
one of the reasons why AFRICOM has had such great
diffculty in gaining credibility and acceptance in Af-
ricathe greatest evidence for which is that it is still
headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. This is a strate-
gic and not an operational issue.
44
Indeed, focusing more on the democratic civil-
military relationship as an operational application,
not only in terms of security and defense sector re-
form and partnership capacity development but also
224
under the rubric of the country team, can only im-
prove the strategic effectiveness of comprehensive
engagement as defned in the 2010 National Security
Strategy. This is because by walking the talk, closing
the say-do gap, and leading through civilian power,
U.S. civil-military practitioners would then be doing
abroad what they do at home, clearly connecting strat-
egy with operations and the whole-of-society with the
whole of government.
It does more than this. With respect to build-
ing partnership capacity, demonstrating the demo-
cratic civil-military relationship helps address the
concern expressed by former Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates admonition that, beyond the tradi-
tional national security centric tendency to focus al-
most exclusively on operational development of the
armed forces:
. . . there has not been enough attention paid to build-
ing the institutional capacity (such as defense minis-
tries) or the human capital (including leadership skills
and attitudes) needed to sustain security over the
long term.
45
In Liberia, for example, the Offce of Security Co-
operation is synchronizing AFRICOMs Operation
ONWARD LIBERTY program designed to enhance
military institutional leadership and DoDs Defense
Institution Reform Initiative (DIRI, similar to the Min-
istry of Defense Advisory program in Afghanistan)
to build capacity among the Ministry of Defense staff
providing civilian oversight. This kind of applied
foresight and synchronization of stovepipes, how-
ever, was more the result of personalities than policies
or programs.
Systemically, U.S security assistance efforts in
places like the Horn of Africa and particularly the
225
Trans-Sahel, are based on a counterterrorism model
the coup in Mali being only the latest example of a
problematic approach to U.S. security sector reform
focused almost entirely on operational rather than
institutional capacity building and with almost total
disregard of the civil-military relationship:
. . . something is very wrong about the U.S. approach to
counterterrorism cooperation in the Sahel. . . . Indeed.
The two-pronged military-civilian strategy has been to
(a) build security capacity of the Malian and other re-
gional militaries to control territory and fght terrorists
and (b) take steps to prevent the spread of violent ex-
tremism. . . . Unfortunately, the early signs arent good
that the USG really recognizes the scale of the problem.
. . . If we really believe that fghting terrorism in Africa
is in our national interest, then the disaster still unfold-
ing in Mali begs for an honest and aggressive rethink-
ing of both the what and the how.
46
Another outcome of a more democratic approach
to civil-military coordination is that it tends to go far
to mitigate the nettlesome strains from military force
employment of humanitarian methods to win hearts
and minds in the face of the NGO claim of exclusivity
in humanitarianism. Such a civil-military approach is
inherently more supportive of the efforts of these or-
ganizations, which are more appropriate for humani-
tarian and nation-building tasks formerly performed
by military organizations, at least in U.S. experience.
On the other hand, civil society organizations must,
in turn, recognize that military organizations, for bet-
ter or worse, are themselves extensions of civil soci-
ety and thus have a role in making peace, albeit more
indirect than direct. More pragmatically, it facilitates
an eventual relationship with indigenous military,
226
paramilitary, and police forces and encourages them
to maintain an appropriate balance between Hunting-
tons imperatives in their own security sector, having
seen that example in foreign forces. Beyond helping
external militaries work their jobs, it helps achieve a
more sustainable security sector reform process and a
more secure and stable environment for both the civil
society organizations and the emerging government
institutions long after those forces leave.
Thus, both kinds of entities need to employ a qual-
itative blend of realism and idealism, respecting and
accommodating, as best as possible, particular prin-
ciples and equities. This can only come through estab-
lishing relationships, dialogue, and even rule-sets for
operational civil-military interaction in order to learn
about comparative advantages as well as limitations:
CSOs generally take a long-term, relationship-based
approach to develop ment. Because of security, politi-
cal and economic pressures, U.S. government and mili-
tary offcials often attempt shorter-term, quick-impact
development. The challenge is to design short-term
programming that contributes toward long-term goals
and to design long-term programming that supports
short-term objectives. Addressing the contradictions
in time frames requires more extensive discussion be-
tween CSOs and ISAF policymakers.
47
Another insight thus comes into playwhat you
do in the steady state (strategically) cultivates the
capital you draw upon for crisis response or in the
feld in general (operationally). It is mainly because,
in the 21st century security and development engage-
ment environment, relationships, and infuence mat-
ter more than throwing weight. This critical strategic
and operational capitalbenefcial to both sidesis,
227
at best, diffcult to obtain once the operation begins.
This is a common, yet still underappreciated, lesson.
AMERICAN LEADERSHIP
All of this is actually good news for the United
States. Despite the incongruities of its overwhelm-
ing national security, hard-power psychology, the
United States, whose foundation of strength in its
national ethos of e pluribus unum has been always
morally based, is still the most ideally suited lead
nation. Its dynamic, multicultural civil society and
its democratic national values represent tremendous
social capital. The democratic civil-military ethos of
the United States is most clearly depicted in a symbol
more than 2 centuries oldnamely, the obverse of the
Great Seal of the United States. The state, symbolized
by the eagle, aspires for peace and civil society, look-
ing in the direction of the olive branches in one talon
while holding the arrows of war in reserve (or sup-
port) in the other. The Great Seal elegantly illustrates
the alignment and application of these civil-military
priorities. (See Figure 2.)
More concretely, for example, the United States
possesses a unique comparative advantage, as it is al-
ready demonstrating in isolated cases, in assisting for-
eign governments and militaries in improving civil-
military linkages and mechanisms, at all levels, due to
its own program equities in areas like civil affairs. The
problem is that these equities are not consistently ar-
rayed in a comprehensive and coordinated way, in ac-
cordance with the realities of the 21st century and the
need to fnd more democratic balance in Huntingtons
imperatives as applied overseas.
228
Figure 8-2. Great Seal of the United States.
Besides addressing the sheer imbalances in budgets
and authorities, civilianizing security, demilitariz-
ing foreign policy and developmentalizing foreign
aid, there are other areas to address. There are no ci-
vilian counterparts, for example, to the geographic
combatant commander at the Department of State or
the U.S. Agency for International Development, let
alone a counterpart regional coordination entity, that
would go far to facilitating a more comprehensive,
civilian-led U.S. strategy in the geographic regions of
the world.
48

Civil affairsthe only true civil-military coordina-
tion entity in the U.S. Government, going back over
a century, has evolved from military government,
which is a suspensionnot an extensionof democ-
racy. Civil affairs must also transform from recent
bad guy centric counterinsurgency and counter-
terrorism and become more strategic than tactical,
with greater steady state linkages to and operational
partnering with, for example, the State Departments
Bureau of Confict and Stabilization Operations, from
which civil affairs should take greater strategic direc-
229
tion. In yet another example, there should be a more
strategically-driven synchronization of programs such
as DoDs DIRI program and the State Departments
Global Peace Operations Initiative and Africa Contin-
gency Operations Training & Assistance program in
order to build partnership civil-military teaming ca-
pacity and confdence in the civil-military relationship
in democratic societies.
There are many more changes to mention. More-
over, their scope and extensiveness spell implications
for U.S. foreign policy and national security are pro-
found and far-reaching. This runs not just from Wash-
ington to the feld, but from the feld to Washington.
Locher remarks that:
We have always been able to win ugly by throwing
money at a problem, but that is no longer the case. We
have lost our margin for error and we are headed for
a decade of austerity, when even great programs are
being killed. The times call for a national security sys-
tem that is effective, effcient, participatory and agile.
Unfortunately, we dont have itwe have the oppo-
site of that, a system that is archaic, designed 63 years
ago, that still clings to Cold War concepts. At PNSR, we
have a saying, How can we secure our childrens fu-
ture with our grandparents government? We are not
going to win the future with that government.
49
There is greater impetus for this kind of transfor-
mation not only from the strategic imperatives ob-
served abroad, but from the American people them-
selves. In a remarkable study conducted by the Fund
for Peace, involving scores of town hall type meetings
around the United States held over a 2-year period, a
major conclusion was that, while Americans still ex-
pected the United States to maintain its global leader-
230
ship role, It leads best when its true to its values and
when it works with others. Additionally:
. . . there was remarkable consistency that America
must lead in the worldbut it leads most effectively
when it walks the talk, i.e., adheres to its own stated
principles. . . . Americas ideals impel it to lead in the
world, and the world looks to America to play that
role. But how America leads is as important as whether
it leads. . . . Reorienting American policy priorities not
only would enhance U.S. global leadership, but was
seen as yielding lasting infuence. . . . America was a
stronger nation when it listened to people, and indeed,
could learn from different countries, cultures, and ex-
periences. . . . Finally, there was signifcant discussion
in most forums about the differences between Ameri-
can power and national strengths. Many participants
associated the former with an emphasis on coercive
behavior in the world, while they viewed the latter as
concerning principles and values, such as democracy,
liberty, and tolerance. While coercive means might
be necessary in some cases, an over-reliance on them
was seen as counterproductive and even disastrous;
whereas pursuing policies on the basis of the nations
strengths was seen as the most effective way to pro-
duce lasting infuence in the world. In addition, people
viewed a predominantly coercive approach as out of
touch with new global realities.
50
While the perils of the 21st century are coming
more or less on their own, the promises emerging
from the same paradigm are not as such. This calls for
greater, not less, American international leadership,
for no other nation is better suited to exploit and lead
this transformation.
There was nothing inevitable about the world that was
created after World War II. No divine providence or
unfolding Hegelian dialectic required the triumph of
231
democracy and capitalism, and there is no guarantee
that their success will outlast the powerful nations
that have fought for them. Democratic progress and
liberal economics have been and can be reversed and
undone. The ancient democracies of Greece and the
republics of Rome and Venice all fell to more power-
ful forces or through their own failings. The evolving
liberal economic order of Europe collapsed in the 1920s
and 1930s. The better idea doesnt have to win just
because it is a better idea. It requires great powers to
champion it.
51
The qualitative difference between then and now,
however, is that real leadership is not dominance.
52

Every military offcer learns that the most effective,
persuasive, and durable form of leadership is by ex-
amplewhether from the front or behind. This is as
true for nations as it is for individuals. Practicing at
home what you preach abroad is a demonstration that
what matters over there also matters over here, as
Harry S. Truman observed in his message to Congress
that launched the civil rights movement, in which he
concluded:
If we wish to inspire the peoples of the world whose
freedom is in jeopardy, if we wish to restore hope to
those who have already lost their civil liberties, if we
wish to fulfll the promise that is ours, we must correct
the remaining imperfections in our practice of democ-
racy. We know the way. We need only the will.
53
When Americans think globally and act locally,
making their actions consonant with their core values
and embracing a new ethos of collaborative engage-
ment, in view of adversaries and partners alike, they
transform both their environment and themselves. A
more enlightened approach to civil-military coordina-
232
tion is not a tradeoff between idealism and realism, it
is a fusion of both. It is a fusion of art and science that
combines practical critical thinking with an imagina-
tive synthesis of the most appropriate methods. It is
at the heart of American grand strategy for the 21st
century. Failure to recognize this risks further deterio-
ration of American global leadership and the security
and prosperity that comes with it.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 8
1. For a more detailed discussion, see Christopher Holshek,
Lessons of Iraq and AfghanistanLooking from Outside the
Box, Volker C. Franke and Robert H. Robin Dorff. eds., Con-
fict Management and "Whole of Government": Useful Tools for U.S.
National Security Strategy? Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute,
U.S. Army War College, 2012, pp. 275-305; also see Christopher
Holshek, From Afghanistan to Africa: Civil-Military Teaming in
a Whole New World, Jon Gunderson and Melanne Civic, eds.,
Unity of Mission: Civilian-Military Teams in Complex Operations,
Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, forthcoming.
2. The author uses the term civil-military coordination not
as an operational or doctrinal term, but rather in a much larger,
grand strategic sense that includes the coordination of civilian-
based and military power and infuence at the strategic, opera-
tional, and tactical levels.
3. The United Nations Development Programmes 1994 Hu-
man Development Report is considered a cornerstone publication
for defning human security as including economic security,
food security, health security, environmental security, personal
security, community security, and political security as its main
componentsprecisely how most underdeveloped nations, par-
ticularly in Africa, defne security for them writ large. See Mah-
bub ul Haq et al., Human Development Report 1994, United Nations
Development Programme, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.
4. Mahbub ul Haq.
233
5. For a detailed explanation, see Lisa Schirch, Where Does
Whole of Government Meet Whole of Society? Franke and Dorff,
eds., Confict Management, pp. 127-152.
6. Fareed Zakaria, Fareeds Take: U.S. has made war on ter-
ror a war without end, CNN GPS, May 6, 2012, available from
globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/06/national-security-state/.
7. David Rothkopf, The Enemy Within, Foreign Policy,
May-June 2012, available from www.foreignpolicy.com/ar-
ticles/2012/04/23/the_enemy_within_0; accessed 1 May 2012.
See also Christopher Holshek, The Enemies We Love, The Huff-
ington Post, 4 May 2012, available from www.huffngtonpost.com/
christopher-holshek/defense-spending_b_1472725.html.
8. Richard H. Kohn, The Constitution and National Security:
The Intent of the Framers, Richard H. Kohn, ed., The United States
Military Under the Constitution of the United States, New York, New
York University Press, 1991, p. 87.
9. Marybeth Peterson-Ulrich, Infusing Normative Civil-Mili-
tary Relations Principles in the Offcer Corps, Don M. Snider and
Lloyd J. Matthews, eds., The Future of the Army Profession, 2nd Ed.,
New York: McGraw Hill, 2005, p. 655.
10. Robert D. Kaplan, Looking the World in the Eye, Atlantic
Monthly, December 2001, pp. 70-72 (interview with Huntington).
Huntington published The Soldier and the State while an assistant
professor of government at Harvard. The book was initially dis-
missed as propagandist by skeptical academics, and so infuriated
his colleagues that they voted to deny him tenure 2 years later.
Forced to leave, he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago.
In 1962, Harvard realized its mistake and lured him back as a full
professor. Students on campus staged protests during his classes,
so his graduate students organized details to patrol the halls so
lectures could proceed. Huntington continued teaching at Har-
vard for the next 4 decades, twice chairing the same department
that once rejected him.
11. Suzanne C. Nielson and Don M. Snider, eds., American
Civil-Military Relations: The Soldier and the State in a New Era, Balti-
more, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, p. 387.
234
12. Suzanne C. Nielson, American CivilMilitary Relations
Today: The Continuing Relevance of Samuel P. Huntingtons The
Soldier and the State, International Affairs, Vol. 88, No. 2, 2012, pp.
372-373.
13. Barack Obama, The 2012 State of the Union, January 25,
2012, available from www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-theunion-2012.
14. Christopher Holshek, National Service Day, The Huffng-
ton Post, November 11, 2011, available from www.huffngtonpost.
com/christopher-holshek/national-service-day_b_1086206.html. For a
discussion of the democratization of both sacrifce and service, see
also Christopher Holshek, Standing Up for All the Fallen, The
Huffngton Post, May 25, 2012, available from www.huffngtonpost.
com/christopher-holshek/memorial-day_b_1538896.html.
15. Colin S. Gray, Irregular Enemies and the Essence of Strategy:
Can the American Way of War Adapt? Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies
Institute, U.S. Army War College, March 2006, p. 5.
16. The German term, Gleichschaltung, or co-ordination,
refers specifcally to the Nazis systematic co-opting of the major
institutions of German society, among them the military, into the
expanded German state in the 1930s. The case of the military, the
politicization of its leadership, and the swearing of allegiance to
Adolf Hitler rather than the nation characterize the logical con-
clusion of a process, begun in the 1920s, of the metamorphosis of
a highly professionalized military into what was more famously
known as a state within a state.
17. See Richard Weitzs blog on Lochers April 11, 2012, key-
note presentation at the U.S. Army War College annual strategy
conference, in The U.S. Strategy Defcit: The Dominance of Po-
litical Messaging, Second Line of Defense, available from www.
sldinfo.com/the-u-s-strategy-%E2%80%9Cdefcit%E2%80%9D-the-
dominance-of-political-messaging/. Quote obtained from Mr. Lo-
chers personal notes for his April 11, 2012, presentation provided
to the author.
18. Frederik Rosen, Third-generation Civil-Military Rela-
tions: Moving Beyond the Security-Development Nexus, Prism,
Vol. 2, No. 1, December 2010, p. 28.
235
19. Stephen M. Walt, Top 10 Lessons of the Iraq War, For-
eign Policy, March 12, 2012, available from www.foreignpolicy.com/
articles/2012/03/20/top_ten_lessons_of_the_iraq_war?page=full.
20. George Friedman, The State of the World: A Framework,
STRATFOR, February 21, 2012, available from www.stratfor.com/
weekly/state-world-framework.
21. Robert D. Kaplan, How We Would Fight China, The
Atlantic Monthly, June 2005, available from www.theatlantic.com/
magazine/archive/2005/06/how-we-would-fght-china/.
22. Human Security Report 2009/2010: The Causes of Peace and
The Shrinking Costs of War, Human Security Report Project, avail-
able from www.hsrgroup.org/human-security-reports/20092010/over-
view.aspx.
23. Jeffrey Gettlemen, Africas Forever Wars, Foreign Pol-
icy, March-April 2010, available from www.foreignpolicy.com/ar-
ticles/2010/02/22/africas_forever_wars.
24. Anthony H. Cordesman, The US Cost of the Afghan War:
FY2002-FY2013, Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and Inter-
national Studies, May 15, 2012, available from csis.org/publication/
us-cost-afghan-war-fy2002-fy2013?utm_source=The+US+Cost+of+th
e+Afghan+War%3A+FY2002-FY2013&utm_campaign=The+US+Co
st+of+the+Afghan+War%3A+FY2002-FY2013&utm_medium=email.
25. Rosen, p. 31.
26. Samuel A. Worthington, Exporting Security: Interna-
tional Engagement, Security Cooperation, and the Changing Face
of the U.S. Military, Book Review, Prism, Vol. 2 No. 1, January
2010, p. 167.
27. See Holshek, Lessons of Iraq and AfghanistanLook-
ing from Outside the Box and From Afghanistan to Africa.
See also Paul Fishbein and Andrew Wilder, Winning Hearts and
Minds? Examining the Relationship between Aid and Security in Af-
ghanistan, Medford, MA: Feinstein International Center, Tufts
University, January 2012; as well as Mark Bradbury and Michael
236
Kleinman, Winning Hearts and Minds? Examining the Relationship
between Aid and Security in Kenya, Medford, MA: Feinstein Inter-
national Center, April 2010.
28. For a detailed discussion of the idea of a postmodern mil-
itary whose soldiers are more internationalized and civil-mili-
tary minded, see C. C. Moskos, J. A. Williams, and D. R. Segal, The
Postmodern Military, New York, Oxford University Press, 2000.
29. For a greater understanding of the term learning or-
ganization in application, for a military perspective with re-
spect to counterinsurgency operations, see John A. Nagl, Learn-
ing to Eat Soup with a Knife, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press, 2005; for a civilian bureaucratic perspective, see Thorsten
Benner, Stephan Mergenthaler, and Philipp Rotmann, The Evolu-
tion of Organization Learning in UN Peace Operations Bureaucracy,
Berlin, Germany: Global Public Policy Institute, 2011,
available from www.bundesstiftung-friedensforschung.de/pdf-docs/
berichtbenner2.pdf.
30. For a more detailed discussion of the strategic nature
of civil affairs and civil-military operations, see Christopher
Holshek, Civil-Military Power and the Future of Civil Affairs,
Reserve Offcer Association National Security Report, The Offcer,
May 2007, pp. 45-48. The full version, based on a U.S. Army War
College Strategic Research Project, appeared as The Scroll and
the Sword: Synergizing Civil-Military Power, Cornwallis Group
XI: Analysis for Civil-Military Transitions, Nova Scotia, Canada:
George Mason UniversityPearson Peacekeeping Center, 2007.
31. Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State, Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard Press, 1985, p. 2.
32. Gary Hamel, Management Must Be Reinvented,
World Innovation Forum 2008, available from www.youtube.com/
watch?v=TVX8XhiR1UY.
33. Kristin M. Lord and Marc Lynch, Americas Extended
HandAssessing the Obama Administrations Global Engagement
Strategy, Washington, DC: Center for a New American Security,
June 2010, pp. 10-12, 16.
237
34. Stephen Biddle and Stephen Long, Democracy and
Military Effectiveness: A Deeper Look, The Journal of Confict
Resolution, August 2004, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 525-546.
35. Aurel Croissant, David Kuehn, and Philip Lorenz, Break-
ing with the Past? Civil-Military Relations in the Emerging De-
mocracies of East Asia, Policy Studies Vol. 63, Honolulu, HI: East-
West Center, 2012, p. ix.
36. Peterson-Ulrich, p. 656.
37. Rosen, p. 33.
38. Birame Diop, Sub-Saharan African Military and Devel-
opment Activities, Prism, Vol. 3, No. 1, December 2011, p. 94.
39. Christopher Holshek, Civil-Military Coordination and
Transition Management: The UNMIL Experience, Confict Trends,
Issue 3/2011, September 2011, p. 47. The quotes are from the UN-
MIL Force HQ CIMIC Force Directive for the Conduct of CIMIC
by the UNMIL Force for the Drawdown Phase, Version 2, June 15,
2009, p. 6, which the author wrote while serving as UNMIL Chief
of CIMIC in 2008-09.
40. General David Petraeus, transcript of interview with
David Gregory on NBCs Meet the Press, August 15, 2010,
available from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38686033/ns/meet_the_press-
transcripts/.
41. Sippi Azarbaijani-Moghaddam, Mirwais Wardak, Idrees
Zaman, and Annabel Taylor, Afghan Hearts, Afghan Minds: Explor-
ing Afghan Perceptions of Civil-Military Relations, London, UK: Brit-
ish and Irish Afghanistan Agencies Group (BAAG) and European
Network of NGOs in Afghanistan (ENNA), 2008, p. 7.
42. Stew Magnuson, U.S. Special Forces Target Hearts and
Minds, National Defense, February 2008, available from www.
nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2008/February/Pages/U2357.
S2357.Special2357.aspx.
43. Lieutenant General P. K. Keen, Major General Floriano
Peixoto Vieira Neto, Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Nolan, Lieu-
238
tenant Colonel Jennifer L. Kim mey, and Commander Joseph Alt-
house, Relationships MatterHumanitarian Assistance and Di-
saster Relief in Haiti, Military Review, May-June 2010, p. 8.
44. Holshek, From Afghanistan to Africa.
45. Robert M. Gates, Helping Others Defend Themselves:
The Future of U.S. Security Assistance, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 89,
No. 3, May-June 2010.
46. Todd Moss, Lessons from Malis Debacle: Time to Re-
think Counterterrorism Cooperation, Rethinking U.S. Foreign
Assistance Blog, Washington, DC: Center for Global Development,
May 10, 2012, available from blogs.cgdev.org/mca-monitor/2012/05/
lesson-from-malis-debacle-time-to-rethink-counterterrorism-
cooperation.php.
47. Lisa Schirch, The Civil Society-Military Relationship in
Afghanistan, Peacebrief, Vol. 58, Washington, DC: United States
Institute of Peace, September 24, 2010, p. 4.
48. See Retired Ambassador Edward Marks, A Next Gener-
ation Department of StateA Proposal for the Consolidation of
the Management of Foreign Affairs, American Diplomacy, March
2010, available from www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2010/0103/
oped/op_marks.html.
49. James R. Locher III, quoted in Kathryn Boughton, Na-
tional Security Expert Who Spoke in Kent Says bin Laden Out-
come the Exception; National Security System Flawed, Litchfeld
Country Times, May 2, 2011, available from www.countytimes.com/
articles/2011/05/02/news/doc4dbf1e831ef1e702049372.
50. Will Ferroggiaro, The Use & Purpose of American Power in
the 21st CenturyPerspectives of Americans from the 2008-2009 Na-
tional Dialogue Forums, Washington, DC: The Fund for Peace, June
2010, pp, 15-16, 32.
51. Robert Kagan, Why the World Needs America, The
Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2012, available from online.wsj.
com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577213262856669448.
html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories.
239
52. Christopher Holshek, Over There Matters Over Here,
The Huffngton Post, March 22, 2012, available from www.huffng-
tonpost.com/christopher-holshek/us-super-power_b_1362816.html.
53. Harry. S. Truman, Special Message to the Congress on
Civil Rights, February 2, 1948, Independence, MO: Harry S. Tru-
man Library and Museum, available from www.trumanlibrary.org/
publicpapers/index.php?pid=1380&st=&st1.
241
CHAPTER 9
PEACEBUILDING AND DEVELOPMENT:
CHALLENGES FOR STRATEGIC THINKING
Fouzieh Melanie Alamir
PROBLEM STATEMENT
It has become commonplace in the international
strategic discourse to underline the importance of de-
velopment aspects in international confict and crisis
management. This has been promoted by concepts
such as Human Security,
1
the Whole-of-Government
Approach (WoG),
2
or the Comprehensive Approach
(CA),
3
and most recently refected in the U.S. National
Security Strategy of 2010.
4
Going back to the main-
stream of U.S. national security thinking during the
Cold War in terms of instruments of power (diplo-
macy, information, military, and economy [DIME]),
5
the latter two concepts implicitly presume that mili-
tary strategic thinking can be utilized as a generic
method to achieving broader policy goals. They imply
that the comprehensive set of civilian and military in-
struments at the disposal of a nation-state can be em-
ployed in the same manner as military instruments.
Development policy instruments in this context tend
to be regarded as a lever, which can simply be added
to the list of the other instruments of national power.
All too smoothly, development policy domains such
as the fght against poverty, promotion of human
rights, good governance, democratization, or capac-
ity building, have been lined up with security policy
felds of action such as anti-terrorism, nonprolifera-
tion, or cyber security without refecting whether the
242
character and principles of development policy can be
simply subsumed under this header.
It goes without saying today that peacebuilding ef-
forts and development policy should be key elements
of an up to date grand strategy. The question remains
however, whether the approaches and cognitive prem-
ises of strategic thinking
6
are capable of capturing and
embracing the characteristics of peacebuilding and
development as policy domains sui generis.
This chapter argues that peacebuilding and devel-
opment policy elude traditional presumptions and
patterns of strategic thinking in numerous ways and
analyzes why. Following a brief sketch of the cogni-
tive premises of modern strategic thought, I will dis-
cuss how strategic thinking is challenged by several
distinctive features of peacebuilding and develop-
ment processes. The concluding section summarizes
the fndings with regard to adjustments required by
strategic thinking.
COGNITIVE PREMISES OF MODERN
STRATEGIC THOUGHT
7
Although the logical structure of strategic thinking
does not differ from other logical social science con-
structs, it is largely shaped by the professional self-
conception, premises, and operational requirements
of military actors. The point of departure of strategic
thinking is the nation-state and its national security
interests defned in predominantly realist terms of
balance of power, territorial integrity, sovereignty,
protection of the political and economic order, and
availability of human and natural resources as prereq-
uisites of sustained existence. Seen from this status-
quo oriented and state-centric perspective, the strate-
243
gic environment tends to be captured in elementary
categories of risks, threats, power structure, allies, or
adversaries. This neglects the complexity, dynamics,
inconsistency, and ambivalence of social and political
challenges relevant in peacebuilding and develop-
ment contexts. However, scholars of strategic studies
often stress that military power is but one means to
achieve political ends and howsoever sophisticated
and differentiated the categorical grid of assessing
strategic environments, the major interpretation pat-
tern in strategic thinking for locating phenomena in
the strategic environment remains the power balance
and risk-threat scheme.
8

Moreover, derived from military professional self-
conceptions, the major point of reference of strategic
thinking is the question of whether and what action is
required. This action orientation implies another key
characteristic of strategic thinking, namely the prem-
ise of unlimited feasibility as long asgiven political
determinationit is technically and physically fea-
sible. This, in turn, compounds a focus on those phe-
nomena, which can be infuenced by the given means
and instruments, at the expense of those that cannot be
immediately infuenced or are not fully understood.
In addition, it abets a widespread but false conclu-
sion that those with high operational skills must also
be good strategists, or, in other words, that strategy
development can be handled in the same manner as
operational management.
Another feature of strategic thinking that has been
assigned by military thinking is the general conf-
dence in instrumental rationality. It disregards the
relevance of irrational elements in politics, is inclined
to take political decisions for granted, and focuses on
how to implement them rather than to question their
244
wisdom. In the same vein, strategic thinking depends
on clear goal formulation in order to derive strategy-
driven action, even if the exact goals are not known.
In consequence, blurred ends tend to be substituted
by a focus on ways and means. A good example to
demonstrate this is the prominence of the WoG/CA
debate. While WoG/CA are useful concepts to im-
prove how we implement policies, they do not refect
whether we are pursuing the right goals. However,
both concepts have gained the status of almost strate-
gic paradigms, indicating, in fact, a roll back of strate-
gic thinking.
9
Furthermore, it is the militarys need for
hierarchy, predictability, order, simplicity, precision,
and sequenceall derived from military operational
requirementsthat can be traced in strategic thinking,
too. The military approach to compartmentalize pro-
cesses and to break the processes down to hierarchical
command and control patterns can also be found in
the engineering mindset of strategic thinking. Last,
but not least, strategic thinking is prone to focusing on
hard facts and fgures rather than on soft factors like
will, perceptions, and emotions, thereby underrating
the tremendous power the latter might engender.
Eventually, although it does not describe a cogni-
tive premise but rather a condition, strategic thinking
suffers from the same circumstance as military rea-
soning about ends, ways, and means, which is that it
does not enjoy great popularity among policymakers.
Having said this, it should be emphasized that stra-
tegic thinking is regarded from a cognitive-structural
perspective without claiming to do justice to specifc
products of strategists. Moreover, there is no criti-
cism in stating that strategic thinking has been coined
by military thinking. On the contrary, it is acknowl-
edged that strategic thinking has historically evolved
245
in a military context, and that it naturally had to take
account of military operational planning and execu-
tion requirements. The question is, however, whether
peacebuilding and development objectives can be
adequately pursued on the basis of these cognitive
premises.
WHY PEACEBUILDING AND DEVELOPMENT
ELUDE CONVENTIONAL STRATEGIC
THINKING
Before going into the details of the argument, our
understanding of peacebuilding and development
policy needs to be clarifed. As with most generic
concepts, there is no commonly accepted defnition
of peacebuilding. The mandate of the United Nations
(UN) Peacebuilding Commission highlights four as-
pects of post-confict peacebuilding and recovery:
integrated strategies, reconstruction and institution
building, sustainable development, and coordination
of all relevant actors.
10
The former President of the
Alliance for Peacebuilding, a nongovernmental advo-
cacy organization, described peacebuilding as the set
of initiatives by diverse actors in government and civil
society to address the root causes of violence and pro-
tect civilians before, during, and after violent confict.
. . .
11
Both defnitions put emphasis on the long-term,
comprehensive interagency and structural approach,
as well as on tackling the root causes of violent con-
ficts. It is the focus on these aspects that marks our
understanding of peacebuilding as a development-
oriented concept different from peacemaking, sta-
bilization, or peacekeeping. Although not explicitly
stated, the reference to sustainable development or
the root causes of confict indicates the close link be-
246
tween peacebuilding and good governance; human
rights; and political, economic, and social develop-
ment as ingredients of sustainable development.
12
In
other words, peacebuilding and development are in-
extricably linked. The Journal for Peacebuilding and De-
velopment
13
mirrors this understanding in its very title.
Peacebuilding in poor and confict prone societies is
not feasible without a broader development frame-
work, although peacebuilding and development are
distinct policy domains. Whereas peacebuilding fo-
cuses on establishing mechanisms of peaceful confict
resolution, development creates the social, political,
and economic conditions that enable and sustain
them. While peacebuilding is a thoroughly civil-
military endeavor with prominent contributions to
be made by the military, the role of military actors in
development is marginal and limited to military roles
in security system reform. Peacebuilding can be seen
as the element linking peacemaking, stabilization, and
peacekeeping efforts as primarily military tasks to the
broader development efforts. Regarding our ques-
tion, however, peacebuilding and development pose
a common set of challenges to strategic thinking and
will therefore be dealt with in tandem.
How Do Ownership and Legitimacy
Fit into a State-Centric Scheme?
As mentioned above, strategic thinking has a state-
centric and status quo oriented bias that clashes with
several tenets of peacebuilding and development pol-
icy. First, there is a clash of perspectives. Due to its
inherent point of departure, strategic thinking tends
to treat actors and societies in countries of concern as
objects in relation to their own national interests. In
247
contrast, peacebuilding and development rely on in-
digenous actors and societies as their principal acting
subjects. The notion of local ownership and legitimacy
(not in the eyes of the international community, but in
the eyes of local constituencies) as core development
principles and precondition claims the right of self-
determination of concerned polities on the one hand,
while reminding them of their responsibility on the
other. Moreover, it implies that external actors need
to accept taking a backseat. In scenarios where exter-
nal actors have not only spent human and technical
resources to intervene in a crisis militarily, but have
also sacrifced lives and are under political pressure
to make the engagement a success, the temptation to
impose policies is high. Combined with the often dis-
played unwillingness or incapacity of local actors to
agree on peaceful confict resolution and to manage
basic stabilization requirements, it is not hard to imag-
ine why principles of local ownership and legitimacy
are easily abandoned and cause international donors
to either impose conditions and/or rely on bridge-
heads. Yet, ownership and legitimacy are necessary to
ensure sustainability and to avoid the peril of getting
trapped in long-term engagements abroad.
Second, due to the state-centric bias of strategic
thinking, the dynamics of awakening civil societies,
the peace potential of opposition groups, the infuence
of individuals beyond the offcial political system, or
socio-cultural sensitivities, tend to be overlooked. As
external actors often lack knowledge and understand-
ing of societies alien to their own cultural context, they
tend to interpret phenomena within the parameters of
their own system of meanings. For example, our re-
liance on documents in political and administrative
processes in the form of policy papers, memoranda
248
of understanding, contracts, reports, etc., is not neces-
sarily shared in other parts of the world. People there
have learned that signing a document is necessary to
receive material benefts, but a signature may have a
less binding character to them than a gift, a handshake,
or a word of honor. In addition, the state-centric per-
spective abets a focus on actors who are in power, or
at least in command of armed forces, without asking
too many questions on how they came to power or
how they use their power. This is in confict with the
general people-centered orientation of development
policy and its human security approach where the
conventional instruments of power encounter their
limits. This applies even more so when it comes to the
particular concern of development policy for vulner-
able groups such as the poor, women, children, dis-
abled, or other minorities.
Strategic thinking will not be able to overcome the
limits of its state-centric and status quo oriented bias
unless it opens up for civil societies and organized
groups beyond the offcial political system as poten-
tial partners in creating stability and peace. This also
requires more careful and more critical examination
of the roots, background, power base, goals, methods,
ideological reference, and possible future profle of
those who receive backing or support.
Facing Dynamic Complexity and Cultural
OutlandAre Conventional Methods of Acquiring
Knowledge Up to the Task?
Strategy development begins with an analysis of
the strategic environment. Based on the premise that
facts are value neutral,
14
categories for analyzing the
strategic environment in conventional strategic think-
249
ing are the physical environment, the national char-
acter, the interplay between states, balance of power
considerations, and the nature of confict.
15
Although
Colin S. Gray highlights the necessity of a skeptical
mindset and creative thinking for strategists,
16
in prac-
tice it tends to be neutralized by the requirements of
operational command, which hardly leave space for
lengthy refections or thinking out of the box. Hence,
although clear-sighted scholars suggest otherwise, the
process of strategy-related knowledge development
in actual practice is at best stuck in limited concep-
tual frameworks or, more often than not, overshad-
owed by short-term constellations and interests which
rather blur than enlighten the view.
Moreover, as data collection, collation, and inter-
pretation in general cannot be neutral, products of
analysis always mirror underlying premises, hypoth-
esis, interests, and cultural parameters of the analyst.
Apart from general epistemological problems that are
not going to be refected here and that are not specifc
to strategic analyses, the methods and approaches to
gaining awareness and understanding of the strategic
environment face particular challenges, namely the
problems of complexity, dynamics, and bias.
As strategic thinking is preoccupied with risks,
threats, and power structures, it tends to neglect the
complexity, dynamics, inconsistency, and ambiva-
lence of social and political processes and phenom-
ena, which characterize peacebuilding and devel-
opment processes. Since they are all but consistent,
linear, simple, and defnite, the methods of analyzing
and understanding peacebuilding and development
issues through the lens of strategic thinking require
modifcations.
In order to better grasp complexity and under-
stand the interdependencies, linkages, and cumula-
250
tive effects, systemic analysis will yield better results
than conventional approaches. To capture dynamics,
knowledge development should be a concomitant
process throughout the different stages of strategy
development and implementation. Effects achieved
should be under recurrent review and reappraisal as
to whether the overall objectives are still valid and
whether the general approach is still appropriate.
The integration of periodic assessment and evalua-
tion loops has long been established in developmental
project management methods. If we want to minimize
bias, misinterpretations, or false conclusions, we need
to include experts and actors with genuine insider
perspectives into the very process of analysis and un-
derstanding. This is where the inclusive, cooperative
approach of development policy comes in. This ap-
proach may not be immediately transferrable due to
security regulations, but it calls for the development
of new formats and procedures that enable more di-
rect involvement of subject matter and frst-hand ex-
pertise into strategy development processes.
Goal FormulationCan We Know
Where We Are Heading To?
To travel the correct road, you need to know where
you are going.
17
All literature on strategic thought
concurs with this formula. There is also consensus that
political goals are to be set by politicians and hence
are sometimes not suffciently clear to derive strate-
gic guidance. Therefore, the task of the strategist is to
translate political goals into strategic guidance, which
may sometimes require entering into a dialogue with
policymakers and demanding a clarifcation of politi-
cal goals. As strategy makers are familiar with a cer-
251
tain tension between policy and strategy, this tension
increases when it comes to formulating peacebuilding
or development goals.
In most recent international crisis management sce-
narios, peace arrangements were highly volatile and
foresaw specifed goals only for the relatively short
immediate stabilization period. The reasons were
manifold. In Kosovo, for example, the major bone of
contention, namely the question of status, had been
deliberately excluded because the Dayton Accord
could otherwise not have been signed. The Pretoria
Accord, signed by warring Congolese parties to end
the fghting and establish a government of national
unity, was fawed from the outset as none of the con-
fict parties had been sincerely interested in the estab-
lishment of a stable central state, and as fghting was
ongoing in the East. Major confict parties had been
excluded from the process that led to the Petersberg
Agreement for Afghanistan and international post-
confict reconstruction efforts.
These examples should suffce to point out that
strategic goal formulation in the immediate aftermath
of war is almost impossible. In most cases, peace agree-
ments are nothing but a respite, a door opener under
more or less conducive conditions for potential future
comprehensive confict solution and reconciliation.
Realistic political visions, and the road thereto can
hardly be anticipated in the face of destroyed econo-
mies, humanitarian catastrophes, socio-psychological
legacies of war, and a fragile truce with armed factions
about to regroup, just waiting for the spark that reig-
nites the fre. As confict parties are not able and often
also not willing to formulate political visions, external
actors are in an even weaker position to do so as long
as they do not intend to fully take over responsibility.
252
With regard to goal formulation as a precondition
for strategy development, peacebuilding and devel-
opment leave us in a very uncomfortable position.
The subject, and our role as external actors, deny the
development of clear and realistic strategic political
goals. But how can external actors who claim to be
strategy-driven engage under these circumstances?
What happens, in fact, is that the long-term strategic
horizon is often curtailed and, lacking political vi-
sions, is replaced with short-term objectives. The sup-
posedly top-down approach of strategy-driven policy
is turned upside down and replaced by a bottom-up
approach with open ends. This is understandable
and, given the structural conditions of international
politics, to a certain extent inescapable. However, for
external actors this bears high risks of long-term en-
gagement without a clear exit, mission creep, or politi-
cal entanglement, which make pro-active moves ever
more diffcult.
Strategic thinking cannot really overcome this di-
lemma. But it should not surrender the claim for polit-
ical vision all too easily. The very existence of a vision,
even if it does not fnd the necessary political support
and may seem rather academic than politically real-
istic, might positively shape the debate. Moreover,
strategic thinking can install systematic and perpetual
risk assessment as an integral element of the strategy
development and implementation process. Since we
seem to be doomed to bottom-up approaches to a cer-
tain extent, we should at least conduct recurrent re-
view loops to early identify those effects that may un-
dermine what has already been achieved or that may
increase risks and vulnerabilities of the peace process.
In this context, the systematic use of simulation meth-
ods to anticipate possible effects and outcomes might
provide added value.
253
How Should Guidance be Given to Actors
That Cannot Be Guided?
The previously cited formula from Robert Kennedy
to travel the correct road, you need to know where
you are going also implies a claim to provide com-
prehensive strategic guidance. As strategic thought to
date has predominantly given strategic guidance to
the military instrument of powertrue also for grand
strategythe potential tension between policy and
strategy making has been relatively easy to overcome.
The military as an instrument can be deployed and
commanded top down along clear principles.
However, if strategic guidance is sought for the
complex set of civilian instruments that come to bear in
peacebuilding and development processes, the vague-
ness of political goals compounds the inherent blur of
roles and responsibilities. Compared to the military as
a quasi unitary actor, civilian actors comprise national
and international governmental organizations (IGOs)
and nongovernmental organizations (NGO), civil so-
ciety groups and organizations (CSOs), as well as pri-
vate enterprises. These actors work in vastly different
areas such as humanitarian relief, economic recovery,
institution building, education, reconciliation, gender
balance, child protection, and many other areas. Apart
from the diversity of actors, there are no guidelines or
binding arrangements regulating who gets engaged
where, how, and for how long. Moreover, there is the
problem of ensuring that actors at least do not work
in opposite directions, if not share common political
goals. Only governmental agencies can be politically
controlled to make sure they follow the same objec-
tives. NGOs, as long as they work with governmental
254
donor funds, can be controlled to a limited extent via
budgetary instruments. The bulk of the remaining ac-
tors, however, can at best be controlled via indirect
levers (bilateral voluntary agreements, public pres-
sure, voluntary adherence to norms, etc.), or not at all
since they do not operate within common structures
or rules of political hierarchy and accountability.
Against this background, the very idea of any kind
of comprehensive strategy for civilian programs and
activities in peacebuilding and development processes
seems to be forlorn. This, in consequence, makes it
very diffcult for implementing any broader strategy.
We lack institutional or procedural levers to trans-
late political goals into strategic guidance beyond the
traditional diplomatic, informational, military, and
economic instruments of power. Being aware that the
better part of activities able to support and/or induce
sustained peace and development do not fall into this
category of instruments, means to accept that we lack
direct steering mechanisms for many relevant peace-
building and development activities.
This does not mean, however, that there are no
possibilities of improving political coherence among
the multiple actors and agencies. But it should be
clear that we might at best get closer to assembling
NGOs, CSOs, or private business actors under the
banner of a unifed effort, whereas we may never
achieve any organizational setting similar to a uni-
fed command. As this cannot be imposed upon
independent actors, the only way to gain better po-
litical coherence is to build long-term institutional
relationships and mutual trust. We can do so by im-
proving mutual knowledge and common situational
understanding, by including actors and building
consensus early on, and by developing institution-
255
alized formats of consultation and cooperation in
all phases.
For strategic thinking, again this requires learning
from approaches and procedures that are common
in development policy. Nevertheless, we face clear
limits to what can be achieved in this respect from a
strategists point of view. Apart from security consid-
erations, conficting policy and institutional interests
between actors and agencies involved will most likely
impede more than temporary coalitions of the will-
ing. Hence, if more control is wanted, international
donors would have to dedicate signifcantly more
governmental resources, and by the same token take
over extensively more political responsibilities in in-
ternational confict and crisis management: But this
would very likely exceed existing capacities and polit-
ical will. Otherwise, whether we like it or not, we will
have to live with the fact that only a limited number
of activities (and thereby outcomes) can really be sub-
jected to (grand) strategy-driven action and steering
mechanisms, i.e., we will have to learn to live with a
considerable extent of anarchy.
Which Instruments Does Strategic Thinking
Have to Create Political Will and
Infuence Perceptions?
Strategic thinking is characterized by an instru-
mental logic
18
that is applied not only with regard to
the mode of utilization of instruments at ones dis-
posal, but also with regard to the way of achieving
effects. It aims at diminishing the scope of maneuver
of adversaries, infuencing their behavior, and pre-
venting them to achieve their goals mainly by denial
of opportunities. Another feature of this instrumental
rationality is its inclination to disregard the so-called
256
soft factors in politics such as perceptions, emotions,
identities, and beliefs.
Peacebuilding and development, on the contrary,
are primarily about setting up opportunities, about
creating ownership and encouraging political will
to reform, whereas infuencing the activities of local
actors is of secondary importance. Peace and devel-
opment cannot be simply engineered by combining
a blueprint with resources, instruments, and man-
power. They rely to a large extent on hopes and fears,
on the capacity and credibility of local stakeholders to
mobilize, lead and convince people, on the strength of
identities, the willingness to tolerate frustrations, on
the belief that the future holds better prospects.
But can ownership and political will to reform be
created by external actors at all? The instrumental logic
of strategic thinking clearly reaches its limits when it
comes to creating opportunities and incentives for
local ownership and reform-oriented political inten-
tions. Development policy has been dealing with the
challenge of creating local ownership and engaging
local stakeholders for many years, but has not come
to satisfactory conclusions yet. Practical levers are
limited to participatory methods of program planning
and implementation.
19
Empirical analyses have shown
that despite efforts to improve inclusive methods, the
relationships between donors and local stakeholders
often remain asymmetrical and, moreover, participa-
tory approaches often exclude civil society.
20

Can the soft factors in politics be infuenced by the
traditional instruments of power? Public information,
intelligence, cyber operations, psychological and in-
formation operationsall of which can be subsumed
under the information instruments of power
21
would
be considered the most suitable levers to tackle per-
257
ceptions, beliefs, and emotions of people. Indeed, their
potential impact should not be underestimated as long
as the following conditions are met: messages are un-
derstood in the local context, messages are credible in
the local context, and messages are consistent with the
behavior of the sender. However, perceptions, beliefs,
and emotions are inextricably linked to expectations,
and if expectations are not met, they easily reverse
to the opposite. That means, in a peacebuilding and
development context, traditional information instru-
ments of power can and should be utilized, but need
to be handled with particular care. If they are not, they
are likely to produce rather short-term effects, whereas
infuencing soft factors of politics also require instru-
ments with more long-term effects such as basic and
political education, societal discourses, reconciliation
processes, or the like.
In consequence, it seems strategic thinking has
to cope with the dilemma of investing resources and
sacrifcing lives in international crisis management,
while not being able to fully control processes. We are
often forced to take a backseat, particularly when tak-
ing account of the frequently witnessed unwillingness
or incapacity of local actors to make peace or manage
peace processes. This dilemma cannot be overcome.
This means that strategic thinking requires more sys-
tematic risk analysis, and either more courage to non-
action if we cannot estimate the risks, or more courage
to name and face the possible negative effects.
How Can Strategic Planning Cope
with the Unforeseeable?
Closely linked to the instrumental logic described
above is the engineering mind set of strategic think-
ing, characterized by hierarchy, predictability, order,
258
simplicity, precision, and sequenceall derived from
military operational requirements. Consequently,
the process from strategic planning to actual imple-
mentation breaks the complexity of reality down to
operationally manageable levels, units, and activities.
Although the operational and tactical level may con-
siderably shape the situational picture generated at the
strategic level through the data they provide, strategic
planning essentially remains a top-down process.
In stark contrast, peacebuilding and develop-
ment processes can by no means be compartmental-
ized and broken down to hierarchical command and
control relationships of a military operation. Because
more often than not, it is uncertain who the stakehold-
ers are and what goals they pursue, i.e., the level of
contingencies is very high and can be compared only
to counterinsurgency operations in urban terrain in
military terms of complexity of the operational envi-
ronment. Most peacebuilding and many development
scenarios lack an established common set of norms
and rules, a precondition for reliable command and
control mechanisms. The simultaneous challenges of
maintaining peace, diminishing humanitarian crises,
creating viable institutions, alleviating poverty, en-
couraging economic recovery, fostering reconciliation,
and allowing for better overall living conditions evade
any attempt to ft peacebuilding and development
processes into any setting of sequential steps. Orderly
top-down planning and implementation procedures,
particularly if we take into account the diversity and
huge number of actors involved, are not applicable
under the given circumstances.
Peacebuilding and development processes take
place in multilevel, multiactor, and multinational con-
texts that lack all preconditions to apply top-down,
259
hierarchical, orderly, sequential, or precise unifed
command and control. This forces strategic plan-
ning ambitions to confne themselves to giving guid-
ance to those actors who are willing and able to act
in a concordant effort. Realistically, in most cases this
will be governmental actors representing one donor
state only.
How Can Strategic Thinking Cope with
Conficting Time Rhythms?
Presuming a defned strategic end-state, strategic
thinking, and even more so strategic planning, needs
clear timelines to allocate budgets, ensure political ac-
ceptance, and set up activities. While operational and
tactical goals remain to be specifed by subsequent
planning stages, a guiding vision of the political end-
state is supposed to inform strategic planning and the
overall time frame of implementation. Programs, cam-
paigns, and operations are implicitly assumed to be
terminable within the legislative period of the initiat-
ing government.
Peacebuilding and development policy, on the
other hand, follow a somewhat converse logic. Due
to their high level of contingency, the anticipatory
focus lies on short- to mid-term objectives at best,
while the political end-state remains diffuse with the
responsibility to carve it out in the hands of local ac-
tors in a remote and uncertain future. Consequently,
while strategic planning often tends to fall behind the
actual dynamics and requirements on the ground,
peacebuilding and development processes with their
bottom-up logic tend to undermine the pace and time
frames of budgetary planners, administrative proce-
dures, and legislative periods.
260
In particular, progression of political attention in
donor countries does not conform to the needs of re-
cipient peacebuilding or developing countries. In the
immediate aftermath of confict, political attention
and acceptance levels of home constituencies are high,
but rapidly wane, be it due to a normalization of
conditions, due to fatigue, or simply due to the emer-
gence of new crises on the international agenda that
overlap the images of the former. But peacebuilding
and development processes require political atten-
tion at a constantly high level by international donors
for much longer periods than those shaped by mass
media and election cycles. When it comes to early
recognizing and reacting to negative dynamics that
may imperil what has already been achieved, political
mechanisms to readjust strategic guidance are slow.
In addition, expectation management, pertaining to
home constituencies as well as the populace of recipi-
ent countries, is often neglected in strategic thinking.
For strategic thinking, political and procedural
time frames of the political system in general and
the particular administration in charge have to be
taken as a given, i.e., there is little room for realistic
changes with regard to domestic political and proce-
dural conditions for strategy formulation and strate-
gic planning. Therefore, the scope of adjustments to
strategic thinking so as to better cope with conficting
time frames is limited. Certainly, systematic expecta-
tion management can and should be improved. The
dynamics of political attention and levels of accep-
tance of domestic audiences can be anticipated to a
large extent and should therefore be more systemati-
cally included as a potential constraining factor that
requires systematic coping strategies. The expecta-
tions of audiences in recipient countries can be better
261
managed by unanimous and honest communication.
Unanimous communication can best be assured by
making strategic communication an integral part of
not only the military, but all strands of international
crisis management activities.
22
Particularly, messages
to recipient country audiences have to be unanimous
among national and international donor nations and
organizations.
23
Honesty in strategic communication
is about caution with regard to what we promise to
audiences in recipient countries and how we explain
our own motives of engagement, but even more so it
is about congruence between what we say and what
we do.
CONCLUSION
We have shown that peacebuilding and develop-
ment processes evade the cognitive premises and con-
ventional approaches of strategic thinking in many
respects. Strategic thinking, therefore, will have to ad-
just in order to better cope with the challenges posed
by peacebuilding and development.
With regard to one of its fundamental tenets,
namely its state-centric reference point, strategic
thinking will have to adapt to a more open reference
framework, accepting civil societies and organized
groups beyond the offcial political system as poten-
tial partners in creating peace and development. This
implies more attention and more thorough scrutiny of
the roots, background, power bases, goals, methods,
ideologies, and possible future roles of those who are
chosen as partners and who receive political backing
and development aid. Though practical constraints
often do not allow us to be too select in the choice of
local partners, more attention should be lent to their
262
adherence to the norms and principles we intend to
foster, and it should be more carefully examined to
show whether they are part of the solution rather than
part of the problem. After all, backing elites, who are
not interested in peace and pursue only self-seeking
interests, not only imperils the peace process, but also
calls into question the credibility and legitimacy of in-
ternational engagement as a whole.
Procedures for gaining awareness and understand-
ing of the strategic environment can be improved by
systematically applying systemic analysis approaches.
Knowledge development should be a concomitant
process throughout the different stages of strategy
development and implementation. Moreover, the
volatility and dynamics of peacebuilding and devel-
opment processes require recurrent review processes
of the effects achieved and open-ended political reap-
praisals on whether the overall objectives are still valid
and whether the general approach is still appropriate.
Last, but not least, knowledge development, as well
as monitoring and evaluation, require more and sys-
tematic inclusion of subject matter experts from many
disciplines and actors with genuine insider perspec-
tives in order to minimize bias and avoid misinter-
pretations or false conclusions. Promising approaches
of improving knowledge development as a distinct
method and perpetual process, accompanying stra-
tegic and operational planning, have been developed
and tested within the military domain,
24
but have to
date never gained attention in the interagency arena.
The challenges of formulating strategic goals per-
taining to a highly contingent and volatile subject like
peacebuilding and development processes can, if not
fully tackled, at least be addressed by strategic think-
ing via systematic and perpetual risk assessments.
263
The latter should be integral elements of strategy de-
velopment and implementation. Combined with re-
current review loops to early identify effects that may
undermine the intended direction of the peacebuild-
ing or development process, this will help avoid the
wrong path, dwelling on the wrong path for too long,
or quickly adjusting strategy. In this context, the sys-
tematic use of simulation methods to anticipate pos-
sible effects and outcomesnot only at the military
strategic and operational planning levels, where it has
been established for decades, but also at the political
strategic levelmight provide added value.
When it comes to the political and structural con-
straints of unifying diverse actors behind a common
strategic guidance, one of the very premises of stra-
tegic thinking has to be questioned. More control of
a peacebuilding or development scenario for interna-
tional actors requires more donor resources, and by
the same token, the political will to take more political
responsibilities. Otherwise, we will have to live with
the fact that external actors can be subject only to a
limited number of activities (and thereby outcomes)
and to some form of political steering mechanisms.
In consequence, we will have to say good-bye to
the strategic premise of anything goes and learn
to live with a considerable extent of anarchy and
uncontrollability.
Another cognitive premise of strategic thinking
that requires adjustments is the instrumental logic.
We cannot overcome the dilemma that one of the
main challenges of peacebuilding and development
processes, i.e., the creation of political will on the side
of local elites, is not feasible with the conventional in-
struments of power. One conclusion is to reconsider
the DIME concept of instruments of power and re-
264
lated concepts.
25
Another conclusion is that we will
have to live with a backseat role in many cases, even if
local actors display unwillingness or incapacity to act.
The only lever for strategic thinking, therefore, is
againto include more thorough and more system-
atic risk analysis prior to a political decision to engage.
Political decisionmakers need more courage to decide
either not to engage if risks cannot be estimated or are
too high, or more courage to face and prepare for the
possible negative effects.
By the same token, the engineering logic of stra-
tegic thinking and planning needs a review when it
comes to peacebuilding and development processes.
If we acknowledge that multilevel, multiactor, and
multinational contexts lack all preconditions to apply
top-down, hierarchical, orderly, sequential, or precise
unifed command and control, strategic planning am-
bitions will have to be confned to giving guidance to
those actors who are willing and able to act in a con-
cordant effort. This limits the scope of actors that can
be subjected to any form of coordinated planning and
implementation to governmental actors represent-
ing one donor state. The recent debate on WoG ap-
proaches in international confict and crisis manage-
ment shows, however, that the concept does not meet
the high expectations connected to it when it comes to
practice.
26
Hence, the limits of achieving greater co-
herence even among the governmental actors of one
donor country remind us to be realistic and humble.
Finally, the range of options for adjustment in stra-
tegic thinking is also limited with regard to conficting
time rhythms between domestic political decision-
making processes and dynamics of peacebuilding and
development processes. As political and procedural
time frames of the domestic political system in gen-
265
eral and the particular administration in charge are a
given, there is little room for realistic changes. How-
ever, much can be improved with regard to systematic
expectation management. The dynamics of political
attention and levels of acceptance of domestic audi-
ences should be anticipated and more systematically
taken into consideration as a potential constraining
factor requiring coping strategies. Audiences in re-
cipient countries can be better addressed if coordi-
nated strategic communication is an integral part of
all strands of international crisis management activi-
ties. In addition, strategic communication should be
carefully designed with regard to what we promise to
audiences in recipient countries and how we explain
our own motives of engagement. Most importantly,
the gap between what we say and what we do must
not widen under all circumstances, as this undermines
our credibility.
In a broader perspective, we may need to accept
that there are things we will never understand, and
that many people may not want to share our norms
and values. Having said this, strategic thinking in
general needs increased fexibility regarding basic
assumptions and cognitive patterns, making the pos-
sibility of delay, setbacks, detours, or even failure, in-
tegral elements of our thought. The main challenge is
to reconcile top-down approaches and the instrumen-
tal/engineering logic of strategic thinking with the
ambiguity, unpredictability, and uncontrollability of
peacebuilding and development processes. We may
also have to reconsider our understanding of feasibil-
ity in international politics in general and learn to bet-
ter live with contingency and risks. All in all, strategic
thinking would be well advised to adopt more humil-
ity in its outlook on the world.
266
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 9
1. As the most prominent example, the European Security
Strategy puts high emphasis of aspects of human security though
it does not explicitly refer to the concept. See A Secure Europe in
a Better World, Brussels, Belgium: European Security Strategy,
December 2003, available from www.consilium.europa.eu/ued-
ocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf. In its guidelines on preventing violent
confict, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and De-
velopment (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
explicitly refers to the Human Security concept. See Helping
Prevent Violent Confict, OECD DAC Guidelines, Paris, France:
OECD DAC, 2001, available from www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/54/
1886146.pdf.
2. The WoG concept has been utilized in different contexts.
See, for example, Whole of Government Approaches to Fragile States,
OECD DAC Reference Series, Paris, France: OECD DAC, 2006,
available from www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/24/37826256.pdf; Joseph
R. Cerami and Jeffrey A. Engel, eds., Rethinking Leadership and
Whole of Government National Security Reform: Problems, Progress,
and Prospects, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army
War College, May 2010, available from www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/
GetTRDoc?AD=ada522339.pdf&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf;
Volker C. Franke and Robert H. Dorff, eds, Confict Management
and Whole of Government: Useful Tools for U.S. National Security
Strategy? Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War
College, April 2012, available from www.strategicstudiesinstitute.
army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1102; or the most prominent ex-
ample: U.S. National Security Strategy, Washington, DC: The White
House, May 2010, available from www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/
fles/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf.
3. The Comprehensive Approach is a concept that has evolved
and is being used mainly in the NATO context. See Political Guid-
ance on ways to improve NATOs involvement in Stabilisation and
Reconstruction, available from www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/
pdf_2011_09/20111004_110922-political-guidance.pdf.
267
4. U.S. National Security Strategy, Washington, DC: The White
House, May 2010, available from www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/
fles/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf.
5. Hans Binnendijk and Patrick Claswon, Tuning the Instru-
ments of National Power, Joint Forces Quarterly, Winter 1995-96,
pp. 82-88.
6. When we speak of strategic thinking, we refer to the dis-
course on grand strategy or national security strategy in the con-
text of strategic studies as a subject in Armed Forces colleges and
the like.
7. For the purposes of this chapter, literature on teaching
strategy was the main source of reference. Among many oth-
ers, the following works were particularly useful: Grand Strategy:
Theory and Practice, No. 8802, Quantico, VA: U.S. Marine Corps,
Command and Staff College, unknown date, available from www.
au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/csc_8802_lesn1_grand_strat.pdf; U.S.
Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication (MSDP) 1-1, Strategy, Wash-
ington, DC: November 1997, available from www.dtic.mil/doctrine/
jel/service_pubs/mcdp1_1.pdf; John Lewis Gaddis, What is Grand
Strategy? Paper prepared as the Karl Von Der Heyden Distin-
guished Lecture, Duke University, February 26, 2009, the key-
note address for a conference on American Grand Strategy after
War, sponsored by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies
and the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy,
available from www.duke.edu/web/agsp/grandstrategypaper.pdf; Co-
lin S. Gray, Schools for Strategy: Teaching Strategy for 21st Century
Confict, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War
College, November 2009; Gabriel Marcella, ed., Teaching Strategy:
Challenge and Response, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute,
U.S. Army War College, March 2010.
8. The author of the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff
College manuscript of a seminar on grand strategy admits that
[A]lthough strategy is as much about peace as it is about war,
it is generally recognized that, if we fail to properly manage the
former, we must be prepared to execute the latter. See Lesson
Introduction, Lesson 1: Grand Strategy: Theory and Practice,
frst paragraph.
268
9. Fouzieh Melanie Alamir, Security System Reform in Weak
or Fragile States Implemented Through a Whole of Govern-
ment Approach: A Threefold Challenge, Franke and Dorff, eds.,
pp. 153-184.
10. General Assembly Resolution 60/180 on the UN Peace-
building Commission, December 30, 2005, available from www.
un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/60/180.
11. Chic Dambach, former President and CEO, quote avail-
able from www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org/?page=aboutmission.
12.

For this understanding of development, see the Euro-
pean Consensus on Development, Offcial Journal of the European
Union, C 46/01, February 24, 2006, available from ec.europa.eu/
development/icenter/repository/european_consensus_2005_en.pdf.
13. A publication hosted by the American Unversity`s Center
for Global Peace and the Peacebuilding and Development Insti-
tute, in partnership with the University of Peace, available from
www.journalpeacedev.org/.
14. Robert Kennedy, The Elements of Strategic Thinking: A
Practical Guide, Gabriel Marcella, ed., p. 27.
15. The MCDP 1-1 understands the national character as be-
ing derived from the location, the language, the culture, the reli-
gion, the historical circumstances, and other factors specifc to a
state or political entity (p. 23). By assessing the nature of confict,
it considers questions like these: What value do both sides attach
to the political objectives of the war? What costs are both sides
willing to pay? What is the result of the value compared to cost
equation? What material, economic, and human sacrifces will the
participants endure? For how long? Under what circumstances?
Will the societies expect regular, measurable progress? Will they
patiently endure setbacks and frustration? (p. 81). See MSDP 1-1.
16.

Gray, p. 47.
17. Kennedy, p. 30.
18. See also Gray, p 8.
269
19. See, for example, Handbook on Stakeholder Consultation
and Participation in ADB Operations, Tunis-Belvedere, Tunisia:
African Development Bank, 2001, available from www.afdb.org/
fleadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Policy-Documents/Handbook%20
on%20Stakeholder%20Consultaion.pdf.
20. Tobias Pietz and Leopold von Carlowitz, Ownership in Prac-
tice: Lessons from Liberia and Kosovo, Berlin, Germany: Deutsche
Stiftung Friedensforschung, Georgsmarienhtte, 2001, available
from www.zif-berlin.org/fleadmin/uploads/analyse/dokumente/veroef-
fentlichungen/Pietz_von_Carlowitz_2011_Ownership_in_Practice.
pdf; Hannah Reich, Local Ownership in Confict Transformation
Projects: Partnership, Participation or Patronage? Berghof Oc-
casional Paper No 27, Berlin, Germany, Berghof Research Center
for Constructive Confict Management, September 2006, avail-
able from www.berghof-confictresearch.org/documents/publications/
boc27e.pdf.
21. Jeffrey L. Caton, Cori E. Dauber, Jeffrey L. Groh, and Da-
vid J. Smith, Information as Power. An Anthology of Selected
United States Army War College Student Papers, Vol. 4, Carlisle,
PA: U.S. Army War College, January 2012, available from www.
carlisle.army.mil/DIME/documents/Information%20as%20Power%20
Vol%204%20(web-fnal).pdf.
22. Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Stra-
tegic Communication, Washington, DC: Offce of the Under
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics,
September 2004, available from www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/dsb/
commun.pdf; Principles of Strategic Communication, Washing-
ton, DC: Department of Defense, August 2008, available from
www.au.af.mil/info-ops/documents/principles_of_sc.pdf.
23. See U.S. Public Diplomacy. Interagency Coordination Efforts
Hampered by the Lack of a Communication Strategy, Washington,
DC: U.S. Government Accountability Offce, April 2005, available
from www.gao.gov/new.items/d05323.pdf.
24. In the context of military concept development and ex-
perimentation, the Multinational Experimentation Series (MNE)
served as a framework where the method was developed and
tested over several years. Concepts and fndings of this process
270
have infuenced NATO and NATO member-state approaches to
gaining situational awareness and understanding, but have not
been taken up by civilian agencies.
25. Related concepts are the so-called 3D (Diplomacy, Devel-
opment, and Defense) concept that is being used at the political-
strategic level, or the Political, Military, Social, Economic, Infor-
mation, and Infrastructure (PMSEII) concept developed in the
context of operational planning for courses of action.
26. Franke and Dorff, eds., see especially chaps. 4, 5, 6, and 10.
271
CHAPTER 10
FORCES OF ORDER AND DISORDER:
SECURITY PROVIDERS AND CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT
Michael Ashkenazi
The author would like to thank Volker Franke for
the opportunity to write this chapter, and S. M. Stirling
for In the Court of the Crimson Kings, which stimulated
the concept of security provider. The participants
of the 2012 KSU-SSI Symposium, Confict Manage-
ment and Peacebuilding: Pillars of a New American
Grand Strategy, at Kennesaw State University, are
thanked for their comments. Particular thanks go to
Dr. Andreas Heinemann-Grueder for incisive and
supportive criticism of an earlier draft. All errors and
misrepresentations are my own.
INTRODUCTION
The term security is a notably contentious one
(e.g., Huysmans, 1998). In the traditional realm, secu-
rity implied frst the security of the state and its institu-
tions, and then, in some but not all conceptualizations,
the security of the individual from violence or harm
not directly mandated by the state. In the past decade, the
interpretation of the term security has expanded to
encompass virtually all aspects of human lifesecu-
rity from hunger, want, and lack of education.
Crucially, most security (in the state sense) has
been in the hands of security specialists: individuals
and organizations specializing in providing security.
As noted, this is, of course, challengeable: What is it
272
that these specialists actually provide and to whom,
has been an enduring issue (Krahmann, 2008; Shear-
ing & Wood, 2007). No less crucially, it is these same
security specialistssecurity providers in the terminol-
ogy used herethat have been at the core of insecurity
in two related ways. On the one hand, toward non-
members however defned, historically, the military
(a type of security provider) have at all times been the
major threat to individuals lives, bodies, and prop-
erty. On the other, internal security providerspolice,
the military, and guerillashave been major forces
threatening the integrity of individual bodies, rights,
and property within many polities.
The recent concept of confict management im-
plies, sometimes is even predicated, on the presence
of individuals and groups who will, following some
principle, effectively provide this security (Berco-
vitch & Jackson, 2009; Elde et al., 2005; Miall et al.,
1999). This chapter will demonstrate that this percep-
tionthat security providers will automatically be
positive vectors in confict managementneeds some
serious rethinking. The features of security providers
will be described and characterized, notably those in
less-developed and fragile states (LDFS). Varied and
sometimes unexpected interests of these security pro-
viders help manage confict, albeit in ways that the
theoretical genitors of the concept might not like. Both
the terms security and the nature of the security
providers need to be approached from a different
perspective.
Much of the data is derived from studies by myself
and others in less-developed and post-confict coun-
tries. From 2009 to 2011, I conducted feld studies on
security providers in several countries in Asia and
Africa. Some of the issues arising from those studies
273
are raised here. For the rest, I rely on the vast mass
of publications on the militaries, traditional defense
organizations, and commercial security formations
in LDFS.
MANAGING CONFLICT
The idea that confict is manageable in some form
encompasses a wide range of possible activities and
potential outcomes. Confict management is an activ-
ity that is poly-specifc: most primates engage in pro-
cesses of confict management, both to avoid confict
and to mitigate its effects (Aureli & de Waal 2000). That
human primates do so as well should be no surprise.
Peacekeeping by United Nations (UN)-mandated and
other forces constitute part of the repertoire of inter-
national confict management. Positive reinforcement
comes in the form of economic aid, trade, and other re-
wards. The establishment of legal agreements (albeit,
often buttressed by either the threat of force or eco-
nomic reward) constitute a third part of confict man-
agement. Whatever the peace management paradigm
involved, the actual application relies on individual
and collective security, which, in turn, is a function of
police agencies (local or international) internally, and
military or quasi-military agencies against external
threats. Both of these types of organizationspolice
and militaryare engaged within the confict man-
agement process as security providers. Security pro-
viders are individuals and institutions that are able to
bring force to bear to ensure that confict parties actu-
ally abide by the rules, whatever they may be, or by
the decisions of whomever is attempting to manage
confict in the society concerned. Given that confict is
endemic in human societies, it is unsurprising to fnd
274
that most violent confict management requires some
form of executive force in potentio.
While all the elements of confict management are
worthy of study, this chapter addresses the issue of
individuals and groups that are able to bring force to
bear to ensure that confict parties actually abide by
the rules, whatever they may be, for confict manage-
ment in the society concerned. At the lower levels of
organizationinter-individual and community lev-
elsthese enforcers may be neighbors, kin, bystand-
ers, village elders, or groups assigned to this role by
custom and local law (e.g., Evans-Pritchard, 1949;
Barth, 1959). At higher levels of organizationtribe,
ethnic organization, and nation-statethe role is as-
signed to organized formations: police, military, and
international peacekeepers. In other words, all confict
management depends, to some degree or another, on
security providers. Reorienting the discussion of con-
fict management in this way forces us to consider the
point that security providers are a multi-faceted and
compound category that dispense both security and
insecurity. Understanding how such organizations
and individuals shift their output between some de-
gree of security and some degree of insecurity is nec-
essary if we are to ensure that confict management
goes beyond theory and planning into the realms
of practice.
It is useful to recognize and accept some basic be-
havioral statements as framing conditions to help in
understanding security providers:
People make confict. Conficts are not created,
sustained, or carried out by abstractions such
as states, but by real people.
People manage confict. Managing confict is
something that all primates, including humans,
275
engage in. If they do not, they stand likely to
suffer as a community (or troop, in the case of
primates, Aureli & De Waal, 2000).
Confict management depends on culturally
defned roles. We can identify several generic
roles that are expressed culturally in all con-
ficts among humans: the confict parties, me-
diators and enforcers, and onlookers.
Certainly, the analysis above points to a major as-
sumption: that security providers should contribute to
managing and abating confict. However, in practice,
this is not necessarily the case. Several case studies of
security providers will be examined to understand
why this is not the case and to show the limits of their
contribution to confict management.
CHARACTERIZING SECURITY PROVIDERS
A security provider is an individual or formation
that purports to be engaged in activities that affect the
degree to which groups and individuals can ensure
(or at least predict to some degree) their physical, so-
cial, and material integrity. By defning both security
providers and security in this fashion, I am able to
avoid the lengthy arguments about the nature of se-
curity, to encompass broader strategic understanding
of security such as human security, and to use the
defnition to encompass a range of security providers
beyond the commonly accepted one.
Following this approach, at least four different
types of security providers, distinguished by their
formal and their substantive characteristics, can be
identifed. State security providers are individuals and
formations mandated by the state and, in theory, con-
276
trolled by its governing bodies, to provide security.
Commercial security providers are formations who are
involved in security activities in return for monetary
payment. Traditional security providers are mandated
by the social and cultural systems of pre-modern
and local social organization. Finally, Out-law
1
secu-
rity providers encompass a wide range of formations
that either engage in negative security (they actually
threaten physical, social, and material integrity), or
conditional security (us or no one).
State Security Providers.
State security providers encompass all types of
legally mandated forces that we are familiar with:
police, military, gendarmerie, prison guards, and, in
at least one case, the fre brigade. These formations
are characterized by functioning on the basis of legal
frameworks, mandated and paid for by the state. Of-
ten (e.g., the military), there is a psycho-social dimen-
sion to their activities that is motivated by, and makes
strong reference to, positive ideological and moral
support, downplaying fnancial rewards (Franke,
1997). State security is supposed to provide universal
service: a public good. In practice, this is, of course,
not always the case. State security providers are also
expected to provide homogenous services; that is, all
benefciaries are supposed to be protected to the same
degree. Certainly, since early in the 20th century, pub-
lic, state-provided security has been viewed as a pub-
lic good to which all are entitled (Mandel, 2001).
277
Commercial Security Providers.
While strictly speaking, security organizations mo-
tivated overtly and strictly by fnancial rewards are
not a new phenomenon (landsknecht and condottieri
in Renaissance Europe), commercial security forma-
tions providing internal policing services have been
relatively uncommon until the middle of the 20th cen-
tury (Mandel, 2001). Commercial security formations
in the modern state are typically organized as proft-
making corporations operating to supplement internal
security forces. They are also, in theory and often in
practice, regulated by a state authority, and the scope
of their action is typically restricted by a state author-
ity. Commercial security formations provide restricted
service. That is, they choose to provide security to par-
ticular individuals or groups, depending on their fee.
Thus their services are specifc and particularistic.
Traditional Security Providers.
The twin and related problems of internal and
external security provision did not spring into being
in the 20th century, and nonmodern states and other
political and social structures have needed to provide
security for themselves. This has usually been solved
by diffusing security provision among a number of
different systems, appealing to self-help being the
frst. To avoid confusion, traditional security provid-
ers in this chapter refers to formations, rather than indi-
viduals (or kin groups) acting on their own to ensure
self-help (see Fry 2002 for a concise classifcation).
Many such formations of security providers are based
on the recruitment of young men as they make their
lifes journey. Age-grade groups (lo-mua in China,
278
wakamono-kai in Japan, elmorani in East Africa) where
young men of given age cohorts are expected to per-
form public service, performance-based groups (dog
soldiers among the Cheyenne), or voluntary societies
(so-called Secret Societies in many West African so-
cieties) are common bases for recruitment and orga-
nization of traditional security providers. Typically,
such formations authority is based on community
consensus bolstered by ritual (that is appeal to tradi-
tions and practices encoded by remote, often moot be-
ings) (Guthrie, 1980). Traditional security providers
provide a community service: those outside the com-
munity, physically or socially, may not beneft, and
may even suffer, from their activities.
Out-law Security Providers.
Predation on others is a universal fact of life. Both
externally and internally, where groups and individ-
uals prey on their neighbors, they are actors within
what we can call the security networkthose actors
concerned with security activities. Out-law security
providers affect the provision of security in many
ways. The category includes out-and-out predators
who provide no services to their victims (Vikings and
Somali pirates). Many, however, provided restricted
security, whether in the form of banditry (Hobsbawm,
2010) where they support and enjoy class or ethnic
solidarity, or in the form of protection services (you
pay me, and nothing will happen to you, and I will
keep other predators away) such as a traditional
Mafa source of income (Gambetta, 1996). At the far
side of the predatory scale are OAGs, the wannabes
who would like to be able to have a monopoly of force
(and sometimes have it locally), and who prey on their
279
neighbors, albeit with excuses (the Maoist insurgents
in Nepal gave out formal receipts for extortion money
valid against extractions by other units of the PLA
2
).
Out-law service is opportunistic and situational.
To the degree the state actually owns a monopoly
on violence, out-law security providers largely pro-
vide negative security. However, where the state does
not have an effective, substantive monopoly, out-law
providers become one of a mass of commercial and
even traditional security providers.
3

SECURITY PROVIDERS IN ACTION:
SOME EXAMPLES
To draw together the strands raised to this point,
it is useful to provide some empirical examples. In
each case, I have tried to demonstrate the mutability
of the role any particular security provider formation
assumes. As we can see, we always need to account
for multiple rather than single action types. Moreover,
we need to try and understand, globally, how and why
security providers change what they are doing, since
they constitute, in some situations, a positive vector
for confict management, and in almost but not quite
identical situations, a negative infuence on confict
management. Several examples, all from recent stud-
ies, bolster the argument that we need to look very
carefully at the implications of different types of
security provider.
State Providers: Post-Soviet Policing in Albania,
Georgia, and Afghanistan.
I rely here heavily on a study by Stephan Hensell
(2011), as well as some frst-hand observations from
280
Afghanistan and elsewhere. With the emergence of
post-Soviet states, the position of the police as secu-
rity providers changed radically. Their secure posi-
tion as guardians of the states interests was replaced
by a variety of arrangements in which the police were
either heavily politicized (in Albania, for instance)
or were forced to become entrepreneurs, using their
privileged position as security providers to engage in
economic activities (as in Georgia). In the latter form,
internal security services typically rent areas of ac-
tivitytraffc control, border control, and issuance of
licensesby paying a tribute to a superior (leading
all the way to the presidency). They fnance this, and
themselves, by extracting fees for activity in their as-
signed areas. Lucrative positions are competitively
sought after.
Kabul airport is an example in miniature. Formal
security practices are set in place: security check of
luggage and of persons, border control (exit permit
and exit stamp), and customs. This is part of local and
international security provisions with which we are
all familiar. At Kabul airport, however, one can hire
an armed individual policeman as a security provider:
that individual will whisk the client through all the
security checks in 10 minutes fat, rather than the 2
hours that are not uncommon.
In both cases, the issue here is not corruption, how-
ever defned. What is important is how a particular
type of security providera state providerassumes,
for whatever environmental or structural reasons, a
posture that would be located more closely to com-
mercial and out-law security provision than the uni-
versalistic state mode.
281
Traditional Security Providers: Mafas and Chiefs.
In common with many other East and Southeast
Asian societies, in village society in Timor Leste,
young men between puberty and marriage are ex-
offcio members of village and neighborhood youth
groups. These groups serve partly as a socialization
medium and partly as a village defense force against
fres, foods, and external attack. Members often train
in the local martial art (Timor Silat in this case, though
taekwondo is increasingly popular). The Timorese pro-
test that they always settle disputes peacefully. Yet,
the youth groups engage in both culturally permissible
violence and petty harassment to establish their claim
to being security providers for the community.
Youth unemployment is very high in Dili, the Ti-
morese capital. Commercial security is the major cash
employment sector (that is, aside from subsistence
farming. See Ashkenazi and Boemcken, 2011). Every
suco (neighborhood) in Dili has groups of unemployed
young men sitting around, playing football, and gen-
erally idle. In Timor Leste, as in many other places in
South East Asia, neighborhood/village security is en-
trusted to young men. This perception still exists. We
collected numerous reports of incidents where new-
comers (mainly foreigners) to neighborhoods were
subject to minor harassmentsstones thrown at the
roof at night and small items misplaceduntil they
hired a local guard through the mediation of the xefe
da suco (neighborhood head).
4
Traditional security provision is focused on pro-
tecting the community, not individuals within it. Pro-
vided the communitys interests are not at stake, a
certain amount of violence can be shrugged off. The
youth groups may defend themselves and their turf or
282
attack others, so long as the community-frst principle
is maintained. The groups do so through providing
the threat and actuality of force, as well as through
ensuring social and even economic support to groups,
households, and individuals within the community.
Commerce Is About Profts; Commercial
Security Is About. . . .
In 2011, we surveyed commercial security in
Timor Leste and Liberia (Boemcken and Ashkenazi,
2011). Crucially, while commercial security seemed
to offer a halo effect
5
commercial guards did report
on the commission of crimes even in properties they
were not protectingthe actual process of protection
against deadly force was restricted to their clients, by
defnition, the richer segment of society. It needs to be
mentioned that both societies are extremely poor least
developed countries (LDCs).
In Dili, where the institution of neighborhood
guards has a lengthy cultural history as noted previ-
ously we found a full spectrum of commercial secu-
rity that blended on the one end with traditional se-
curity provision by neighborhood and village youth
and on the other with state security provision. Over
9,000 guards employed by three commercial security
companies vastly outnumber the 6,000 or so state se-
curity organs (military, police, and gendarmerie). To
add to that, some households hired members of youth
groups from the community to protect their property.
Most households relied on the presence of the young
men in the streetsreinforced by occasional public
events and support activities by the neighborhood
headmenfor security. At the other end, the com-
mercial security formations were considered, and be-
283
lieved themselves to be a supplementary part of the
state security forces. In a third direction, there is evi-
dence that some of the neighborhood youth groups in
Dili are adopting a security posture that brings them
closer to the fourth corner of potential security forma-
tion postures.
Out-laws Want To Be . . .
While a great deal of criminal activity is just that
criminalsome of it must be looked at with more nu-
ance. Out-laws, such as some of the Timorese youth
groups and so-called Martial Arts Groups (MAGS),
survive by skirting close, or allying themselves with
criminal activity (Scambary, 2006). They have been
linked to smuggling, prostitution, and street intimi-
dation. Most of these groups still claim adherence to
traditional norms, and cite the need for kampong pro-
tection as a cause for their activities.
Other examples can also be found, the most ex-
treme of which is the Lords Resistance Army (LRA)
in Uganda. Led by a charismatic prophet-general, Jo-
seph Kony, the LRA is an offshoot of traditional Acholi
confict management (Allen, 2005). Crucially, because
many out-law groups are wannabe state authorities,
they mix structures and practices of order and disor-
der. Even out-and-out bandits, as Hobsbawm points
out, can be strongly embedded within their societies
as providers of security. (2010)
An interview in Dili with the xefe da suco of a cen-
trally located neighborhood is instructive:
I am responsible for order in the suco. The young men
want jobs. They see the private security guards make
good money, but the demand for such jobs is great, the
284
supply limited. Some of the young men have started
pressuring local merchants to give them jobs as guards.
There have been cases of minor irritationthrowing
stones and so onbut also cases of major intimidation.
If the government wants to ensure peace and law, it
should channel some of the money through the suco
structure. I know who these young men are, I know the
merchants, and I can ensure that the young men do not
behave like criminals, and the merchants get the good
protection they need for their goods and shops.
6

This example highlights what would otherwise
be called a hybrid system, between criminality and
traditional security. In practice, I argue, what we are
looking at is the fourth of four possible postures
that any security provider must adopt.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND SECURITY
PROVIDERS
The feld of confict management is a growing
body of knowledge that is speculative, proven, and,
sometimes frankly hopeful. In this section, I want to
address the role of security providers in confict man-
agement, as refected in the literature. As can be seen
from the examples above, the role that any particu-
lar security provider can play varies extensively. The
problem, from a strategic perspective, is that there are
many motivations that drive even the purest example
of a particular type: a state army or police force, a
group of traditional warriors.
The strategic problem of managing confict thus
becomes an exercise in identifying what these infu-
ences are, what their relative weight is, and how they
can be strengthened or weakened (by no means a pu-
erile task), and trying to provide necessary reinforce-
285
ments to ensure the particular formation is assisting
in transforming the confict in a particular direction.
Given that there are often many players in a particular
confict (not all of them security providers, of course),
this is a daunting task. To add to the problem, a par-
ticular organization can easily morph from one type
to another: from state to commercial, for example, or
vice versa.
Security Provider Structure Dynamics.
To explain these somewhat different phenomena,
and to relate the empirical evidence to the issue of
confict management, it is important to look at the
dynamics of security provision as a series of poten-
tial points, or postures on a plane defned by four
ideal types: state, commercial, traditional, and out-
law security providers (see Figure 10-1). Under an ap-
propriate external stimulus, any group may drift from
a position near one of the ideal poles into a position
closer to any of the others. State security providers
can become involved in the provision of services-for-
cash (commercial security), or into outright predation
(out-law security). Traditional security providers can
morph into state militias or out-law security provid-
ers. Commercial and out-law security providers can
approach other roles, including becoming state secu-
rity apparatuses themselves.
286
Figure 10-1. Dynamics of Security Formation Type.
Posture.
To clarify what I mean by morphing into another
form, I want to introduce a concept I call posture.
Posture is a composite of tendencies that position any
particular security formation on the two-dimensional
surface. Two critical variables (and they may not be
the only ones) are fnancial/ideological motivation
and legal/associational motivation. Any randomly se-
lected security formation is infuenced by both, albeit
to different degrees.
Out-law formations can be infuenced largely by
cash (in the case of criminal gangs). State security
providers by ideology (national police) but there will
always be some mixture: an ideological or cash compo-
nent. Similarly, the associational understructure may
be based purely on social needs or on legal formula-
Legalistic
Associational
Cash
State
Traditional
Ideology
Out-law
Commercial
287
tions, but in practice, there is some degree of mix even
at the poles.
The dynamicshow an organization changes its
posture toward one or another of the poles, depends
on what infuences the particular organization. In-
fuenced in this case means that the organization
(or individual) receives rewards in one of those two
dimensions. The rewardswhich are the equivalent
of behaviorist positive reinforcement (Skinner, 1978)
may be in cash or in social esteem, authority, services,
goods, etc. As the formation accrues more positive re-
inforcements of one or another of those two variables,
its posture (its location on the notional plane) will tend
toward one or another of those four types.
Timorese neighborhood defense group A can serve
as an example. A essentially has four models to fol-
low. One is that of a pure neighborhood defense group
(rewarded by social esteem, some handouts, and wide
social network support). The other is as a commercial
company (rewarded by cash, and by social and pre-
sentation benefts). The third is out-law, in which cash
rewards and individual machismo constitute the ma-
jor rewards. As a state mandated group, the rewards
are access to power, public ideological support (de-
fenders of the nation), job security, and potential pro-
motion. We can examine the groups options in terms
of the kinds of reinforcement they receive and can
foresee receiving. In practice, a neighborhood youth
group receives a certain amount of social recognition
and support. However, this is diffuse, highly condi-
tional (on their being trouble-free), and does not solve
the major problem of most members: making a living.
The possibility of becoming a state group is nonexis-
tent: the state is poor, and state security formations
have been flled by former guerillas (in the army, po-
288
lice, and gendarmerie). This particular neighborhood
in the center of Dili, does have, however, a resource:
a commercial sector of small and larger retail shops.
Cash reinforcement can be manufactured by offering
security services to local merchants, and when these
do not agree to pay the (nominal) fee, incidents can
be arranged to demonstrate that security by the local
youth group is really necessary. Now, this would be
simply a tale of extortion (that is, the traditional group
is changing its posture to out-law) except for the inter-
vention of the xefe da suco and his council. These have
argued against both the merchants and the youth group
that the youth group has a traditional role to play in
neighborhood security, and that the merchants must
pay for this service, via the traditional neighborhood
administration. Community members, on the whole,
agree with this formulation (and indeed, so do the
merchants). The youth group is on the verge of becom-
ing an extortionate network. However, by reasserting
the authority of the suco, the xefe offers them a lower
income but additional social reinforcement. Had he
not done so, the youth group would have become an
extortionate gang, (as have others in Dili).
Confict management depends highly on being
able to offer combatants or opposed sides reinforce-
ment for appropriate behavior. Reinforce aggression
and violence, and groups will become more aggres-
sive and violent, and other groups, too, will become ag-
gressive and violent. Moreover, contemporary confict
management is highly reliant on an assumption that
the four types of security providers will act as they do in
Western societies, including the United States; that is, that
they are close to their Weberian ideal type. This is not
necessarily the case. Professional commercial security
organizations in Timor and in Liberia see themselves
289
as an informal, but nevertheless essential, part of the
state security apparatus. The Lou Nuer White Army
see themselves as protecting traditional privilege and
activity, not as out-laws. Indeed, both of these types of
security provider (as well as others such as the police
in Georgia and Albania) have multiple reinforcements
and consequently multiple roles.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
What policy implications can we draw about con-
fict management from the above? There are three
general implications we need to keep in mind.
1. Security providers (whether the individuals who
make them up or the groups that structure individual
activity) operate on the basis of a variety of reinforce-
ments. Economic reinforcements are important, even
crucial, but other factors such as social approval have
great consequences as well.
2. The more reinforcements of a particular sort are
received, the more the form of the security provider
morphs toward a particular pole: offering cash to tra-
ditional security providers will very quickly bring
them to adopt a commercial posture. Reduce their
prestige and social approval, and they easily become
out-law.
3. As with all forms of reinforcement, there is a
need to refresh reinforcement from time to time. In
the real world, this means one cannot say, the job is
done, and turn away.
We also need to recognize some more specifc is-
sues having to do with the connection between security
providers and confict management. Crucially, since
the posture adopted by a security provider is plastic,
290
the time and resource dimensions need to be assessed.
To ensure that security providers have a posture that
supports the goal of confict management, one needs
to ensure that resources can be allocated for the long time;
that is, not years, but decades. This implies, in the in-
terests of continuity, that these resources are gener-
ated from inside the system (the state or community)
and not gifted from the outside, since the latter will,
inevitably, end. Second, working on that basis, we can
look at how security providers can be induced to par-
ticipate in confict management. Confict management
is a practice that emerges from and refects internal
dynamics, while also affecting them. The situation
will remain dynamic and unstable, unless underlying
issues, which push potential security providers into
other profles, are dealt with society-wide. While ex-
ternal reinforcements may be necessary, what is desir-
able are internally generated reinforcements that will
ensure a more-or-less homeostatic situation of low or
no confict.
291
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ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 10
1. The hyphen is intentional, since a major characteristic of
these formations is that they operate outside government or local
legal sanction.
2. Question to the American readers: could you itemize this as
a valid expense for the IRS?
3. The Bakassi Boys in Nigeria (Smith 2004), who provide se-
curity, but also engage in extortion are one example. A nascent
system evolving in Dili, Timor Leste, is described below.
4. It should be noted that these guards take their job seriously,
and that given their ability to rapidly mobilize their peers, and
the social supervision of the neighborhood elders, the service ren-
dered is quite good.
5. That is, security is enhanced even in properties not formally
protected by the hired guards, since the mere presence of a uni-
formed observer tends to deter crime.
6. Authors diaries. Interview with xefe da suco C,
August 6, 2010.
295
CHAPTER 11
MASS ATROCITY PREVENTION AND
RESPONSE OPTIONS:
ADDRESSING THE POLICY CHALLENGES
Dwight Raymond
BACKGROUND
Strategy entails choices to integrate ends, ways,
and means in order to pursue national interests that
are often conficting. The National Security Strategy
states:
The United States is committed to working with our al-
lies, and to strengthening our own internal capabilities,
in order to ensure that the United States and the inter-
national community are proactively engaged in a stra-
tegic effort to prevent mass atrocities and genocide.
1

Also referenced in documents such as the Quadren-
nial Defense Review (QDR) and the Quadrennial Diplo-
macy and Development Review (QDDR), mass atrocity
prevention has been more recently emphasized in a
Presidential Study Directive on Mass Atrocities (PSD-
10) and subsequent governmental efforts to respond
to the PSD. PSD-10 states that Preventing mass atroc-
ities and genocide is a core national security interest
and a core moral responsibility of the United States
and requires a level of governmental organization
that matches the methodical organization characteris-
tic of mass killings.
2

This chapter describes a policy formulation meth-
odology and relevant considerations contained in Mass
Atrocity Prevention and Response Options (MAPRO): A
296
Policy Planning Handbook, which is intended to help
policymakers address these issues comprehensively.
After providing an overview of mass atrocities, it
identifes guidelines, a proposed framework for policy
formulation, interests, how elements of national infu-
ence can be employed, and the risks and challenges
associated with efforts to prevent or respond to mass
atrocities.
One of the prominent themes of mass atrocity lit-
erature is that national governments and the rest of
the international community are disposed toward in-
action.
3
This is due to several factors, such as compet-
ing national interests that dissuade action, risk-averse
decisionmaking and bureaucracies that support status
quo approaches, and the often-complex context of po-
tential problems that may not be reducible to a clear-
cut case of stopping identifable evil perpetrators and
protecting innocent victims. As described in one mas-
terpiece of political satire, governments often appear
to follow a four-stage approach to crisis management:
Stage 1: We say that nothing is going to
happen.
Stage 2: We say that something may be going to
happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Stage 3: We say that maybe we should do
something about it, but there is nothing we can
do.
Stage 4: We say that maybe there was
something we could have done but it is too late
now.
4
The list of mass atrocities since the end of the Cold
War is disturbing, including Rwanda, Srebrenica, Si-
erra Leone, East Timor, Darfur, other parts of the Su-
dan, South Sudan, the Congo, Sri Lanka, the Lords
297
Resistance Army (LRA) activities in Uganda and
elsewhere, and others. In part because of these crises,
and the checkered results of the international com-
munity in addressing them, an expanding community
of interest has developed on the Protection of Civil-
ians (PoC) in general and mass atrocity prevention in
particular. This community of interest includes past
and present representatives of national governments,
human rights advocates, scholars, international orga-
nizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
and the media. The United Nations (UN) and some
national governments have created focal points to
coordinate collective efforts regarding mass atrocity
prevention and response. Other developments have
also contributed to improving the international com-
munitys will and capacity to address mass atrocities.
Despite continuing harsh criticism of the UN, to
include from some of its staunchest advocates, that
institution has been steadily pursuing peacekeeping
reform initiatives since the 2000 Brahimi Report on UN
Peace Operations, which essentially concluded that
without marked transformation, the UN would recede
into irrelevance. Subsequent related efforts include the
New Horizons report, the Considerations for Mission
Leadership in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations,
and emphasis on PoC and robust peacekeeping.
In 2001, the International Commission on Inter-
vention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) released The Re-
sponsibility to Protect,
5
a study that changed the terms
of the debate about when outside actors have the right
to intervene in a sovereign countrys internal affairs.
The ICISS report concluded that sovereignty implies
responsibility and, in the case of serious harm when
the state is unwilling or unable to protect its popu-
lation from extreme harm, the principle of noninter-
298
vention yields to the international responsibility to
protect. The report developed a three-stage approach
for the responsibility to protect, including prevention,
reaction, and rebuilding.
The Responsibility to Protect concept (also known
as R2P or RTP) was subsequently endorsed at the 2005
UN General Assembly Summit and, within the UN,
later evolved into a framework of three pillars:
6

Pillar 1: Protection Responsibilities of the State.
Pillar 2: International Assistance and Capacity-
Building.
Pillar 3: Timely and Decisive Response.
In 2008, the frst UN Special Adviser on the Re-
sponsibility to Protect who collaborates closely with
the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
(frst appointed in 2004), was designated. Despite tan-
gible steps toward institutionalizing R2P, however,
many have strong reservations about its implications
for state sovereignty, its potential license for interven-
tion, and the extent to which responsibility trans-
lates into a legal international obligation to act.
In the United States as well, incremental steps have
been taken to improve the governments coherence
regarding mass atrocity prevention and response.
The most noteworthy catalyst was the 2008 Geno-
cide Prevention Task Force (GPTF) report, Preventing
Genocide, which included 34 recommendations.
7
Since
the publication of the GPTF report, government docu-
ments, including the National Security Strategy, the
QDR, and the QDDR, have referenced mass atrocities.
On December 22, 2010, Senate Concurrent Resolu-
tion 71 on Genocide Prevention provided additional
emphasis, and PSD-10 specifed the creation of an
Atrocity Prevention Board, in accordance with a GPTF
recommendation.
299
Mass atrocity mitigation is also included in mili-
tary references including the Guidance for the Em-
ployment of the Force (GEF) and the Army Operat-
ing Concept. The 2010 publication of the unoffcial
Mass Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) military
planning handbook was followed by a MARO ap-
pendix in the new Joint Publication (JP) 3-07.3 Peace
Operations.
8
These documents are intended to as-
sist military commanders and staffs in the planning
and conduct of operations to prevent and respond to
mass atrocities.
The MAPRO Handbook
9
was published in March
2012 as a reference for members of the policy commu-
nity. It is intended to support recommendations from
the GPTF report and to assist with the implementation
of PSD-10s intent by supporting informed and struc-
tured policy formulation. The Handbook addresses
considerations for mass atrocity situations, describes
a policy formulation process, and provides templates
that can be adjusted as necessary. While it primar-
ily addresses mass atrocity situations (arguably the
worst-case threats to peace and development), much
of the Handbook is also applicable to other complex
situations involving confict because many of the na-
tional interests, actors, policy processes, potential lines
of effort, and potential elements of national infuence
are similar. Indeed, mass atrocity situations will often
have to be addressed as a part of the wider context
within which they occur, such as insurgencies, civil
war, or interstate confict.
300
MASS ATROCITY PREVENTION AND
RESPONSE OPTIONS
Genocide was defned at the 1948 Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide as:
any of the following acts committed with intent to de-
stroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial
or religious group, as such: Killing members of the
group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to mem-
bers of the group; deliberately inficting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physi-
cal destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures
intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly
transferring children of the group to another group.
10

It notably includes intent to eliminate some groups.
Strictly speaking, genocide does not apply when an
eliminationist intent is not present, or if the groups
targeted for elimination fall outside of the categories
included in the defnition (e.g., political groups, eco-
nomic classes, sexual orientation, or others).
A mass atrocity may be defned as:
Widespread and systematic acts of violence against
noncombatants including killing; causing serious
bodily or mental harm; or deliberately inficting condi-
tions of life that cause serious bodily or mental harm.
11

Mass atrocities include genocides as well as cases
that are excluded by the 1948 defnition of genocide.
There can be a blurry line between mass atrocities
and other problematic situations such as atrocities,
massacres, political violence, and large scale human
rights violations. Additionally, atrocities can include
acts such as rape and torture, and are not necessarily
limited to killing.
301
MAPRO may be defned as:
U.S. Government efforts to anticipate and prevent
when possible andif prevention failsto respond by
mitigating or stopping genocide or mass atrocities.
12

MAPRO includes relevant policies and programs
regarding general government capacity and its efforts
regarding particular mass atrocity situations. Mass
Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) is a related
subset of MAPRO and refers to Military activities
conducted across the operational spectrum to prevent
or halt mass atrocities.
13
MAPRO Guidelines.
Effective policymaking for mass atrocity mitiga-
tion should adhere to the following six guidelines:
Prevention is preferable to response.
The United States has a wide range of diplo-
matic, informational, military, and economic
tools that should be considered and integrated.
Policymakers must understand the complete
context of the situation.
Quick action is important to address concerns
and take advantage of opportunities.
Multilateral efforts are preferable to unilateral
action.
Planning for transitions and endstates should
begin as early as possible.
Prevention Is Preferable to Response.
Prevention is superior to response for three main
reasons, the frst of which is that effective prevention
implies that large-scale human suffering has been
302
avoided. The second reason is that the resources re-
quired for prevention are likely to be modest in com-
parison to those required for a major intervention
and post-crisis reconstruction. Finally, prevention
precludes the requirement to obtain political and in-
ternational support that could prove elusive when
a controversial response is contemplated. Preven-
tion, however, poses its own challenges; it requires
a pre-crisis investment of attention and resources
that must compete with other issues that may be
more immediate.
The United States Has a Wide Range of Diplomatic,
Informational, Military, and Economic Tools that
Should Be Considered and Integrated.
The GPTF report famously stated that the United
States has a wide range of options between the ex-
tremes of doing nothing and sending in the Ma-
rines.
14
Various diplomatic, informational, military,
and economic (DIME) measures can mitigate mass
atrocity situations by addressing underlying condi-
tions; exposing, dissuading, stopping, isolating, or
punishing perpetrators and their enablers; establish-
ing the resolve, credibility, and capability of the U.S.
Government or the international community; protect-
ing or empowering potential victims; diminishing
perpetrator motivation or capability to conduct mass
atrocities; or convincing bystanders and other actors
to take constructive action or refrain from supporting
perpetrators. It should be noted that military tools are
not limited to coercive interventions; lesser operations
can be quite useful in supporting diplomacy.
303
Policymakers Must Understand the Complete
Context of the Situation.
A mass atrocity situation will frequently occur
within the context of a broader confict such as civil
war, insurgency, or interstate confict. Regional and in-
ternational dynamics will be relevant, and a particular
situation will both be infuenced by recent experiences
and will infuence future situations (e.g., the 1994 in-
ternational response to Rwanda was in part shaped by
experiences in Somalia, and Libya 2011 subsequently
affected Syria in 2012). Policymakers must understand
the different actors (perpetrators, victims, interveners,
bystanders, positive actors, and negative actors), al-
though actual categorization to include perpetrators
who may have some legitimate or understandable ob-
jectives and that their cooperation may be required to
achieve a peaceful settlement. They must also compre-
hend the geographic, political, military, economic, so-
cial, infrastructure, and informational considerations
(especially those that affect confict dynamics). Local
and community contexts will often be signifcant.
Quick Action Is Important to Address Concerns
and Take Advantage of Opportunities.
Country teams are often in the best position to
monitor developments and act expeditiously, while
anticipating unintended second-order effects. Delayed
action may encourage perpetrators, allowing them
time to build strength and mobilize, while allowing
potential victims to become even more vulnerable.
Appropriate quick action is facilitated by a responsive
policy formulation process that effciently provides
information and options to senior decision makers
and secures their rapid guidance and decisions.
304
Multilateral Efforts Are Preferable to Unilateral Action.
Multilateral prevention and response efforts tend
to have greater legitimacy, reduce the likelihood that
U.S. DIME measures will be diluted by circumven-
tion, spread the cost and burden of the actions (and
any post-confict stabilization efforts), and reduce the
likelihood of negative consequences, such as regional
anti-Americanism that might arise from a unilateral
approach. Moreover, some nations may be more ca-
pable than the United States of taking effective action
in some situations. A UN Security Council Resolution
provides the preferred level of mandate legitimacy. In
its absence (for example, if a resolution is vetoed by
one of the permanent fve members), majority votes
in either the Security Council or General Assembly or
backing from a regional or sub-regional organization
may be an acceptable alternative.
Planning for Transitions and Endstates Should Begin
As Early As Possible.
The main focus in a mass atrocity situation is to
prevent or halt the atrocities. However, policymak-
ers may also have to address the aftermath including:
prevention of mass atrocity recurrence; the root causes
of the crisis; or achieving a peaceful, stable, and just
political settlement. The former government may or
may not remain in power. The countrys territory may
or may not remain under unifed governance. Per-
petrators may or may not be brought to justice, and
compensation to victims may or may not be arranged.
Policymakers in the U.S. Government, other national
governments, and international organizations should
develop plans and make the necessary arrangements
305
regarding post-crisis roles, responsibilities, and au-
thorities. Situations and plans are likely to change,
but policymakers ideally should shape these changes
rather than merely watch them occur.
MAPRO Policy Planning.
The MAPRO Policy and Planning Framework gen-
erally conforms with various interagency planning
processes that have been advanced in recent years. It
is suitable both during deliberate contingency plan-
ning for hypothetical situations as well as when plan-
ning for short-term crisis situations. The MAPRO
Handbook supplements the framework with formats
and examples of planning products, such as briefngs
and memoranda, which can be tailored as necessary.
While such guidance may seem mundane and pedan-
tic, it is useful for structuring efforts and to minimize
foundering.
15

MAPRO Policy and Planning Framework.
Continuous situational understanding is critical,
and it is particularly important to have an apprecia-
tion of relevant actors and the U.S. national interests.
Actors may, however loosely, be categorized as per-
petrators, victims, interveners, and others (including
bystanders, positive actors, and negative actors).
16
U.S. national interests in a specifc situation will
be among the most important determinants in for-
mulating policy. These interests may often confict
with each other and policy should refect how the
interests are balanced and weighted. Mass atrocity
situations are likely to involve any of the following
national interests:
17
306
Escalation or resumption of violence is
prevented.
Confict spillover into the wider region is
avoided.
Effects on transnational issues such as terror-
ism are minimized.
Timely and effective humanitarian aid is pro-
vided to save lives and alleviate suffering.
Rights of refugees, displaced persons, and vul-
nerable populations are protected.
Political stability and good governance are sup-
ported.
Economic interests are secured by promoting
stability and rule of law, or by averting crisis.
U.S. citizens and property are protected.
U.S. actions do not have unacceptable adverse
impact upon relations with allies, regional
countries, or other nations.
The international community, (particularly the
UN or relevant regional organization) takes
appropriate action in concert with the United
States.
The United States acts in accordance with its
values and maintains its credibility and legiti-
macy.
Refugee/Internally Displaced Persons/hu-
manitarian crisis is avoided.
U.S. willingness to protect civilians and support
international laws and norms is demonstrated.
Perpetrators are delegitimized.
Human rights violators are brought to justice.
Terrorist threats are reduced.
The anticipated costs (including money, per-
sonnel, and other resources) of U.S. actions are
acceptable.
307
A MAPRO plan may be structured in accordance
with Figure 11-1. A key inference is that thoughtful
advance planning may result in effective prevention
measures that preclude any need to implement the
later stages of the plan.
18
Figure 11-1. Suggested MAPRO Plan Phases.
A MAPRO plan should address the critical Lines
of Effort (LOEs) that comprise the necessary and suff-
cient elements (or functions) required for success. The
LOEs should include a concept for implementation,
relevant activities and objectives, and lead and sup-
porting agencies. A representative set of LOEs may
include the following:
Situation Understanding;
Diplomacy & Strategic Communication;
Unity of Effort;
Military Efforts;
Economic Efforts;
Safe and Secure Environment;
Governance and Rule of Law;
Social Well-Being.
19
Phase I: Prevention
Stage IA: Steady-State Engagement
Stage IB: Targeted Prevention
Stage IC: Crisis Management
Phase II: Response
Stage IIA: Stop Mass Atrocities
Stage IIB: Stabilization
Phase III: Transition
Stage IIIA: Build Host Nation Capacity
Stage III B: Transition to Steady-State Posture
308
APPLYING THE ELEMENTS OF NATIONAL
INFLUENCE
Approaches to mitigate a mass atrocity situation
may be broadly categorized as suasion, which involves
persuasion, dissuasion, and deterrence; compellence,
which incorporates higher levels of pressure and sanc-
tions; and intervention, in which a solution is imposed
to include through the use of coercive military force.
In practice, these approaches may not have clear dis-
tinctions between them. During a response, the role
of discrete actors such as the United States could, in
turn, be generally viewed as that of a bystander, enabler
of other actors, leader of a multinational effort, or unilat-
eral actor. The approach and role of U.S. efforts will be
determined by U.S. interests; the urgency of the situa-
tion; other issues that must be addressed; the potential
leverage possessed by the United States and other ac-
tors; the likelihood that the United States can achieve
constructive results without undesired second-order
consequences, domestic political considerations, and
the opinion and actions of the international commu-
nity including the UN and regional organizations.
A wide array of DIME tools can be employed to
prevent, respond to, and aid in the recovery from mass
atrocity situations. Many of these are included in Fig-
ure 11-2, and are roughly grouped in accordance with
the general approach that the tools support. In gen-
eral, suasion tools are less resource-intensive, incur
less risk, and are not as intrusive on host nation sov-
ereignty as are the compellence and intervention
tools. They can be integrated into a carrot-and-stick
approach and, of course, there is no requirement to
exhaust all less extreme measures before frmer tools
are attempted.
309
Figure 11-2. Diplomatic, Informational, Military,
and Economic (DIME) Tools.
20
310
The MAPRO Handbook discusses several cross-cut-
ting considerations when policy is formulated and
DIME tools are applied. These are:
Host Nation Ownership and Capacity;
Political Primacy;
Legitimacy;
Unity of Effort;
Security;
Confict Transformation;
Regional/International Engagement;
Strategic Communication.
21
Policymakers will be confronted with hard choices
and tough decisions during a mass atrocity situation,
and the decisions are apt to become more challenging
as circumstances change and the situation develops.
It will be diffcult to predict the outcome with any
real certainty, requiring continual reassessment of the
problems, the desired endstate, and the solution set.
Some of the potential anticipated policy decisions are
as follows:
Whether to treat the host nation government as
a partner or adversary.
How to handle setbacks (e.g., mass atrocities
that occur).
Whether to commit additional resources.
Whether to transition from one phase to an-
other.
When to transfer responsibility to another actor
(e.g., the UN or host nation).
Whether to modify the plan radically (e.g.,
change objectives).
Whether to intervene (in fact or appearance) on
one side of the confict.
Whether to await a UN Security Council
Resolution.
311
Whether to intervene without a clear exit
strategy.
Whether to develop or implement a branch
plan.
Whether and to what extent to accommodate
concerns expressed by other actors.
How to gain/sustain domestic and interna-
tional support.
Whether to sacrifce political goals, such as
bringing perpetrators to justice, to stop confict
or maximize humanitarian beneft.
MAPRO-related decisions will incur risks regard-
less of whether action is taken or not taken. Policy-
makers should attempt to anticipate the major risks
(that is, what can go wrong?) and identify measures
to lessen the probability of the risks or their impact
if they, in fact, materialize. Negative second-order
effects are particularly diffcult to predict.
22
In some
cases, policymakers will have to accept risk, but they
should do so with an understanding both of the risks
and the potential consequences. Some of the general
potential risks in a mass atrocity situation include
the following:
Ineffectiveness (especially if actions are too
little or too late).
Unintended Escalation.
Collateral Damage.
Anti-Americanism or Anti-American
Sentiment.
Quagmire and Mission Creep.
Losses.
Increased Resistance because of Pride or
Nationalism.
Politicization of Humanitarian Assistance.
312
Negative Second-Order Effects.
Risks of Inaction.
RECOGNIZING THE MAPRO CHALLENGES
There are three inherent diffculties associated
with a mass atrocity situation: (1) recognizing that a
genocide or mass atrocity situation potentially exists;
(2) deciding what to do about it, and (3) mobilizing,
deploying, employing, and orchestrating the complex
set of resources necessary to address the situation.
The frst diffculty can be partially remedied by in-
stitutional measures such as identifying, monitoring,
and interpreting early warnings and indicators. Part of
the solution includes responsive information sharing
with other governments, international organizations
such as the UN, NGOs, and civil society within the
country of interest. However, policymakers and their
constituencies will demand a high level of certainty
regarding mass atrocity situations, and perfect infor-
mation will never be possible (particularly for events
that have not yet occurred or which may be masked
by an existing background of political violence or hu-
man rights violations). Perpetrators will also conceal,
obfuscate, deny, minimize, or rationalize their actions
(e.g., claiming that any casualties are insurgents or
violent protestors, not helpless victims).
The MAPRO Handbook is intended to assist poli-
cymakers as they wrestle with MAPRO decisions and
the associated risks by providing a rational yet fea-
sible process for contingency planning as well as crisis
response. The framework discussed in the Handbook
is generally suitable for other interagency planning
efforts that require a structured approach to complex
strategic issues. By itself, however, it is not a pana-
313
cea for effective government action to prevent and re-
spond to mass atrocities. It can support the necessary
fusion of three governmental groups: those in govern-
ment who are experts about a particular country or
region, those who focus on transnational functional
matters (such as international law, fnancial sanctions,
war crimes, military operations, or peacekeeping), and
those who make policy decisions within an extremely
diverse portfolio.
Effective policy planning requires a modest com-
mitment of resources, perhaps not quite a level of
governmental organization that matches the methodi-
cal organization characteristic of mass killings,
23
but
the resources are needed nonetheless. The rudimen-
tary requirements include dedicated planning space,
a handful of dedicated planners with senior leader
access and clearly delineated authorities (particularly
necessary when mass atrocities are but one dimension
of a complex situation and multiple department and
intergovernmental agencies are stakeholders), and the
active participation of other part-time planners who
contribute their expertise when needed.
More importantly, plannings effectiveness hinges
on senior leader involvement. Senior leaders must de-
vote the time to understand the planning process and
plans (shaping both as they so desire), provide guid-
ance, approve planning products, make decisions,
and ensure that their organizations are providing ad-
equate support and participation. If senior leaders are
not involved in policy planning and do not seriously
expect a high quality process, they in effect are saying
that they do think that planning is really that impor-
tant. If they do not think it is important, it will not be.
314
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 11
1. National Security Strategy, Washington, DC: The White
House, May 2010, p. 48.
2. Barack Obama, Presidential Study Directive on Mass Atroci-
ties, Washington, DC: The White House, available from www.
whitehouse.gov/the-press-offce/2011/08/04/presidential-study-direc-
tive-mass-atrocities.
3. See, for example, Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell,
New York: Basic Books, 2002.
4. Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, Yes Prime Minister, Tops-
feld, MA: Salem House Publishers, 1986, p. 160.
5. International Commission on Intervention and State Sover-
eignty, The Responsibility to Protect, Ottawa, Canada: International
Development Research Center, 2001.
6. United Nations General Assembly, Report of the Secretary
General A/63/677, Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, New
York: The United Nations, January 12, 2009.
7. Genocide Prevention Task Force, Madeleine K. Albright
and William S. Cohen, Co-Chairs, Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint
for U.S. Policymakers, Washington, DC: The United States Holo-
caust Memorial Museum, The American Academy of Diplomacy,
and the Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace, 2008.
8. Sarah Sewell, Dwight Raymond, and Sally Chin, Mass
Atrocity Response Operations (MARO): A Military Planning Hand-
book, Cambridge, MA: The President and Fellows of Harvard Col-
lege, 2010.
9. Dwight Raymond, Cliff Bernath, Don Braum, and Ken
Zurcher, Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Options (MAPRO):
A Policy Planning Handbook, Carlisle, PA: Peacekeeping and Sta-
bility Operations Institute, U.S. Army War College 2012, avail-
able from pksoi.army.mil/PKM/publications/collaborative/collaborati-
vereview.cfm?collaborativeID=11.
315
10. The text of the Genocide Convention is available from
www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html.
11. MAPRO Handbook, p. 10.
12. Ibid.
13. Joint Publication (JP) 3-07.3, Peace Operations, Draft, p. GL-5.
14. GPTF, p. xvii.
15. See MAPRO Handbook, Part II and Annex D.
16. Ibid., pp. 27-29.
17. Ibid., pp. 32-32.
18. Ibid., pp. 61-64.
19. Ibid., pp. 53-54.
20. Ibid., p. 84. See pp. 84-120 for a brief description of each of
the tools.
21. See MAPRO Handbook, pp. 73-77, for discussion of the
cross-cutting considerations.
22. For example, a second-order effect of the 2011 Libyan
intervention was the 2012 coup in Mali; mercenaries employed
by the Gaddaf regime left Libya with large quantities of heavy
weapons and joined the Tuareg insurgency. Mali military offcers,
contending that their government was not providing adequate re-
sources to counter the insurgents, overthrew the democratically-
elected President.
23. Obama, Presidential Study Directive on Mass Atrocities
(PSD)-10, August 4, 2011.
317
CHAPTER 12
THE UNITED STATES, CHINA, AND INDIA
IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER:
CONSEQUENCES FOR EUROPE
Liselotte Odgaard
INTRODUCTION
In the debate on a new world order, policymakers
and analysts appear to focus on three developments.
First, the U.S. reorientation away from the Atlantic to
the Pacifc is at the center of the debate. This reorienta-
tion has come about because the geographical center
of gravity in the new world order has moved away
from Europe with the implosion of the Soviet Union,
and over to Asia with the rising power of countries
such as China and India. This development raises the
question of the extent to which Washington will pur-
sue Asian integration into the existing world order or,
alternatively, treat Asias rising powers as opponents.
The growing economic challenges faced by the United
States make it clear that in the coming decades, Wash-
ington will increasingly direct its resources toward
Asia. Second, Chinas growing economic and military
capabilities are major topics in the debate on the future
world order. The economic reform process that was
set in motion under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping
in 1978 has led to consistently high economic growth
rates and a military modernization process that has
caused the rest of the world to consider the extent to
which China will embrace or reject the liberal interna-
tional order of integration. Third, subsequently India
has joined the club of rising economic powers, with
318
annual economic growth rates of 8-9 percent.
1
This de-
velopment has raised the issue of whether India might
gradually overtake China as the main rising power.
This chapter makes the argument that the U.S.
pursuit of an integrationist world order and Chinas
pursuit of a coexistence world order will dominate
the future world order. India and Europe will be tak-
ers rather than makers of order, facing the challenge
of carving out a position in-between these two com-
peting world orders. The remainder of the chapter
frst outlines the characteristics of the integrationist
value-based order pursued by the United States. Sec-
ond, I describe the characteristics of the coexistence
interest-based order pursued by China.
2
Third, I argue
that Indias rise is limited and does not translate into
growing strategic infuence on the future world order.
Fourth, I discuss the implications for Europe of an or-
der dominated by two incoherent alternatives.
THE U.S. INTEGRATIONIST WORLD ORDER
The United States pursues a strategy of infuence
suitable for a great power that aims to consolidate the
existing world order beyond its position of superior
power. The United States remains the only full-blown
global great power, with a gross domestic product
(GDP) of $14.256 trillion in 2010, which is approxi-
mately three times as large as Chinas GDP of $5.068
trillion in 2010.
3
Militarily, superior capabilities, com-
bined with a global alignment system, means that U.S.
power projection remains second to none, and this
system forms the principal basis for Washingtons
world-wide politico-strategic infuence. At the same
time, the United States is a great power in decline, with
estimates of U.S. GDP at only two-thirds of Chinas
319
GDP in 2050, if current economic growth rates con-
tinue to apply.
4
Although this time frame is too long to
predict that Washington will lose its status as a global
great power, these prospects infuence Washingtons
concern to consolidate the existing world order. In
particular, the United States is concerned to preserve
its infuence on right and wrong international conduct
beyond its position of dominant power.
5

The United States took the lead in formulating
Western political aspirations as a program aiming at
enhancing international integration.
6
The world order
pursued by the United States is based on liberal val-
ues, and its central principles are well-known. These
are, frst, that market economic structures form the ba-
sis of international integration because they engender
transnational links, which allegedly promote greater
wealth for all. The liberal idea of the market entails
that economic growth is the road to prosperity. This
economic philosophy implies that the state plays a mi-
nor role in the economy, which allows the decisions
of market agents to engender the most effective use
of resources. A second principle is that democracy
engenders peace and stability by virtue of its reliance
on popular opinion and checks and balances on politi-
cal authorities. The liberal idea of democracy declares
that the people are sovereign and that the will of the
people is respected by means of the right to elect rep-
resentatives for the management of political authority.
In essence, the liberal democratic model implies that
political structures are established that allow adult
members of society to pursue their interpretation of
the good life and how it is realized. A third principle
is that the interpretation of the United Nations (UN)
Charter should be revised so as to allow for compro-
mises with absolute sovereignty in the event of seri-
320
ous breaches of individual civil and political rights.
In other words, states may intervene in the internal
affairs of each other if incumbents managing sover-
eignty fail to provide basic security for their citizens,
even if the regime in the target state has not endorsed
intervention from external parties. Liberal state-soci-
ety relations take the individual rather than the state
as the fundamental unit whose rights are to be pro-
tected. This requires the protection of civil rights by
means of law to ensure the right to life and property
as well as the obligation to respect agreements. No
entity, not even the state, ranks above the law, and,
as such, the state apparatus itself is also obliged to re-
spect the law. A fourth principle is that the U.S. align-
ment system based on liberal democracy and civil and
political rights defnes the states that form the core of
world order. In other words, U.S. allies subscribing to
the liberal economic and political integrationist values
are entrusted with primary responsibility for promot-
ing and securing world order.
The United States considers itself to have a mis-
sion to build and preserve a community of free and
independent nations with governments that answer
to their citizens and refect their own cultures. Thus,
the 2012 Strategic Guidance for the U.S. Department of
Defense (DoD) states that the United States seeks:
a just and sustainable international order where the
rights and responsibilities of nations and peoples are
upheld, especially the fundamental rights of every hu-
man being.
7

Because democracies respect their own people and
their neighbors, the advance of freedom will lead to
peace. The United States believes in the concept of
321
democratic peace, meaning that international peace
is best engendered by democracies governed by law.
Such states are less likely to go to war against each
other because they consider each other legitimate en-
tities behaving in accordance with common rules of
state conduct.
8
Democracies committed to the rule of
law are less likely to go to war against each other since
democracies are seen as entities that play by the rules.
They are considered less legitimate targets of enforce-
ment strategies by default because it is not merely
the government, but the people represented by the
government, whose decisions and activities are con-
sequently called into question, since, in democracies,
governments are answerable to their citizens.
9
The
U.S. goal of spreading democracy may be traded in
for stability in the short term, but it remains the long-
term goal of the U.S. Government. This is the case
even for the Barack Obama administration, which
inherited the problems of peacebuilding emerging in
the Afghanistan operations and has tended to priori-
tize stability rather than democratization. On the basis
of the logic that peace and international stability are
most reliably built on a foundation of freedom defned
as democracy, the United States has been heavily en-
gaged in fghting terrorism and rogue regimes such
as Gaddafs rule in Libya. Military means are applied
with the intention of creating the preconditions for the
spread of liberal democracy in the long run.
One core element in Washingtons program for
international order is the U.S. alliance system. It origi-
nates from the Cold War threat of Sino-Soviet expan-
sion and does not merely encompass the customary
understanding of alliances as pacts of mutual military
assistance. Rather, the United States developed an ex-
tensive system of alignments of which the actual mili-
322
tary alliances formed the iron core. Initially, the Soviet
Union was surrounded by a virtual power vacuum
along its entire periphery, from Scandinavia and the
British Isles, along the rim lands of Eurasia, to Japan
and Korea. The United States therefore established
and maintained a substantial military presence in and
close to the chief Eurasian danger areas, projecting U.S.
power across the water barriers.
10
After the Cold War,
the U.S. alliance, or perhaps more precisely, alignment
system, has remained in place. One of the core strate-
gic objectives of U.S. national defense is to strengthen
the countrys security relationships with traditional
allies and to develop new international partnerships,
working to increase the capabilities of its partners to
contend with common challenges. The U.S. overseas
military presence operated in and from four forward
regions: Europe, Northeast Asia, the East Asian Litto-
ral, and the Middle East-Southwest Asia. The United
States has embarked on a comprehensive realignment
of the U.S. global defense posture to enable U.S. forces
to undertake military operations worldwide, refect-
ing the global nature of U.S. interests.
The means used by Washington to pursue the con-
solidation of this liberal world order are to expand the
role of the liberal world order as the basis of interac-
tion in Asia. This strategy encompasses entering into
free-trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacifc Part-
nership with Asian countries strengthening economic
and military cooperation with Asian democracies, re-
structuring the U.S. alignment system so as to place
the U.S. Pacifc Command at the center, and involv-
ing Asian countries in peacemaking operations where
grave breaches of civil and political rights are seen
to engender threats to international peace and stabil-
ity. Liberal economic globalization is, by and large,
323
accepted around the world, including in China, as a
role model for other states and nations to imitate. The
United States considers Chinas intentions, with its in-
tegration into global economic market structures, to be
potentially disturbing; however, Washingtons liberal
understanding of international relations encourages it
to entertain the hope that Chinas economic integra-
tion will socialize the population into adopting a posi-
tive view on the political ideas of liberalism. Therefore,
the United States adopts a positive attitude toward the
fact that contemporary China is fully integrated into
the international economic system. Thus, the element
of market economic structures is not at the top of the
U.S. security agenda, although issues of contention re-
main, such as Beijings reluctance to include the Chi-
nese currency, the renminbi, in a system of foating ex-
change rates. By contrast, liberal democracy and legal
globalization have yet to take root and hence remain
a long-term goals of U.S. Governments. The U.S. aim
to spread democracy across the world is, however, not
necessarily pursued by peaceful means. The war on
terror was principally conducted by military means,
but they are considered an element in creating the pre-
conditions for the spread of liberal democracy and the
rule of law in the long run. In the U.S. Defense Strategic
Guidance dated 2012, it is formulated as the belief that:
[r]egime changes, as well as tensions within and among
states under pressure to reform, introduce uncertainty
for the future. But they also may result in governments
that, over the long term, are more responsive to the
legitimate aspirations of their people, and are more
stable and reliable partners of the United States.
11

So the United States supports democratic reform.
Elections are vital. However, democracy also requires
324
the rule of law, the protection of minorities, and
strong, accountable institutions that last longer than a
single vote. In general, the eradication of terrorism is
one of several ways by which stability at the domestic
and international level is promoted. Stability is seen as
a precondition for democratization since it is diffcult
to bring about lasting changes in governmental and
legal practices without some measure of predictability
in the basic political and military structures. Stability
may entail working with authoritarian political estab-
lishments in the short run to pave the way for long-
term liberal political and legal reforms. The enhanced
prioritization of the Asia-Pacifc in the U.S. military
force posture testifes to the fact that this region is of
primary signifcance to U.S. interests. As such, it is
pivotal for the United States to assure partners, dis-
suade military competition, deter aggression and
coercion, and be able to take prompt military action
in this region. The continued U.S. ability to perform
in these capacities constitutes the structure that aids
Washingtons attempt to implement the other aspects
of its program for international order.
The U.S. world order is called integrationist be-
cause it is based on values. The drawback to this type
of order is that it is fairly rigid in its defnition of legiti-
mate and illegitimate conduct, and it excludes numer-
ous states from becoming core members due to the
economic, military, and political structures that form
the basis of state-society relations. The strength of
this order is that the limits of acceptable behavior are
clearly defned. Only democracies subscribing to mar-
ket economic principles can form part of the core of
the liberal world order. It is also clear that the agenda
of this world order is extensive in the sense that inte-
gration toward a community of states operating on the
325
basis of the same values is the long-term objective. The
liberal basis of world order also clarifes the purposes
of the U.S. use of its great power since the objectives
and values are clearly defned and have already been
pursued for decades, especially after the implosion
of the Soviet Union in the post-Cold War era. Conse-
quently, the standard by which U.S. performance is
measured is well-defned. Washington may often fail
to live up to its standard of free economic competition,
democracy, and civil and political rights, but the stan-
dard itself is clearly defned and well-known.
CHINAS COEXISTENCE WORLD ORDER
China pursues a strategy of infuence suitable for a
power that does not yet have the material capabilities
to claim great power status. In economic terms, China
only has a GDP that is one-third the size of the United
States. At the same time, China has all the problems of
developing countries on a large scale, including cor-
ruption, pollution, malfunctioning health care, socio-
economic inequality, and insuffcient social security.
These issues lead to fast growing problems of social
unrest that threaten the political authority of Chinas
Communist Party. In military terms, ongoing military
modernization is refected in an estimated defense
budget growth of 7.5 percent in 2012. Nevertheless,
Chinas defense budget, which is estimated to be
$98.36 billion in 2009, remains more than six times be-
low the levels of U.S. defense spending.
12
In addition,
China does not have an alliance system and hence its
power projection capabilities remain strictly limited.
In terms of economic and military capabilities,
China has risen in the group of secondary powers.
Beijing has not yet reached global great power status.
However, in terms of political power, China already
326
exercises infuence at global great power level. After
the implosion of the Soviet Union, China seemed like
the best bet for a great power successor, and China
has been skillful at flling this role without having
the capabilities basis to play the role of a global great
power. Beijing has done this by gradually developing
a coexistence type of world order that has emerged
as an alternative to the U.S.-led world order. It is a
coexistence type of proposal in the sense that it aims
at limited cooperation to avoid great power conficts
that jeopardize international order. This type of order
is designed to avoid China losing its current global
political great power status and descending into sec-
ondary power status rather than continuing its rise
to full-blown great power status. In view of Chinas
numerous domestic social and economic challenges,
Beijing sees it as imperative to spend the bulk of its
resources to this end.
The world order pursued by China is based on
the common interest of numerous developing states
in peaceful coexistence. Peaceful coexistence encom-
passes noninterference in the internal affairs of others,
mutual nonaggression, equality and mutual beneft,
and mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial in-
tegrity. These principles correspond to the rules of the
game of the UN system. Chinas concern to limit the
use of force in the international system and to dem-
onstrate its commitment to international law means
that the UN system has become an important factor in
Chinas attempt to revise the existing international or-
der to suit Chinese interests and world views. Chinas
numerous domestic socio-economic problems prompt
Beijing to promote peace and stability and try to avoid
the use of force in external relations. Instead, China
focuses on the common responsibilities between con-
327
tending states to produce peaceful confict manage-
ment that respects the Cold War principles of absolute
sovereignty and noninterference in the internal affairs
of other states. For example, after the Cold War, Bei-
jing has been reasonably successful in its attempts to
avoid zero-sum contests and the use of force over rela-
tive territorial and maritime gains in negotiations on
border disputes.
13

Peaceful coexistence at a more practical level of
implementation involves four types of practices. One
practice is to aim for compromises between confict-
ing positions when there is a risk of use of force that
involves the United States and China. Due to Chinas
modest economic and military capabilities, Beijing
cannot afford to end up in a great power confict that
involves the use of force. For example, in the case of
Taiwan, China reserves the right to use force against
what it considers to be a province under the jurisdic-
tion of mainland China. However, Beijing stops short
of exercising this alleged right in practice. Instead, in
the post-Cold War era Beijing has gradually adopted
a pragmatic approach of policy coordination and ne-
gotiation to avoid using force against an entity that
is likely to be defended by the United States. Second,
China requires consent from host governments to
accept peacemaking operations unless the UN sys-
tem and its affliated institutions present evidence of
threats toward international peace and security. For
example, China has accepted Chapter VII operations
in the case of Sudan when irrefutable evidence has
been presented by the UN or by UN-affliated institu-
tions that regime behavior engenders threats to inter-
national peace and security. At the same time, China
has succeeded in limiting the number and scope of
UN-approved punitive actions by insisting on con-
328
sent from the government in Khartoum. Third, China
pursues equality and mutual beneft as a top-down
principle that involves treating states rather than indi-
viduals as legal equals and promoting social and eco-
nomic development. For example, Chinas involve-
ment in activities in Sudan such as building schools
and a new presidential palace and in reducing import
tariffs contrasts with the U.S. calls for punitive actions
directed against excluding the Khartoum regime from
international relations. Also, China supports the ef-
forts of regional and functional organizations of the
UN system to help with confict management and to
determine when threats to international peace and
stability require intervention. For example, in the
run-up to the UN Security Council vote on establish-
ing a joint UN-African Union (AU) hybrid force in
Darfur in July 2007, Chinas special envoy to Darfur,
Liu Guijin, commented that It is not Chinas Darfur.
It is frst Sudans Darfur and then Africas Darfur.
According to Guijin, peace negotiations need to be
prioritized over peacekeeping efforts to ensure that
real and long-lasting peace could be restored to the
region.
14
Fourth, China defends the fundamental sta-
tus of absolute sovereignty in international law. For
example, in the case of Myanmar China has accom-
modated the concern of developing countries about
the regimes violations of civil and political rights
by endorsing nonbinding presidential statements on
the unsolicited domestic use of force. Such actions
strengthen Chinas image both as a principled power
whose political practice corresponds to the principles
of international conduct that it promotes, and also as
a pragmatic and equality-oriented power that listens
to the demands of secondary and small powers. This
set of coexistence principles is a mixture of a conser-
329
vative defensive form of diplomacy based on old UN
principles and an offensive form of diplomacy, which
involves revisions of the old UN system. Chinas ver-
sion of international order receives widespread sup-
port in non-Western regions of the world and justifes
Chinas status as a maker rather than merely a taker
of international order. Chinas infuence is based on
its relations with secondary powers such as Indonesia
and Russia and its engagement in regional security
institutions all over the world such as the AU, the As-
sociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). These
are used as a basis for exercising politico-strategic in-
fuence on a par with the United States. This network
of engagement in regional security institutions consti-
tute Beijings alternative to the global U.S. alignment
system. As a consequence, Beijing is able to participate
in defning the rules of the game of international poli-
tics and thereby determine the foreign policy choices
that are open to other international actors.
The advantages of Chinas coexistence version of
world order is that it is inherently fexible because it
refrains from defning values requiring implementa-
tion of specifc economic, military, and political state
structures to form part of the order. Chinas world or-
der allows for a plurality of political systems and swift
adjustments to changes in the international context.
The drawback to this type of order is that it does not
involve clarifying Beijings long-term objectives. Inso-
far as China achieves full-blown global great power
status, we do not have substantial objectives compa-
rable to those derived from U.S. liberal standards that
can give an idea of what kind of global great power
China will be. China is undergoing a transition from
communism as the basis of legitimacy to a new ide-
330
ological basis that has yet to be clearly defned. The
Confucian concept of harmonious society remains a
rhetorical device without much practical applicability.
The idea has not been translated into essential politi-
cal structures, such as feedback mechanisms from so-
ciety to government agencies, or into processes, such
as the use of elections in facilitating political succes-
sion. The absence of a strategy at this level means that
in the interim, the Chinese Communist Party relies on
continued economic growth and improved standards
of living to secure its domestic legitimacy.
During this process, which is likely to take decades,
Chinas identity as a great power is unknown, and we
have no standard by which to measure Chinas perfor-
mance beyond pure Sino-centric national interests in
restoring what China defnes as its motherland. Socio-
political transition, combined with Sino-centric inter-
ests, means that the majority of secondary and small
powers will not become loyal to China to an extent
that will allow Beijing to replace Washington as the
dominant power in the international system. The sec-
ondary and small powers are more comfortable with
the United States as the dominant power since it is the
devil they know compared to the enigmatic quality of
Chinas great power ambitions.
INDIAS SECONDARY ROLE IN THE GLOBAL
WORLD ORDER
The debate about Indias rise is based on high
economic growth rates of 8-9 percent per year. How-
ever, even if India sustains these growth rates for the
next 40 years, it will remain below the U.S. GDP in
2050 at current economic growth estimates. It is also
worth remembering that if we take the GDP of the
331
fve BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and
South Africa), Indias share of GDP as a percentage
of the BRICS total in 2009 constituted 13.6 percent
against Chinas 51.9 percent in 2010.
15
Militarily, In-
dia proceeds with military modernization. In 2009,
the defense budget for personnel, operations, and
maintenance was $23.1 billion, and for procurement
and construction, $8.5 billion. In 2010, the budget for
personnel, operations, and maintenance had risen to
$25.3 billion, and for procurement and construction
$13.1 billion.
16
This modernization process is predomi-
nantly intended to enable India to match the Chinese
and Pakistani military build-up, which is partly di-
rected against India. Indias long-standing border
dispute with Pakistan is more serious than ever fol-
lowing Pakistans engagement in Afghanistan with
the emergence of the Taliban as a political movement.
China has deployed medium-range ballistic missiles
in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. In turn, this has caused
India to consider acquisition of an anti-missile de-
fense system. China spends over four times as much
on defense as India. In addition, China has established
strategic partnerships with states such as Pakistan,
Myanmar, Nepal, and Bangladesh along the rim of the
Indian subcontinent, which will allow China to move
down alongside India westwards in the Arabian Sea
and eastwards in the Indian Ocean. This has caused
India to draw closer to the United States, Southeast
Asia, and Japan for purposes of getting access to arms
and counter the political-strategic infuence of China
in Indias backyard. Despite these efforts, Chinas in-
fuence is growing, whereas Indias infuence is wan-
ing. New Delhis rapprochement to states such as the
United States and Japan indicate that India becomes
less and less able to manage peace and stability on
332
the subcontinent on its own and has to look for part-
ners that can help India counter the growing Chinese
infuence.
17

Despite New Delhis recent rapprochement with
the United States and its continuous disagreements
with China over their mutual border and resentment
on both sides over issues such as Tibet and Pakistan,
India has an independent identity that will ensure that
the country maintains a distance to both great pow-
ers, much in the same way as Russia does although
by different means and for different reasons. India is
often seen as the exemplar of democracy in the de-
veloping world, being a secular democratic republic
with a parliamentary form of government.
18
India has
had aspirations to cash in on this status not by moving
closer to the West, but by playing a leading role as a
representative of developing countries in forums such
as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the UN.
However, NAM never took off as a political force in in-
ternational relations, and Indias bid for a permanent
seat in the UN Security Council remains an aspiration
rather than a reality. India is a secondary power that
maintains relations with China as well as the United
States without choosing sides. Consequently, India
will remain a secondary power in the current world
order, predominantly playing the role of a taker rather
than a maker of order.
CONSEQUENCES FOR EUROPE
The different U.S. and Chinese versions of interna-
tional order give rise to an international system with-
out clear rules of the game because of the lack of one
coherent set of principles of international conduct. In
this in-between system, security threats are addressed
333
by means of ad hoc frameworks of confict manage-
ment. The membership and rules of these frameworks
are defned on a trial-and-error basis. Also, in this sys-
tem secondary and small powers are quite infuential
because the United States and China compete for their
backing and loyalty. This enables secondary and small
powers to maximize their infuence by gravitating
toward both the U.S. and the Chinese order without
choosing sides.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO)
2011 intervention in Libya may provide clues as to the
consequences for Europe of the existence of two com-
peting international orders. Despite the diffculties
with contributing to civil and political rights regimes
in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Western U.S.-led group-
ing continues to pursue a greater role for humanitarian
intervention. This implies that the United States and
Europe will continue to pursue liberal value-based
objectives as alliance partners. On the other hand,
European leadership in the military intervention in
Libya implies that the Western countries support the
calls for regionalization of UN Security Council se-
curity management that has formed part of Chinas
program for international order for some time. Conse-
quently, the United States is not likely to take the lead
in this type of operation outside of the core of the U.S.
sphere of interest in the Asia-Pacifc. Moreover, Ger-
manys agreement with Chinas abstention regarding
UN Security Council Resolution 1973 on the grounds
of unwillingness to authorize the use of force in Libya
indicates that the dividing lines between those sup-
porting an integrationist order and those supporting a
coexistence-style order are becoming more and more
blurred. This development does not indicate a merger
between the U.S. and Chinese-led programs for inter-
334
national order. Instead, it indicates that increasing re-
gionalization is necessary in the absence of one coher-
ent set of principles that universally defne right and
wrong international conduct.
19
Germanys UN Security Council abstention also
implies that Europe is not a unitary actor. Europe ap-
pears to be in disagreement over the future direction
of cooperation at a time when two competing inter-
national orders are on offer. The United Kingdoms
(UK) refusal in December 2011 to consider European
Union (EU) plans to tighten budget controls to fx
the Euro is an example of this problem. Moreover, as
indicated by Germanys abstention on the UN Secu-
rity Council 1973 Resolution, individual countries in
Europe appear to align themselves in different ways
with respect to the U.S. and the Chinese version of
global order. Another example is the Greek decision
to assist China in its operation to lift Chinese nationals
out of Libya. The May 2012 election in Greece, putting
the countrys future in the Euro zone at risk, threaten-
ing to revive Europes debt crisis and forcing a new
election to be held in June 2012, testifes to the severe
problems facing European cooperation and the future
of the regional integration aspirations. The economic,
fnancial, and political challenges facing the region
point to the possibility of a disintegrating Europe of
individual countries that reorient themselves toward
Washington and Beijing on the basis of different in-
terests and values. In this environment, European
states may continue to engage in confict manage-
ment in their near abroad in the Balkans, the Middle
East, and Africa to promote stability in the regions
periphery. However, the days of major peacebuilding
efforts such as those undertaken in Iraq and Afghani-
stan appear to be over because a fragmented Europe
335
is becoming unable to muster the unity and long-term
commitments that such efforts involve.
The fundamental issue that is raised by develop-
ments in the post-Cold War global order is whether
the Western order can survive a disintegrated Europe
with different policies toward China. Will the United
States have faith in European countries that side with
China and oppose the United States on some issues?
Will Europe be able to remain suffciently coherent
that Washington and Beijing will continue to see the
EU as a unit to be reckoned with in international poli-
tics? It remains to be seen to what extent Europe will
remain a unitary actor. However, by now it is already
clear that the principal challenge for Europe is to fnd
a place in the new international order on the basis of
a reconsideration of what Europe has to offer in the
economic, military, social, and political sectors that
addresses the interests of China without compromis-
ing Europes position as core member of the Western
liberal order. Despite Chinas rising power, U.S. ideas
and ideals remain prominent in the global landscape
due to the innovative and problem solving qualities of
the U.S. economy and society.
20
As a consequence, it is
pertinent for Europe to continue to remain an attrac-
tive partner to the United States at the same time as it
addresses the rise of China in a constructive manner.
Only in this way is Europe likely to position itself as
an independent voice in international politics that is
seen as important by the United States and China.
336
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 12
1. GDP growth estimates from the Royal Danish Embas-
sy in Beijing listed on the basis of data from the International
Monetary Fund.
2. The arguments on the U.S. integrationist and the Chinese
coexistence world order are pursued in detail in Liselotte Od-
gaard, China and Coexistence: Beijings National Security Strategy
for the 21st Century, Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center
Press/Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.
3. GDP at MER (2009 USD bn), PWC World in 2050 & Gold-
man Sachs, and the Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing.
4. Ibid.
5. A similar argument has been made in Ian Clark, China
and the United States: A Succession of Hegemonies? Internation-
al Affairs, Vol. 87, No. 1, 2011, pp. 13-28.
6. The approach to liberal integration used in this article is
based on G. John Ikenberry, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Re-
straint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars, Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2001, pp. 3-79.
7. U.S. Department of Defense, Sustaining U.S. Global Leader-
ship: Priorities for the 21st Century Defense, Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Defense, January 2012, available from www.de-
fense.gov/news/Defense_Strategic_Guidance.pdf.
8. Francis Fukuyama, Democratization and International
Security, Adelphi Paper No. 266, London, UK: The Internation-
al Institute for Strategic Studies, 1991/92, p. 18. The democratic
peace argument has been defned and tested by Zeev Maoz and
Bruce Russett, Normative and Structural Causes of Democratic
Peace, 1946-1986, American Political Science Review, Vol. 87, No.
3, September 1993, pp. 624-638. The origins of the democratic
peace argument can be found in Immanuel Kant, Den evige fred
[Zum ewigen Frieden] (The Eternal Peace), Copenhagen, Denmark:
Det sikkerheds- og nedrustningspolitiske Udvalg, 1990 [1795/
1796], p. 29, who argued that a republican constitution would
promote peace.
337
9. See, for example, Bruce M. Russett, Grasping the Democratic
Peace: Principles for a Post-Cold War World, Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1993.
10. Arnold Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration: Essays on Inter-
national Politics, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1962,
pp. 206-209.
11. Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership.
12. For purchasing power parity estimate, see The Military Bal-
ance 2011, London, UK: International Institute for Strategic Stud-
ies, 2011.
13. Liselotte Odgaard, China and Coexistence: Beijings National
Security Strategy for the Twenty-First Century, Washington, DC:
Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press,
2012, pp. 87-127.
14. Su Qiang, Confrontation over Darfur Will Lead Us No-
where, China Daily, July 27, 2007, available from www.chinadaily.
com.cn/2008/2007-07/27/content_5445062.htm.
15. The data comes from the Royal Danish Embassy in Bei-
jing, which has based the calculations on data from the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund.
16. The Military Balance 2011.
17. Liselotte Odgaard, The Balance of Power in Asia-Pacifc Secu-
rity: US-China Policies on Regional Order, London, UK: Routledge,
2007, pp. 157-160.
18. Sumit Sarkar, Indian Democracy: the Historical Inheri-
tance, Atul Kohli, ed., The Success of Indias Democracy, Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 23-46.
19. Liselotte Odgaard, Chinas National Security Strat-
egy and Its UNSC Policy on Libya, AMS-ISDP Joint Conference
Proceedings 2011, The Situation in West Asia and North Africa and
Its Impact on the International Strategic Confguration, Conference
338
held in Beijing, Peoples Republic of China, September 15-17,
2011, pp. 36-39.
20. Fareed Zakaria, The Future of American Power: How
America Can Survive the Rise of the Rest, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 87,
No. 3, May/June 2008, pp. 18-43.
339
CHAPTER 13
NEGOTIATING THE PITFALLS OF PEACE
AND SECURITY IN AFRICA
AND A NEW AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY:
AFRICAN UNION PEACE AND SECURITY
ARCHITECTURE AND THE
U.S. AFRICA COMMAND
Kwesi Aning
Festus Aubyn
INTRODUCTION
With the failure of the Organization of African
Unity (OAU) to fulfll the ambitions, expectations, and
optimisms stimulated by its establishment in the 1960s,
it was fnally transformed into the African Union (AU)
in 2002, which sought to respond to Africas multi-
faceted security challenges through expansive and
deepening multiple institutional processes. Establish-
ing a security architecture through which the AU and
its Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are build-
ing blocks would respond to these challenges. These
robust initiatives have been introduced concurrently
with partner states and institutions, both offering sup-
port while at the same time implementing their own
national strategic interests. One such critical partner
has been the United States, which through multiple
engagements and its own grand strategies has become
one of the key partners of the AUs institutionalization
processes. But over the past decade, following such
pathways has not always been mutually benefcial to
either the AU or the United States. In this chapter, we
explore and examine the history of U.S. engagements
340
in Africa, especially in the peace and security arena,
and juxtapose such grand strategic calculations with
Africas own perceptions of and responses to its secu-
rity challenges. Furthermore, we explore how, in the
face of common challenges, both the AU and United
States can identify and respond to their security chal-
lenges in a manner that makes this relationship a win-
win one instead of the present one driven by suspi-
cion, competition, and outright hostility.
This chapter is divided into fve sections. The frst
section examines U.S. security policy toward Africa in
the post Cold War era, with particular emphasis on the
various training programs and initiatives. The second
section explores the present state of American grand
strategy and how the new U.S. Africa Command (AF-
RICOM) fts into it with respect to Africa.
To demonstrate how Africa is responding to its
own security challenges, the third section focuses on
the new AU Peace and Security Architecture (APSA).
The fourth section assesses how AFRICOM is enhanc-
ing Africas emerging peace and security architecture
and the drawbacks. The chapter concludes that U.S.
interests in Africa would be best assured not by using
military means to check China or the terrorist activities
of al-Qaeda or al-Shabaab on the continent, but rather
by looking to meaningfully address and reconcile its
interests with the continents human security needs.
Africa is also advancing democratically, economically,
and developmentally and, as such, it is essential that
the United States engage the continent not as confict-
ridden, but as a mutual partner in advancing global
peace and stability by pursuing long-term strategic
objectives that address both U.S. and African interests.
341
U.S. SECURITY POLICY TOWARD AFRICA
AFTER THE COLD WAR
Africa has historically remained in the periphery
of American foreign policy interests except where a
specifc American interest or objective was at stake
(e.g., containment of Soviet expansion). After the Cold
War, Africa was seen by many U.S. policymakers as in-
signifcant to U.S. strategic interests. However, attention
toward the continent was reinvigorated by a presiden-
tial directive known as the National Security Review 30:
American Policy towards Africa in the 1990s (NSR 30) that
assessed Americas policy toward Africa.
1
This presi-
dential directive concluded that post-Cold War devel-
opments in Africa provided both signifcant opportu-
nities for, and obstacles to, US interests and that the
United States should remain militarily engaged on the
continent.
2
Consequently, in 1992, President George
H. W. Bush responded to the humanitarian crisis in
Somalia by launching Operation RESTORE HOPE,
which was made up of 25,000 troops from 24 coun-
tries.
3
Also known as Unifed Task Force (UNITAF),
Operation RESTORE HOPE was later transformed in
1993 to the United Nations Operations in Somalia II
(UNOSOM II). Sadly, with few of the mission man-
date objectives achieved, UNOSOM II was terminated
in 1994 after the death of 18 U.S. Rangers in Mogadi-
shu, which led to the subsequent withdrawal of U.S.
troops.
4
Thereafter, in 1994, President Bill Clintons
Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25) decreed that
the United States would not intervene in any future
crisis situation in Africa unless American interests
were directly threatened.
5
The United States became
very reluctant to intervene directly or support UN in-
terventions elsewhere in Africa, notably in Rwanda,
342
where its interests were not directly at stake. But al-
though the horrors of the Rwanda genocide and the
subsequent crises in Burundi led to a partial reversal
of this policy, the United States did not revert to di-
rect military intervention in Africa even in the post-
September 11, 2001 (9/11) period.
6
Instead, U.S. policy
shifted toward developing the capacities of African
countries to undertake peace operations under the
guise of African solutions to African problemsa
notion that some viewed as a convenient alibi for U.S.
inaction.
7
These capacity-building initiatives centered
on bilateral-level engagements, with a limited focus
on the regional and sub-regional groupings. They in-
cluded several training programs meant to build the
capacity of individual African countries to participate
in multilateral peace operations.
The frst of such training programs was the Afri-
can Crisis Response Force (ACRF) proposed by for-
mer U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher. ACRF
was to consist of an African force that could be rapidly
deployed in a theater of confict primarily to protect
civilians in designated areas. However, this training
program was not well received by most African states,
as some African Leaders like Nelson Mandela saw it
as a U.S. excuse to establish its foothold in Africa af-
ter the U.S. failure to intervene in Rwanda.
8
In defer-
ence to African sensitivities, the Clinton administra-
tion launched the African Crisis Response Initiative
(ACRI), incorporating some elements of ACRF in 1996.
Unlike ACRF, ACRI was embraced by several African
countries and had the possibility of direct military as-
sistance to sub-regional bodies such as the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), al-
though it also operated at the bilateral level. The main
objective of ACRI was to train African contingents for
343
Chapter VI-style peacekeeping on the continent and
also to enhance their humanitarian relief capacity.
Although many African countries such as Mali, Sen-
egal, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania benefted from
this training program, others like Nigeria and South
Africa remained opposed to what they described as
a foreign initiative that did not address African con-
ficts.
9
Other important programs initiated by the U.S.
Government include the International Military Educa-
tion and Training (IMET), the Enhanced International
Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC) program, and the
Africa Regional Peacekeeping (ARP) program.
10
Col-
lectively, these initiatives contributed immensely to
building the military capacity of African states for
peacekeeping operations in accordance with Chapter
VI of the UN Charter.
In response to the growing trend toward robust
peacekeeping in Africa, ACRI was later transformed
in 2004 to African Contingency Operations Training
and Assistance (ACOTA) by the George Bush admin-
istration. According to the U.S. Department of State,
the mission of ACOTA is to:
enhance the capacities and capabilities of African mili-
taries, regional institutions and the continents peace-
keeping resources as a whole so that they can plan
for, train, deploy and sustain suffcient quantities of
professionally competent peacekeepers to meet con-
fict transformation requirements with minimal Non-
African assistance.
11

In contrast to ACRI, and perhaps one of the most
signifcant innovations of ACOTA, was the training for
multinational peace support operations and the provi-
sion of nonlethal military weaponry to undertake these
peacekeeping operations.
12
Moreover, it was also tai-
344
lored to match the individual needs and capabilities of
each recipient country, an innovation that was missing
in the previous programs. Under ACOTA, the United
States also provided fnancial and logistical support to
the AU missions in Darfur, Burundi, and Somalia. The
regional economic communities, such as ECOWAS,
were also provided with training and other capacity-
building assistance through its member states.
13
By
2008, a total of approximately 45,000 African soldiers
and 3,200 African trainers were educated under the
program and deployed to peacekeeping operations in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Burundi,
Cote dIvoire, Darfur, Somalia, and Lebanon.
14
How-
ever, like all previous training programs, ACOTA suf-
fered from limited funding, which affected its depth
and sustainability.
15
Another weakness was that pri-
vate security frms instead of uniformed U.S. person-
nel were used to implement the training program, and
most recipient states objected to this.
16

In 2005, ACOTA became a constituent part of the
multilateral 5-year Global Peace Operation Initiative
(GPOI) program of the Bush administration, which
aimed at improving the supply of personnel for peace-
keeping operations.
17
Although it was designed as a
program with worldwide reach, its emphasis was on
Africa. The primary purpose of the GPOI program
was to train and equip 75,000 military troops, a ma-
jority of them African, for peacekeeping operations.
One major innovation of the GPOI was its recogni-
tion of the strategic signifcance of developing the
capacities of regional and sub-regional institutions to
ensure sustainability and self-sustainment.
18
GPOI
also supports efforts to operationalize the African
Standby Force (ASF) and regional and sub-regional
logistics depots. In the post-9/11 period, as a result of
345
the U.S.-led war on terror and concern about the po-
tential threats that can be posed by failed and fragile
states, the United States focused on strengthening in-
digenous capacity to secure porous borders and help
build law enforcement and intelligence infrastructure
to deny havens for terrorists.
19
Various states such as
Mali, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger were provided
with equipment and training through the Trans-Saha-
ran Counter-Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI) and the Pan-
Sahelian Initiative (PSI). The United States provided
weapons, vehicles, and military training to counter
terrorism in these countries.
AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY
There is widespread uncertainty about the present
state of American grand strategy. Does it exist or not?
Grand strategy is all about the necessity of choice. Ac-
cording to Niall Ferguson:
Today, it means choosing between a daunting list of
objectives: to resist the spread of radical Islam, to limit
Irans ambition to become dominant in the Middle
East, to contain the rise of China as an economic rival,
to guard against a Russian reconquista of Eastern
Europe and so on.
20

Colin Dueck, for example, argues that:
great power counterbalancing against the United
States is by no means inevitable. It can in fact be pre-
vented through the use of careful strategy. If, however,
the United States acts aggressively and unilaterally, it
is likely to undermine the sources of its own success.
21
346
Grand strategy is a term of art from academia and
refers to the collection of plans and policies that com-
prise the states deliberate effort to harness political,
military, diplomatic, and economic tools together to
advance that states national interest. Grand strategy
is the art of reconciling ends and means. It involves
purposive actionwhat leaders think and want. Such
action is constrained by factors that leaders explicitly
recognize (for instance, budget constraints and the
limitations inherent in the tools of statecraft) and by
those they might only implicitly feel (cultural or cog-
nitive screens that shape worldviews).
22
But efforts
to identify and assess the state of current U.S. grand
strategy raise several questions. For example:
Is there a new pragmatism that delineates U.S.
action in Africa since Barack Obama has taken
offce?
Is this refected in a new strategic isolation
within a broader receding West characterized
by a United States beset by relative economic
decline and dysfunctional politics?
To what extent does the Obama administra-
tions foreign policy vision of leading from
behind become evident?
Is there a distinctive Obama approach begin-
ning to emerge? Can we speak of the D word,
the emergence of an Obama doctrinenamely
a new form of high tech, low-budget, and po-
litically astute intervention that maximizes U.S.
infuence while minimizing cost for a cash-
strapped government?
23
There seems to be an
emerging new approach described by Zbigniew
Brzezinski as discriminating engagement,
24

which in practical terms refers to a new ap-
proach in dealing with trouble spots around
347
the world, characterized by U.S. economic and
political realism. If this new discriminating
engagement is implemented, then where does
the much-hyped new Africa Command ft into
this grand strategy with respect to Africa?
To what extent does this approach focus on us-
ing other tools of national power to determine
and achieve outcomes that do not have a sole
focus on the use of military might, but also
use diplomatic tools to get others to pull their
weight? From the above, there is an indication
that recent discourse on such grand strategy
raises more questions and does not provide
clear-cut concrete answers. Previously, we
have attempted to raise some of these questions
and ideas.
U.S. AFRICA COMMAND (AFRICOM)
Created by a presidential order in 2007, AFRICOM
is one of the nine Unifed Combatant Commands of
the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The establish-
ment of the Command was the direct result of Africas
increasing strategic importance to the United States
and also signifed a new phase in U.S. foreign policy
engagement with Africa. It became fully operational
in October 2008, just a month before the election of
President Obama. The command is currently head-
quartered in Stuttgart, Germany and is responsible to
the Secretary of Defense for U.S. military relations with
54 African countries.
25
According to President George
W. Bush, the idea behind the creation of AFRICOM
was to strengthen Americas security cooperation
with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster
the capabilities of African partners.
26
Additionally, the
348
Command will enhance U.S. efforts to bring peace and
security to the people of Africa and promote common
goals of development, health, education, democracy,
and economic growth in Africa.
27

Other countries such as Nigeria, Morocco, South
Africa, Algeria, and Libya made policy statements
that AFRICOM will not be welcomed on their soil. Ni-
geria in particular, rejected AFRICOM because it was
believed to be counterproductive, unnecessary, and a
derogation of the sovereignty of African states.
28
Many
African governments also feared that AFRICOM will
be used to destabilize and even overthrow regimes
that the United States does not approve.
Before the creation of AFRICOM, the adminis-
tration of U.S.-Africa military relations was divided
among three different commands: European Com-
mand (EUCOM) located in Stuttgart, Germany; Ha-
waii-based Pacifc Command (PACOM), and Central
Command (CENTCOM) based in Tampa, Florida.
29

This division of responsibility of Africa among these
three commands was reported to have posed some
coordination challenges for the DoD. Therefore, as
former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates argued,
the establishment of AFRICOM was to enable the
United States:
to have a more effective and integrated approach than
the current arrangement of dividing Africa between
several commands.
30

Its formation was to give Africa the attention that
it deserves and also to demonstrate the importance of
Africa for U.S. national security. According to DoD,
the primary mission of the command is to:
349
Protect and defend the national security interests of the
United States by strengthening the defense capabilities
of African states and regional organizations and, when
directed, conduct military operations, in order to deter
and defeat transnational threats and to provide a secu-
rity environment conducive to good governance and
development.
31
The Command works jointly with other U.S. agen-
cies such as the U.S. Department of State (DoS), the
United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), and U.S. embassies to support the imple-
mentation of U.S. foreign policy goals in Africa. In
reality, AFRICOM is a diplomatic, developmental,
and economic mission. The programs that AFRICOM
monitors and assists include, among other things,
the Pan-Sahelian Initiative (PSI), ACOTA, and GPOI.
The activities of the command are meant to: build the
capacity of partner conventional forces and security
forces; conduct defense sector reform; counter trans-
national and extremist threats; foster regional coop-
eration, situational awareness, and interoperability;
and contribute to the stability in current zones of con-
ficts.
32
These cooperation programs are all executed
by AFRICOMs subordinate commands located in
Italy, Germany, and Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.
33
The
focus of U.S. AFRICOM capacity-building programs
and activities is to address three primary capacity-
building functions that include operational capacity
building, institutional capacity building, and develop-
ing human capital.
Some of the programs designed to address opera-
tional capacity constraints include the Africa Partner-
ship Station (APS) and Operation ENDURING FREE-
DOM-Trans-Sahara (OEF-TS), Exercise Flintlock, and
Exercise Natural Fire.
34
The APS program for instance
350
is a multinational security cooperation initiative that
aims to improve maritime safety and security in
Africa and focuses on addressing four primary ar-
eas: maritime professionals, maritime infrastructure,
maritime domain awareness, and maritime response
capability. OEF-TS also supports the U.S. Govern-
ments Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership
(TSCTP) program to help deter the fow of illicit arms,
goods, and people and to preclude terrorists from es-
tablishing sanctuaries in their countries.
35
Ten African
countries are currently part of this program: Algeria,
Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Ni-
ger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
The institutional capacity building programs in-
clude Operation ONWARD LIBERTY (OOL), the
Africa Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership (AM-
LEP) Program, the Pandemic Response Program, and
the PILOT-Partnership for Integrated Logistics Op-
erations and Tactics.
36
While the OOL program sup-
ports the DoS broader Security Sector Reform (SSR)
program in Liberia, the AMLEP program on the other
hand addresses illicit transnational maritime activity,
such as drug interdiction and fsheries enforcement, at
the bilateral level. The programs designed to develop
human capital comprise the International Military
and Education Training (IMET) and Expanded IMET
(E-IMET), The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of
Africa (CJTF-HOA), and the Partner Military HIV/
AIDS Program (PMHAP).
37
The IMET and E-IMET
are the most widely used military assistance pro-
grams in U.S. AFRICOMs area of responsibility and
aim at professionalizing militaries and reinforcing the
democratic value of elected civilian authority.
38
The
PMHAP aims at mitigating the impacts of the disease
on African military readiness. The CJTF-HOA located
351
at Camp Lemonnier also builds partner security ca-
pability, capacity, and infrastructure through regional
cooperation, military-to-military programs, civil-
military affairs projects, and professional military
education programs.
In Fiscal Year 2010, AFRICOM received $274 mil-
lion, and the Obama administration requested $298
million for the command for Fiscal Year 2011.
39
As
of April 2011, AFRICOM had approximately 2,100
personnel, consisting of both military and civilian
personnel from DoD and non-DoD agencies of the
U.S. Government. In 2011, AFRICOM undertook its
frst major military operation named Operation OD-
YSSEY DAWN during the Libya crises, in which the
AU became a mere observer, incapable of playing any
major role. Operation ODYSSEY DAWN was the U.S.
support to the multilateral military efforts to enforce
a no-fy zone and protect civilians in Libya in sup-
port of UN Security Council Resolution 1973.
40
Before
NATOs Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR in Libya,
AFRICOM also supported the U.S. humanitarian
response in Libya through the delivery of relief sup-
plies and the evacuation of foreign nationals feeing
the violence.
EVOLUTION OF THE NEW AFRICAN PEACE
AND SECURITY ARCHITECTURE
The transformation of the OAU into the AU gener-
ated expectations that Africas premier international
institution would have the strength and capacity to
deal with the peace and security challenges facing the
continent.
41
While the OAU had achieved its stated ob-
jectives of decolonization, eradicating apartheid, and
maintaining the colonially inherited boundaries at
352
independence, the proxy wars in which Africa got en-
tangled during the period of the Cold War resulted in
the diversion of attention from the core economic and
security challenges that the continent faced. By 1993,
there was political recognition that the rhetoric of eco-
nomic development could not be achieved if the con-
ficts that hounded the continent were not decisively
dealt with. Consequently, the Mechanism for Confict
Prevention, Management and Resolution was established
with the purpose to anticipate and prevent conficts
on the continent. Therefore, 1993 became the decisive
year when the shift to the recognition of a need for a
structured security architecture started to take shape.
A decade later, with a Constitutive Act defning the
parameters of a new AU, a Protocol establishing a Peace
and Security Council (PSC) for the AU was promul-
gated in 2002 and eventually ratifed by enough mem-
ber states to make it operational. At its launch in May
2004, the PSC was characterized as marking a his-
toric watershed in Africas progress toward resolving
its conficts and building a durable peace and security
order.
42
The AUs new security regime is premised on
several norms and principles that are both old (based
on the Charter of the OAU) and new (emanating from
the Constitutive Act).
43
They include:
Sovereign equality of member states (Article
4a);
Nonintervention by member states (Article 4g);
African solutions to African problems;
Uti possidetis (Article 4b);
Nonuse of force/peaceful settlement of dis-
putes (Articles 4e, 4f, 4i);
Condemnation of unconstitutional changes of
government (Article 4p); and,
The AUs right to intervene in a member state
in grave circumstances (Article 4h).
353
A combination of these values and norms plus
the institutional mechanisms has given the AU an
institutional vibrancy that creates opportunities for
proactive responses to some of the continents secu-
rity challenges.
44
A case in point was the AUs de-
ployment of peacekeepers to Burundi and the Sudan
Darfur region to prevent a situation it terms as posing
signifcant threats to legitimate order to restore peace
and stability.
In addition to the Constitutive Act, which is the core
document that defnes the principle and objectives of
the AU security policy and the PSC protocol, a Com-
mon African Defense and Security Policy (CADSP)
was adopted in 2004. In particular, the PSC protocol
and the CADSP together form the critical pillars un-
derpinning the new AU peace and security architec-
ture. The fundamental philosophical idea underlying
CADSP was that of human security, based not only on
political values but social and economic imperatives
as well.
45
This notion of human security embraces such
issues as: human rights; the right to participate fully
in governance; the right to equal development, access
to resources, and basic necessities of life; the right to
protection against poverty; the right to education and
health care; the right to protection against marginal-
ization on the basis of gender; and protection against
natural disasters and ecological and environmental
degradation.
46
These issues represent Africas primary
security concerns that pose major threats to the stabil-
ity of states and not the excessive focus of AFRICOM
on terrorism and other transnational organized crimes
on the continent.
The CADSP also aims to address some of the com-
mon security threats facing the continent such as the
354
proliferation of small arms and light weapons, peace-
building, and peacekeeping as well as post-confict
rehabilitation and reconstruction, terrorism, humani-
tarian issues, and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuber-
culosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases.
47
Its
objectives and goals include: ensuring collective re-
sponses to both internal and external threats, advanc-
ing the cause of integration in Africa; enhancing AUs
capacity for, and coordination of, early action for con-
fict prevention, containment, management, and reso-
lution; and promoting initiatives that will preserve
and strengthen peace and development in Africa.
KEY INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES AND
MECHANISMS OF THE NEW APSA
The APSA is made up of a multifaceted set of in-
terrelated institutions and mechanisms that function
at the continental, regional, and national levels.
48
The
AU member states form the national-level actors that
house a majority of the capabilities relevant to confict
management on the continent. At the regional level
are the regional economic communities (RECs), which
constitute the building blocks of the continental secu-
rity architecture. At the continental level, a variety of
institutions and mechanisms coordinated by the AU
PSC comprise the new APSA.
49
The Protocol Relating
to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Coun-
cil (PSC) establishes the PSC as a standing decision-
making organ for the prevention, management, and
resolution of conficts. According to article 2 of the
protocol, the PSC is meant to be a collective security
and early warning instrument for timely and effcient
response to both existing and emerging confict as
well as crisis situations in Africa.
50
The powers of the
355
PSC are extensive, dealing not only with hard peace
and security issues, but also soft security or any as-
pects that infuence human security. This enables the
PSC to monitor elections and address issues of food
security, natural disasters, and human rights viola-
tions.
51
It is supported by the AU Commission, a Panel
of the Wise, a Continental Early Warning System, an
African Standby Force (ASF), and a Special Fund.
Among other things, the objectives of the PSC are to
promote peace, security, and stability in Africa.
52
It is
composed of 15 members, of whom 10 are elected for a
2-year term, while the remaining fve are elected for a
3-year period on the principle of equitable representa-
tion of the fve regions: North, West, Central, East, and
Southern Africa.
The critical peace and security decisionmaking in-
stitutions include the Assembly of Heads of State and
Governments (AHSG) of AU, the Executive Council,
the PSC, and the Commission of the AU. Although
the AHSG makes the fnal decisions on important
peace and security issues such as the intervention in
member states of the AU, the PSC is empowered to
take most decisions on security issues on behalf of the
AHSG.
53
The Chairperson of the AU Commission also
plays an important confict management role under
the new APSA. The Chairperson assisted by the Com-
missioner in charge of Peace and Security is respon-
sible for bringing issues to the attention of the PSC,
the Panel of the Wise, and other relevant stakeholders
and for ensuring implementation and follow-up ac-
tions.
54
The chair of the Commission performs this ad-
visory role by relying on the information provided by
the Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) which
aims to facilitate the anticipation and prevention of
conficts (Article 12). The CEWS consists of a situation
356
room located at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, and is responsible for data gathering and
analysis. It is linked to the early warning mechanisms
of the RECs such as the ECOWAS, South African De-
velopment Community (SADC) and Intergovernmen-
tal Authority on Development (IGAD).
The Panel of the Wise, which is composed of fve
highly respected African personalities selected on the
basis of regional representation, is tasked with advis-
ing the PSC and AU Commission Chair on any or all
matters relating to the promotion and maintenance of
peace and security in Africa. The Panel of the Wise
could also be deployed to support the efforts of the
Peace and Security Council (Article 11). Another im-
portant institutional mechanism of the APSA is the
ASF (Article 13). It is established to enable the PSC to
perform its responsibilities with respect to the deploy-
ment of peace support operations and interventions
pursuant to Article 4 (h) and 4 (J) of the AU Consti-
tutive Act.
55
The ASF provides for fve sub-regional
stand-by arrangements, each up to a brigade size of
3,000-4,000 troops, which will combine to give the AU
a total of 15,000 to 20,000 troops who will be trained
and ready to be deployed on 14 days notice.
56

It was conceived to conduct, observe, and moni-
tor peacekeeping missions in responding to emer-
gency situations anywhere on the continent requiring
rapid military response. The AU Peace Support Op-
erations Division (PSOD) in Addis Ababa is the co-
ordination mechanism and is expected to command
an African-wide integrated communication system
linking all the sub-regional brigades. Although the
ASF was envisaged to be operational by 2010, chal-
lenges of coordination between the regional economic
communities, fnances, logistics, and equipment have
357
prolonged its implementation.
57
But without doubt,
the ASF represents a critical component of the APSA
that will enhance the AUs capabilities to intervene to
protect people in grave circumstances and to provide
a prompt and robust response to manage and resolve
conficts on the continent. There is also the Military
Staff Committee (MSC), which consists of senior mili-
tary offcers from PSC member states. When called
upon, the MSC advises the PSC on questions relating
to military and security issues that are on its agenda.
58

AFRICOM AND APSA: WORKING
TOWARD A COMMON END STATE
Traditionally, U.S. engagement with Africa has
been on the bilateral level, supporting its allies with
little focus on regional organizations, especially the
AU. But the establishment of AFRICOM has led to a
deepening interaction with the AU, an indication of
its growing confdence in the organization as a cru-
cial player in the maintenance of peace in Africa. Ac-
cording to Michael Battle, the U.S. Ambassador to the
AU, this emerging partnership demonstrates how
the U.S. Government sees the AU as being critically
important to the development of its policy toward
the African continent.
59
AFRICOM is currently offer-
ing enhanced support for many of the AU peace and
security initiatives through both bilateral and multi-
lateral initiatives. At the bilateral level, AFRICOM is
focusing on improving the capabilities of individual
member states of the AU to feld well-trained and
well-equipped troops for peace operations through
programs such as EIPC, ARP, ACOTA, IMET, and E-
IMET. These capacity-building programs and activi-
ties have signifcantly enhanced the operational and
358
tactical dimensions of AU peacekeeping missions.
For example, AFRICOM provides bilateral support
to the troop-contributing countries (TCCs) of the AU
mission in Somalia (AMISOM) such as Burundi and
Uganda, through the provision of equipment, logistics
support, advice, and training.
60
The AU/UN mission
in Darfur is also being supported by AFRICOM. Be-
tween 2005 and 2010, the United States provided more
than $940 million to support the AU missions in Dar-
fur and Somalia, as well as capacity building through
the ACOTA program.
61
The United States is also pro-
viding counterterrorism training to some selected mil-
itary units in the Sahel and East Africa such as Mali,
Chad, Niger, and Mauritania through the TSCTI and
PSI programs.
AFRICOM is also supporting AUs effort to opera-
tionalize the African Standby Force through capacity
building at the continental and sub-regional level, as
well as AU member states.
62
These capacity building
initiatives are targeted toward strengthening the ca-
pabilities and interoperability of the African Standby
Force (ASF) and its sub-regional elements. Comput-
ers, software, and communication equipment have
also been provided to bolster the CEWS and commu-
nication between the AU and regional ASF brigades.
In order to build the capacity of the AU Secretariat to
plan, manage, and sustain peacekeeping operations,
the United States has provided a full-time Peace and
Security Advisor to the AU Peace Support Operations
division in Addis Ababa.
While all of these programs signify a signifcant
milestone in U.S. support to the implementation pro-
cess of the APSA, the limited nature of these training
programs makes it diffcult to see a clear cause and
effect relationship between the training offered and
359
the actual performance of troops trained under them
in the feld.
63
Moreover, the disproportionate focus
on the training of U.S. allies at the expense of all AU
member states affects the rapid impact on African
peacekeeping. The nature of the relationship between
the AU and the United States has also not been clearly
defned. The relationship between the two has largely
been ad hoc and crisis-driven, partly due to the U.S.
failure to construct a coherent or sustained policy to-
ward Africa. This is actually refected in the shifting
and changing nature of its security strategies toward
the continent. Instead of giving more substantial sup-
port to the AU, the United States has rather focused on
supporting individual countries that beneft its inter-
ests.
64
This for example, has reinforced the perception
that AFRICOM is meant to serve U.S. interests rather
than Africa, and makes some Africans even question
the real motivations behind the creation of AFRICOM.
Moreover, despite the objectives of AFRICOM that sug-
gest that it will go beyond traditional security concerns
by addressing nontraditional security issues, it re-
mains essentially a military organization.
Like its predecessor programs, AFRICOM is also
threatened by inadequate funding and political com-
mitment, insuffcient interagency coordination, as
well as a failure to harmonize activities with interna-
tional partners to achieve maximum impact and elimi-
nate duplication.
65
In particular, the fnancial support
of AFRICOM has been vulnerable to raids from other
budget lines, and remains uneven from year-to-year.
66

But this is not surprising, given the parlous state of
the economy inherited by President Obama and the
fact that his administration has to focus on the recov-
ery of the U.S. economy. The inconsistencies in U.S.
military engagement in Africa have also raised serious
360
concerns about its commitment to the attainment of
peace and stability on the continent. While the United
States was quick to intervene in the crisis in Libya, it
was largely absent when it came to the post-electoral
violence in La Cote dIvoire; again refecting the domi-
nance of security interests in U.S. engagement with Af-
rica, including the removal of out of favor regimes,
in this case Muammar Gaddaf, and replacing them
with loyal governments with the aim of controlling
resources.
67
Thus, though in Libya, the United States
adopted a military posture to oust President Gaddaf,
this was not the case in Cote dIvoire where the main
approach used was a combination of quiet diplomacy
and economic sanctions even when people were dying
from clashes between Alassane Ouattaras supporters
and that of Gbagbo.
CONCLUSION
To a great extent, AFRICOM has signifcantly en-
hanced and improved the tactical and operational
dimensions of AU peacekeeping missions. Neverthe-
less, it is necessary for the Command to consider how
it can effectively complement rather than undermine
the efforts of the AUs nascent peace and security ar-
chitecture. Evidently, U.S. policy toward Africa has
remained largely intact without any dramatic change
under the Obama administration. It is quite clear that
President Obama is following the militarized and uni-
lateral security policy that had been pursued by the
Clinton and Bush administrations toward Africa.
68

But it is signifcant for the United States to note that
its security needs in Africa would be best assured by
looking to meaningfully address and reconcile its in-
terest with the continents human security needs such
361
as poverty, high levels of unemployment, access to
clean water, and the HIV/AIDs pandemic.
69
These are
the issues that confront and threaten the survival and
the existence of most African states and make them
vulnerable to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda.
It is also important for the United States not to see
Africa at the periphery of its foreign policy engage-
ments. Now opportunities for progress in Africa
abound due to rising regional institutions, expanding
economies, increasing democratization, and emerging
security institutions. For example, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) notes that in 2011, against a
threatening global backdrop, most economies in sub-
Saharan Africa turned in a solid performance with a
growth rate averaging more than 5 percent.
70
Most im-
portantly, the AU and the RECs, especially ECOWAS,
have developed very robust peace and security archi-
tectures to deal with African security challenges. It is
therefore imperative that Africa is not seen or engaged
by the United States as a confict-ridden continent
but as a continent that is advancing democratically,
economically, and developmentally.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 13
1. See National Security Review 30: American policy to-
wards Africa in the 1990s, Washington, DC: The White House,
June 15, 1992.
2. Kwesi Aning, African Crises Response Initiatives and the
New African Security (DIS) Order, Africa Journal of Political Sci-
ence, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2001, p. 45; Benedikt Franke, Enabling a Conti-
nent to help itself: US Military Capacity Building and African Emerg-
ing Security Architecture, Monterey, CA: Center for Contemporary
Confict, 2007, p. 2.
362
3. Alhaji Sarjoh Bah and Kwesi Aning, US Peace Operation
Policy in Africa: From ACRI to AFRICOM, International Peace-
keeping, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2008, p. 119.
4. Ibid.; for more information, see Adekeye Adebajo, UN
Peacekeeping in Africa: From Suez Crisis to the Sudan Conficts, Boul-
der, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc, 2011.
5. Ibid; see also Ivor H. Daalder, Knowing When to Say No:
The Development of US Policy for Peacekeeping, William Durch,
ed., UN Peacekeeping, American Politics, and the Uncivil Wars of the
1990s, New York: St. Martins Press, 1996, pp. 3567.
6. Mark Malan, US Response to African Crises: An Over-
view and Preliminary Analysis of ACRI, ISS Occasional Paper,
No. 24, 1997.
7. Bah and Aning, 2008; Kwesi Aning, Thomas Jaye, and Sam-
uel Atuobi, The Role of Private Military Companies in US-Africa
Policy, Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 35, No. 118, 2008,
pp. 613-628.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Franke, Enabling a Continent to help itself.
11. African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance
(ACOTA), Washington, DC: U.S Department of State, available
from www.state.gov/p/af/rt/acota/.
12. Aning, Jaye, and Atuobi.
13. Ibid; see also Eric G. Berman and Katie E. Sams, Peace-
keeping in Africa: Capabilities and Culpabilities, Geneva, Swit-
zerland/Pretoria, South Africa: United Nations Institute for Dis-
armament Research, 2000, pp. 267290.
14. U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs, FACT SHEET: Africa
Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA),
Stuttgart, Germany, June 15, 2008.
363
15. For more information, see Sarjoh Bah and Aning, p. 122.
16. Aning, Jaye, and Atuobi.
17. Nina M. Serafno, The Global Peace Operations Initiative:
Background and Issues for Congress, CRS Report for Congress,
Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2009.
18. Ibid., p. 1-2; Bah and Aning, p. 123. More information is
available from www.state.gov/t/pm/ppa/gpoi/.
19. Ibid; Aning, Jaye, and Atuobi.
20. Niall Ferguson, Wanted: A Grand Strategy for America,
Newsweek, February 13, 2011.
21. Colin Dueck, New Perspectives on American Grand
Strategy: A Review Essay, International Security, Vol. 28, No. 4,
2006. See also Charles Kupchan, Grand Strategy: The Four Pil-
lars of the Future, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Issue No. 23,
Winter 2012.
22. Peter Feaver, What is Grand Strategy and Why Do We
Need It? Foreign Policy, January 6, 2012.
23. Anna Field and Geoff Dyer, The Obama Doctrine Be-
gins to Take Shape, Financial Times, October 24, 2011, p. 6.
24. Field and Dyer, p. 6.
25. Available from www.africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp.
26. President Bush Creates a Department of Defense Uni-
fed Combatant Command for Africa, Washington, DC:
The White House, available from www.africom.mil/getArticle.
asp?art=3152&lang=0.
27. Ibid.
28. Christopher Isike, Ufo Okeke-Uzodike, and Lysias Gil-
bert, The United States Africa Command: Enhancing American
364
Security or Fostering African Development? African Security Re-
view, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2008, p. 31.
29. EUCOM had responsibility for most of the continent, thus
42 states out of the 54 in Africa; PACOM administered military
ties with Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, and other Islands in
the Indian Ocean; and CENTCOM oversaw Egypt and the Horn
of Africa region, together with the Middle East and Central Asia.
30. See U.S. Creating New Africa Command to Coordinate
Military Efforts, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State,
available from usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?washfle-
english&y2007&mFebaruary; Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates, Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee,
Washington, DC: U.S. Senate, February 6, 2007.
31. See AFRICOM Mission Statement, USAFRICOM, Stutt-
gart, Germany, 2008, available from www.africom.mil/AboutAFRI-
COM.asp; Lauren Ploch, Africa Command: U.S. Strategic In-
terests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa, CRS Report
for Congress, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service,
2011, pp. 1-4.
32. Ibid.
33. They include the U.S. Army Africa (USARAF), Vicenza,
Italy; U.S. Naval Forces, Africa (NAVAF), Naples, Italy; U.S. Air
Forces, Africa (AFAFRICA), Ramstein Air Base, Germany; U.S.
Marine Corps Forces, Africa (MARFORAF), Stuttgart, Germany;
Special Operations Command-Africa (SOCAFRICA), Stuttgart,
Germany; and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa
(CJTF-HOA), Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.
34. See About U.S. Africa Command, available from www.
africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp.
35. See OEF-TS Fact Sheet and the TSCTP Fact Sheet, avail-
able from www.africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp.
36. About U.S. Africa Command.
365
37. See IMET Fact Sheet and PMHAP Fact sheet, available
from www.africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp.
38. Ibid. For critical articles on the effcacy of these programs,
see Alhaji Sarjoh Bah and Kwesi Aning, US Peace Operations
Policy in Africa: From ACRI to AFRICOM, Ian Johnstone, ed.,
US Peace Operations Policy: A Double-Edged Sword? London, UK,
and New York: Routledge, 2009; Kwesi Aning, Thomas Jaye, and
Samuel Atuobi, The Role of Private Military Companies in US-
Africa Policy, Review of African Political Economy, 2008.
39. See FACT SHEET: United States Africa Command,
available from www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=1644.
40. Ploch.
41. On May 25. 2004 (Africa Day), the PSC was offcially in-
augurated with fanfare to replace the Mechanism on Confict
Prevention, Management and Resolution, which had been es-
tablished in June 1993 in Cairo, Egypt, under the umbrella of
the OAU.
42. AU doc. PSC/AHG/ST(X, para. 1, May 25 2005.
43. Kwesi Aning, The African Unions Peace and Security
Architecture: Defning an Emerging Response Mechanism, Lec-
ture Series on African Security, No. 3, Uppsala, Sweden: The Nordic
African Institute, and Stockholm, Sweden: The Swedish Defense
Research Agency, FOI, 2008.
44. Ibid., p. 3.
45. See the Solemn declaration on a Common African De-
fense and Security Policy (CADSP), 2004, available from www.iss.
co.za/AF/RegOrg/unity_to_union/pdfs/au/cadspjan04frm.pdf; see also
Aning, p. 5.
46. See the AUs CADSP, p. 3.
47. Ibid.
366
48. Paul D, Williams, The African Unions Confict Manage-
ment Capabilities, Working Paper, New York: Council on For-
eign Relations, October 2011.
49. Ibid., p. 6.
50. See Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace
and Security Council (PSC); See also Kwesi Aning, The UN and
African Unions Peace and Security Architecture: Defning and
Emerging Relationship? Critical Currents, No. 5, October 2008.
51. See PSC, Articles 3, 4, 7.
52. Paul D. Williams, Thinking about Security in Africa, In-
ternational Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 6, 2007, pp. 1021-1038.
53. See PSC, Article 7; see also Kwesi Aning and Samuel Atu-
obi, R2P in Africa: An Analysis of the African Unions Peace and
Security Architecture, Global Responsibility to Protect, Vol. 1, 2009.
54. Anthoni Van Nieuwkerk, The Regional Roots of the Afri-
can Peace and Security Architecture: Exploring Centre-Periphery
Relations, South African Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 18, No
2, August 2011, pp. 169-189; Tim Murithi, The African Unions
Foray into Peacekeeping: Lessons from the Hybrid Mission in
Darfur, Journal of Peace, Confict and Development, Issue 14, 2009.
55. Article 4 (h) of the Constitutive Acts states that the AU
has the right to intervene in member state conficts with respect
of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide, and crimes
against humanity; while Article 4 (j) gives the right to member
states to request the intervention from AU in order to restore
peace and security.
56. Williams, Thinking about Security in Africa, p. 10.
57. See International Peace Institute, Operationalizing the
African Standby Force, Meeting Note of the High Level Afri-
can Civilian and Military Leaders Retreat in Kigali, Rwanda,
January 2010.
367
58. Since its establishment in 2004, the MSC has been engaged
in providing advice on the PSCs authorized peace operations in
Burundi, Sudan, Darfur, Comoros, and currently Somalia.
59. See U.S. Mission to African Union Shows Commitment
to Africa, available from www.usau.usmission.gov/commitment-to-
africa.html.
60. Combined Joint Task Force: Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA)
personnel, for instance, provided military training and assistance
to Burundian and Ugandan forces who were deployed to Soma-
lia. Since 2007, the United States has contributed over $250 million
to AMISOM. See Paul D. Williams, The African Unions Confict
Management Capabilities, Working Paper, New York: Council
on Foreign Relations, 2011.
61. See TRANSCRIPT: Ambassador Anderson on African
Union Peacekeeping Operations, available from www.africom.
mil/getArticle.asp?art=5475&lang=0.
62. Ploch.
63. Aning, Jaye, and Atuobi.
64. Stephanie Hanson, The African Union, available from
www.cfr.org/africa/african-union/p11616.
65. Ploch.
66. For more information, see Alexis Arieff et al., U.S. Foreign
Assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa: The FY2012 Request, CRS Re-
port for Congress, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Ser-
vice, May 20, 2011.
67. For more information, see The Crisis in Libya: the Im-
perative of rushing the ASF, available from www.currentanalyst.
com/index.php/opeds/158-the-crisis-in-libya-the-imperative-of-rushing-
the-asf.
68. See Daniel Volman, Obama Expands Military Involve-
ment in Africa, available from ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50898.
368
69. Bah and Aning; Isike, Okeke-Uzodike, and Gilbert.
70. Available from www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2012/
car011012a.htm.
369
CHAPTER 14
U.S. GRAND STRATEGY AND THE
SEARCH FOR PARTNERS:
SOUTH AFRICA AS A KEY PARTNER IN AFRICA
Abel Esterhuyse
In an age of austerity, the United States needs part-
ners. More specifcally, for a grand strategy to be ef-
fective, a country like the United States should be able
to shape its security and foreign policy environment
in cooperation with key partners. South Africa and
the United States are both important role players in
Africa in general, and in African security in particular:
South Africa as regional and to some extent also conti-
nental hegemon, and the United States as the sole hy-
per power in the world. Neither South Africa, nor the
United States necessarily has a long positive history of
constructive engagement in Africa. Yet, their involve-
ment in Africa, and African security, raises questions
about a possible competition or confuence of security
and other interests and questions about similarities
and differences in their approaches in the pursuance
of these interests. More importantly, are they coop-
erating in the case of a confuence of interests, or are
the United States and South Africa, even in cases of a
confuence of interests, each walking its own path in
pursuing these interests?
This chapter aims at providing a descriptive analy-
sis of the divergence and/or cooperation between
South Africa and the United States in their contribu-
tions to African security. The frst section considers
the role of Africa in South African security and foreign
policy outlook in general and in the worldview of the
370
reigning African National Congress (ANC) govern-
ment in particular. In the second section, a brief analy-
sis is provided of U.S. involvement in African secu-
rity. The discussion concludes with a consideration of
possible cooperation and/or discord between South
Africa and the United States in Africa.
INTO AFRICA: SOUTH AFRICAS
STRATEGIC OUTLOOK
The focus on Africa in South Africas foreign policy
is undeniable. The strategic plan of the South African
Department of International Relations and Coopera-
tion is explicit in noting that South Africas foreign
relations are anchored in a prioritization of the Afri-
can continent and in strengthening the political and
economic integration of the South African Develop-
ment Community (SADC).
1
However, South African
interests in Africa are not that clear. South Africa does
have economic interests in Africa.
2
However, those in-
terests are limited and more or less restricted to the
SADC region.
3
There is also, for example, a consider-
able imbalance in South Africas trade relationship
with Africa. This ranges from 9:1 in trade with SADC
countries, and 5:1 in trade with Africa as a whole.
4

Compared to its economic relations with other parts
of the world, its economic relations with Africa are
growing, although they are still relatively limited.
5

At the same time, South Africas security is not being
challenged by any African country or specifc threats.
In short, there is reason to doubt whether the South
African focus on Africa is interests-driven.
It is possible, though, to explain the South African
foreign policy focus on Africa in terms of a number
of considerations. The frst is domestic politics. The
371
worldview of the South African (ANC) government
is shaped by the need for a so-called National Demo-
cratic Revolution. Linking the three words, national,
democratic, and revolution, is in itself of great signif-
cance and provides at least some insight into the ANC
mindset. Like most South African political concepts,
the National Democratic Revolution is rooted in the
legacy of apartheid and, in this case, a revolution-
ary-oriented East-bloc approach to politics that was
formed during the Cold War anti-apartheid struggle.
6

Today, the South African domestic political land-
scape is still colored by the legacies and realities of
apartheid. Apartheid defnes the ANCs view of the
country and the world. Apartheid is still the tool for
mobilization of the masses, on which the ANC as a po-
litical party relies. The ANC, as the government, thus
manages a unique paradox. On the one hand, they
need to cleanse the South African society of apartheid
and eradicate the legacy and infuence thereof. On the
other, though, keeping the fght against apartheid
alive is an integral part of the ANCs philosophy and,
more specifcally, keeping the tripartite-alliance
7
to-
gether. The fght against apartheid has always been
the central organizing concept for the ANC and the
reason for its existence. The ANC has to use the
structural legacy of apartheid to explain the dispar-
ity between what is, or what was, and what could
have been.
At present, the process to address the legacies of
apartheid is playing itself out predominantly in an
economic policy of black economic empowerment
(BEE) and the application of affrmative action (AA)
to ensure representivity
8
and deal with the economic
inequalities in society. The National Democratic Revo-
lution, thus, needs to provide many who have been
372
excluded from the productive economy with a path-
way to, what in the West at least, would be considered
as development and life improvement. Representivity
and AA action have become important pathways in
making this happen for the masses. Of course, a small
number of so-called black diamonds
9
have beneft-
ted from BEE. Certain elements within the ANC are,
however, increasingly calling for more drastic mea-
sures and, as a consequence, the debate on national-
ization is heating up in South Africa.
10

As a matter of irony, the need for representivity
and AA have driven many experienced and capable
workers out of the public sector, leading to serious
service delivery problems for the ANC government
especially in the rural areas.
11
A growing bureaucratic
ineffciency increasingly underpins a view of govern-
ment as ineffective and incompetent. Many South
Africans thus tend to view the National Democratic
Revolution with skepticism and as a metaphor for
government inaptitude.
12
The need for representivity
and AA, at the same time, developed into an attitude
of entitlement in the constituency of the ANC-led tri-
partite government. Of course, an attitude of entitle-
ment absolves people from action, while the service
delivery problems reinforce an attitude of powerless-
ness and victimhood.
13
Why is this important? The need for a national
democratic revolution, AA policies, and the accep-
tance of inadequacies in many areas of government is
informed by the importance of Africa. It underpins a
government approach that highlights the need to em-
phasize the African dimension and identity in South
African society to the detriment of many consider-
ations that others may consider more important. The
ANC domestic political discourse and the domestic
373
political agenda of the ANC government are informed
by Africa and the need to emphasize the importance
of Africa. This orientation toward Africa in domestic
politics, by design, also informs the foreign policy
stance of the South African government. In a multi-
cultural and multiethnic society, this is an important
message from government to both its domestic and
foreign audiences.
A second consideration is geography. A previous
South African president, Thabo Mbeki, found it neces-
sary to deliver a speech on I am an African in the
South African parliament.
14
He had to make the point
explicitly in the South African parliament that South
Africa is part of Africa! Why? From a geographical
perspective, South Africa is not only part of Africa,
but its position at the southern tip of the continent is
also a blessing and a curse. With some of the worlds
most important minerals, the country has very long
open borders to the north and has to police a coastline
of more than 3,000 kilometers (km) on one of the na-
val choke points of the world. The recent instabilities
in the oceans around East and West Africa, together
with subsequent increase in sea traffc around Africa,
highlight this reality.
Geopolitics dictate that the South African govern-
ment should commit itself to a prioritization of the
African continent in general and in strengthening of
the political and economic integration of the SADC in
particular. It is no surprise, then, that South Africas
foreign policy has a very explicit focus on Africa in
general, and the SADC in particular, in consolida-
tion of the African Agenda.
15
The geographical em-
phasis on Africa, like the domestic political agenda,
also encases South Africas African identity. This
explicit alignment with Africa is in stark contrast to
374
the focus of the apartheid government that projected
itself as part of the European civilization. The apart-
heid government projected the South African sea lines
and minerals as important to the West. For the ANC
government, it is part of Africas rich reserve. Thus,
identity politics drive the South African geostrategic
orientation toward Africa.
16
History is a third consideration in South African
foreign policy orientation toward Africa. The apart-
heid government never steered away from political,
economic, and military coercion in Southern Africa.
The ANC is inspired by the need to mend these in-
justices. Its history of resistance against apartheid (the
so-called struggle history) left the ANC with a respon-
sibility to repay many African countries for their ser-
vices as sanctuaries to ANC cadres during the anti-
apartheid struggle.
History, of course, also shapes South African stra-
tegic engagement with the rest of the world: from
support to controversial underdogs such as the
Palestinians and, more recently, Muammar Gaddaf,
to a very strong anti-American and anti-West stance
in general, and an emphasis on South-South relations
in particular.
17
The South African orientation to the
West in general, and the United States in particular,
is driven by Africas colonial heritage and U.S. sup-
port to the apartheid government during the Cold
War. The very strong anti-American sentiments of
the South African government were clearly demon-
strated through the latters reactions to the creation
of the U.S. Africa Command
18
(AFRICOM) and the
positioning of the Libyan crisis as American neo-colo-
nialism.
19
In both cases, the South African government
furiously denounced the decisions and actions by the
U.S. Government.
20

375
South African foreign policy therefore contains
a very explicit grounding in an Africanist and anti-
imperialist agenda. Greg Mills notes, for example,
there is a visceral genufection to interpret, label and
dismiss Western actions on the African continent as
imperialistically intended.
21
Thus, an Africanist and
anti-imperialist stance is, in essence, about being anti-
West. This foreign policy agenda contains an implicit
expression of both anti-Americanism and solidarity
with allies around the world from the period of na-
tional liberation. Liberation movement politics of sen-
timent and solidarity are also an important drivers of
the South African strategic orientation toward Africa
and its role on/toward the African continent.
22
The nature of global governance is a fourth factor
underpinning the emphasis on Africa in South African
foreign policy. Liberation politics and the Africanist
and anti-imperialist agenda support the strong empha-
sis of the ANC government on a just global order and
an effort to change the international structure. South
Africas aggregate capabilities in terms of economic,
diplomatic, and military capacities in relation to other
African countries led to a view of South Africas role
in Africa as that of pivotal state, regional power, and
hegemonic state. Of course, each description contains
some truth about South Africas role in Africa. At the
same time, though, this also masks a constraint of
South African involvement in Africa: the possible per-
ception of South Africa as a big brother using bullying
tactics. The perception explains, at least partly, South
Africas cautious handling of the Zimbabwean crisis
in general and Robert Mugabe in particular.
23
It is a
reality that the South African government deliberately
portrays a selective image of multilateral engagement
through political partnerships and (sometimes) re-
376
gional leadership. This self-imposed perceptual con-
straint is a reality of South Africas engagement and
role in Southern Africa.
South Africa, supported by others, mainly Nige-
ria, has become the key driver and competitor in the
reconstruction of Africas institutional architecture.
This specifcally pertains to the creation of the African
Union (AU) and the hosting of the African Parliament
in South Africa. In July 2001, the Assembly of African
Heads of State and Government in Lusaka, Zambia,
also reached a decision on the New Partnership for
Africas Development (NEPAD) as an overarching vi-
sion and policy framework for accelerating economic
cooperation and integration among African countries.
This corresponded with the vision of the then South
African president Mbeki of an African Renaissance to
confront the challenges of the African continent. South
Africa was also the key actor in transforming the South
African Development Coordinating Conference into
the South African Development Community, which,
in August 2008, launched the Southern African free
trade area. These continental and regional institutions
became an important part of South Africas approach
of multilateral engagement in shaping its immediate
geostrategic environment. The countrys support for
and role in the establishment of regional and continen-
tal institutions, together with the substantial fnancial
support to the AU, the NEPAD Secretariat, and the
Pan-African Parliament, not only demonstrate South
Africas leading role in Africa, but also the countrys
commitment to the African agenda (identity politics)
and in helping Africa (enlightened self-interest).
24
South Africa uses its geopolitical position in
(Southern) Africa as a means to popularize Africas
potential and challenges on global forums and insti-
377
tutions. As a result of South Africas efforts, Africa
features increasingly on the agenda of the United
Nations (UN), the G8 (France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
the United Kingdom [UK], and the United States), the
World Trade Organizations (WTOs), the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank. The ex-
tent to which South Africa, for example, was willing to
give up or sacrifce reputation and respect outside of
Africa during its tenure at the UN Security Council in
its search for a mediated solution in Zimbabwe, once
again demonstrated South Africas commitment to the
African continent.
25
Compassion and humanitarian considerations
may provide a ffth explanation for South Africas fo-
cus on Africa. There is no doubt that South Africa un-
der ANC leadership is committed in its search for an
end to confict and violence and a move toward sus-
tainable peace on the African continent. Over the last
number of years, South Africa has provided consider-
able funding, military resources, and political energy
in places such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, and Sudan to create what can only be
considered fragile peace settlements. Confict resolu-
tion and the utilization of its military in peace mis-
sions in Africa have come to symbolize South Africas
search for African solutions for African problems. The
military has become, specifcally under the Mbeki re-
gime, the most prominent (and preferred) South Af-
rican foreign policy tool in Africa. With the decision
by the South African government to make the military
once again responsible for the safeguarding of South
Africas borders, the South African military presence
in Africa is set to decline. The South African military
is overstretched, underfunded, and, the Army in par-
ticular, in dire need of new equipment. The South
378
African government will continue its role as a peace
broker on the continent and to use the countrys con-
siderable political leverage as a means to stabilization.
In this regard, the South African military places a high
emphasis on so-called defense diplomacy.
26

South Africa is without doubt a key state, not only
in the SADC region, but also on the Africa continent
as a whole. South Africas position in Africa is to a
certain extent comparable to that of the United States
in the global arenaif you act, you are in the wrong,
and if you do not act, you are also in the wrong. A
key strategic question pertains to the extent to which
South Africa has to prove its commitment to Africaa
continent that is already suffering under the burden of
a continent-wide inferiority complex and bad leader-
ship in its interaction with the rest of the world. On
a continent that is in dire need of constructive lead-
ership, South Africa seems to offer itself as a will-
ing leader; often to the detriment of its own position
and image.
In the absence of clear identifable interests and a
wide variety of factors underpinning South Africas
explicit commitment to the African continent, a lack
of focus is to be expected. It is thus no surprise that a
mixture of geopolitical and historic realities, domes-
tic and liberation politics, and Africanism and anti-
imperialism seems to drive the unpredictable and
inconsistent nature of the ANC governments foreign
policy agenda in general, and on the African continent
in particular. Such an array of factors is responsible
for the description of South African foreign policy as a
bit of this, bit of that. Making sense of such a foreign
policy approach will always be diffcult.
379
INTO AFRICA: THE U.S. (RE)DISCOVERY
OF AFRICA
Until fairly recently, Africa did not feature very
prominently on the political radar screens in Wash-
ington.
27
This has always been a logical outcome of
U.S. global strategic, political, and economic interests,
which are profoundly Eurocentric by nature. Salih
Booker, for example, argues that there has always
been a denial of most U.S. interests in Africa.
28
Booker
is of the opinion that America reluctantly identifes
with Africa in spite of the dramatic changes that have
taken place in Africa over the last decades and also
in the status of Africas descendants in the United
States itself.
29
Except for the slave trade, the United States does
not really have historical ties with Africa. For a variety
of reasons, the United States has not been involved in
the scramble for Africa. America did not challenge
European infuence in Africa; in exchange, it is ar-
gued, for dominance in the Western hemisphere.
30
In
the aftermath of World War II, Africa became more
important for the United States, not only because of
the creation of the UN and the independence of so
many (UN-voting) African states, but in particular be-
cause of the geopolitics of the Cold War. The creation
of the Bureau of African Affairs in 1958 serves as an
example of the growing concern in Washington at the
time about what was happening in Africa, the increas-
ing Soviet infuence in Africa in particular.
31
The end of the Cold War led to renewed disen-
gagement of the United States from Africa, reinforced
by the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia.
The 1994 Rwanda genocide did not attract much polit-
ical attention (or action) in and from the United States.
380
Until the creation of AFRICOM in 2007, the U.S. ap-
proach to Africa was characterized by the promotion
of democracy and the development of trade relations
by means of initiatives such as the African Growth
and Opportunity Act.
32
During most of these times,
two particular considerations shaped U.S. foreign pol-
icy toward Africa. First, the color line has always been
an important factor. Before and during the Cold War,
America predominantly identifed with Europeans in
Africa.
33
Second, economic factors reign supreme. The
question of how America will gain economically from
Africa has always directed its foreign policy toward
the continent.
The United States always experienced some diff-
culty in developing a coherent policy toward Africa.
This diffculty is rooted in a number of realities. First,
before the eruption of the War on Terror, the United
States had few concrete, material interests in the con-
tinent.
34
Africa is perhaps the only sizable inhabited
geographical region that has never really been vital
to U.S. security interests. While clear identifable in-
terests provide policy with a solid foundation and co-
herence, a lack thereof normally leads to ambiguity,
debate, and vulnerability to changing political moods.
In the case of Africa, this particular reality linked U.S.
policy closely to global geopolitical developments. In
addition, U.S. African policies very often refect an in-
difference to indigenous African political realities and
an inability to predict the probable impact of specifc
policies on interstate relations among African states.
35
Second, it is diffcult for the average American
citizen to relate to the diverse, sometimes chaotic or
anarchic, and often depressing realities of the African
continent.
36
The public idea of Africa, so successfully
sustained by Western media, is rooted in an image
381
of confict, disaster, challenges, and hopelessness. In
the United States, no news is better than good news
from Africa. Thus, many Americans have a National
Geographic image of Africaas if Africa does
not consist of different countries with a huge diver-
sity of nations and peoples, rich and poor, developed
and underdeveloped, who have a variety of interests,
opinions, and prejudices. U.S. involvement in Africa
is underpinned by media coverage of humanitarian
catastrophe and public pressure on the U.S. Govern-
ment to react to the human need. U.S. engagements in
Africa are mostly episodic, short-lived, and inconsis-
tent. Egregious suffering without media coverage will
most probably be ignored.
37
Washington deals with
Africa as if it is a single country and search for a
single African voice to guide them in dealing with
this diverse continent. The search, of course, is both
futile and dangerous.
38
Though hegemonic states such
as South Africa have tried to do this in the past, there
is nobody who speaks for or who can speak on behalf
of Africans.
39
Third, there is an absence of a powerful and co-
hesive domestic constituency in the United States to
maintain pressure on Washington for an effective
policy toward different countries in Africa.
40
This real-
ity has its roots in the lack of common personal and
professional commitments, interests, and linkages
between the civil societies of most African countries
and the United States. Many Americans refer to them-
selves as Afro-Americans as if Euro-Africans or
Arab-Africans do not exist and as if Afro-Americans
have closer ties with the African continent than their
fellow Americans.
Last, until the creation of AFRICOM, U.S. policy
toward the majority of African countries was, to a
382
large extent, the responsibility of the bureaucratic
middle echelons in Washington that practiced the art
of bureaucratic conservatism. These bureaucrats op-
erate within a framework of do not spend too much
money, do not take a stand that might create domestic
controversy, and do not let African issues complicate
policy toward other, more important, parts of the
world.
41
This bureaucratic approach to U.S. policy
formulation led to a situation where the United States
had to rediscover Africa at several junctions during
the post- World War II era.
42
U.S. engagement with
Africa has often refected rather different approaches
and intensities between the Department of State, the
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),
and the Department of Defense (DoD). This very often
results in some confusion about U.S. interests, objec-
tives, and motives.
43
Obviously, the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist
attacks, the consequent U.S. War on Terror, and more
specifcally, U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan dramatically impacted the U.S. geostrategic
outlook. It is possible to argue that U.S. foreign policy
is shifting attention away from the Middle East to, in-
ter alia, Africa. There is a clear growth of U.S. interests
in Africa, and Africa is on the rise on the U.S. secu-
rity agenda. Different factors are driving current U.S.
interests in Africa: oil and global trade, maritime se-
curity, armed conficts, violent extremism, and HIV/
AIDS.
44
This growth in interests is rooted in two very
specifc global geostrategic considerations: the con-
tinuing global economic meltdown that, specifcally
in Europe and the United States, reached new heights
during 2011, and the power shift away from the north
Atlantic to the Indian Ocean rim with India and China
as the two main players. These two considerations are
383
closely interwoven in the competition for African re-
sources and markets.
There is no clearer indication of a more focused
strategic approach toward the continent
45
than the
creation of AFRICOM and, more specifcally, the na-
ture of that command. The unique blending of the U.S.
military and diplomatic apparatus in AFRICOM is it-
self a refection of the elevation of U.S. security and
other interests in Africa, a more aggressive U.S. for-
eign policy toward Africa, and, most importantly, a
new militarized approach in dealing with Africa.
46
SOUTH AFRICA AND THE
UNITED STATES IN AFRICA:
PARTNERS OR COMPETITORS
The most outstanding feature about both U.S. and
South African involvement in African security is the
prominent role of the military. Of course, neither of
the two would like to be seen as being overtly militar-
ily involved in African security. There is also no doubt
that there is a confuence of U.S./South Africa inter-
ests in African security. U.S. interests in Africa have a
visible focus on security. This specifcally concerns the
need to address maritime security, armed conficts,
and violent extremism in Africa.
The Strategic Plan of the South African Department
of International Relations and Cooperation explicitly
identifed the continued prioritisation of Africa
as the frst of its overarching priorities.
47
The Plan
continues to explain that the focus of South Africas
engagements on the African continent is to promote
development, contribute to the resolution of conficts,
and build an environment in which socio-economic
development can take place. Whereas in the case of
384
the United States, the emphasis in their engagement
with Africa is centered on security, in the case of South
Africa, it is on development.
Of course, it is quite easy for both the United States
and South Africa to identify Africa as a strategic prior-
ity. However, explaining why Africa is or should be of
vital strategic interest is not that easy. From an Afri-
can perspective, U.S. interests in Africa, irrespective of
what is said in the halls of politics, are rooted in access
to African oil and mineral riches, the need to pursue
the War on Terror in the African battlespace, and the
continued inroads into African markets by peer com-
petitors such as China and India. Identifying the inter-
ests of a fellow African country is a more sensitive and
complex issue. Not only is African politics sometimes
diffcult to disaggregate, but South Africa is in many
ways Africas economic super power with a history of
destabilization on the continent. South African inter-
ests in Africa center on the history of the governing
party, identity politics, and geostrategic realities. The
South African government, very much like that of the
United States, is very cautious not to be seen as ex-
ploiting Africa for its own selfsh economic interests.
Thus, South African economic interests in Africa (and
these are real vital interests!) are coated in the jargon
of socio-economic development since socio-economic
development is critical for addressing the root causes
of confict and instability in Africa.
48
This difference
(security vis--vis socio-economic development) may
provide an important frst clue in understanding the
reluctance of the South African government in work-
ing with the United States in Africa.
The U.S. 2010 National Security Strategy stresses
the need to embrace effective partnerships and for
a consultative approach on the African continent to
385
facilitate access to open markets, confict prevention,
global peacekeeping, counterterrorism, and the pro-
tection of vital carbon sinks.
49
Similarly, the February
2010 U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review highlighted the
fact that American efforts in Africa hinge on partner-
ing with African states . . . to conduct capacity-build-
ing and peacekeeping operations, prevent extremism,
and address humanitarian crises.
50
The need for part-
nerships is also highlighted in the most recent U.S. Na-
tional Military Strategy to preserve stability, facilitate
resolutions to political tensions that underlie conficts,
and to foster broader development. The National Mili-
tary Strategy stresses the need to:
identify and encourage states and regional organiza-
tions that have demonstrated a leadership role to con-
tinue to contribute to Africas security.
51
The 2010 National Security Strategy placed specifc
emphasis on South Africa as a critical partner in
charting a course toward improved governance and
meaningful development in Africa. According to the
National Security Strategy, South Africa often serves as
a springboard to the entire African continent. Thus,
the U.S. need is to work with South Africa to pursue
shared interests in Africas security, growth, and the
development of Africas human capital.
52
The United States, however, does not feature in
South African foreign policy documents as a key part-
ner in Africa. The frst priority for the South African
government is to pursue the so-called African Agenda
through the political and economic integration of Af-
rica and to defend Africas geostrategic interests to be
among equals in the global architecture.
53
The Euro-
pean Union Strategy for Africa, the New Africa-Asia
386
Strategic Partnership (NAASP), the Tokyo Interna-
tional Conference for African Development (TICAD),
and the Africa-India Forum and the Forum for China
Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) are mentioned as key
pathways for development and cooperation in Africa.
This raises questions about South Africas perception
of the U.S. role in Africa. An outstanding feature of
South Africas involvement in Africa is the emphasis
that is placed on the role of SADC, the AU, and the
UN to bring peace, security, and stability to the Afri-
can continent.
54
In the description of its relations with
the United States, the need is emphasized to maintain
the key U.S. role in the fght against communicable
and infectious diseases and to nurture and utilize the
U.S. commitment to Africa to promote peacekeeping,
post-confict reconstruction and development, skills
development, capacity building, and trilateral coop-
eration.
55
Nowhere is the need expressed to work with
the United States in Africa. From a geopolitical per-
spective, the South African disregard or indifference
toward the U.S. role in Africa is quite obvious. Clearly,
although the United States recognizes the importance
of South Africa on the African continent and the need
to work with South Africa in addressing African chal-
lenges, the same cannot be said of the South African
government. Partnering with the United States is not
only bad domestic politics for the ANC government; it
also does not resonate and correspond very well with
South Africas image in the rest of Africa.
There is no doubt that the current South African
ANC government has what the United States would
see as a terrorist background. The ANC, to be spe-
cifc, not very long ago, was listed by the United States
as a terrorist organization.
56
South Africa has not been
the most energetic partner in the U.S. War on Terror.
387
Concerns have obviously been raisedat least by the
U.S. intelligence communityabout South Africa as a
possible recruiting and training area for international
terrorists. South African passports are relatively easily
available on the black market and have been found
in the possession of al-Qaeda suspects.
57
Moreover,
while South Africa is not directly threatened with in-
ternational terrorist activity, it may well be a safe ha-
ven for international terrorists. The most important is-
sue concerning the U.S./South Africa terrorism nexus,
though, is the reality that South Africa does not share
the U.S. outlook on terrorism. In the ANC worldview,
at least, a sharp distinction is made between interna-
tional terrorism and the use of terror as a weapon in
the armed struggles of the anti-colonial and national
liberation movements. The use of terror in these
struggles for liberation is morally and legally just in
the ANC worldview. The ANC, thus, distinguishes
between international and revolutionary terrorism.
Terrorist violence is described as indiscriminate, vio-
lent attacks on the civilian population.
58
According
to the ANC, these kinds of attacks are not being used
by armed liberation movements and run counter to
their ethos.
Thus, the ANC viewed the 9/11 attacks against
the United States as wrong but, at the same time, the
terrorist tactics of the Taliban and the revolutionary
forces against the United States in Afghanistan and
Iraq as justifed. This also holds true for the support by
the ANC for terror tactics by the Palestinians against
Israel. There is no doubt that the ANC government
in South Africa, albeit tacitly, views the U.S. security
objectives in Africa in the War on Terror as imperi-
alist by nature.
59
According to this view, the United
States used the events of 9/11 very cleverly to its own
388
advantage. Instead of focusing on those immediately
responsible for the attack, the United States used mili-
tary expansionism to strengthen its economy through
the acquisition of markets and oil-rich areas. The War
on Terror, according to ANC logic, has become a U.S.
excuse to gain control of strategic oil supplies and
markets in Africa.
The perceptions of the ANC are grounded in its
revolutionary background and experiences. Whether
those perceptions are rooted in reality is absolutely ir-
relevant. The ANC understands the notion that there
is always, at least, some truth in any perception. The
perceptions about the creation of AFRICOM are a good
example in this regard. To be more specifc, the inter-
woven nature of the military and diplomatic instru-
ment within AFRICOM positioned the U.S. military
as the primary instrument of U.S. foreign policy on the
African continent. The U.S. military is thus seen as the
lead instrument of U.S. foreign policy in Africaor it
is portrayed by the South Africans as the leading for-
eign policy instrument. The reaction from the South
Africa government to the creation of AFRICOM was
one of outrage. At its 2007 Polokwane Conference, for
example, the ANC accepted a resolution that urges
Africa to remain united and resolute in the rejection of
the African Command Centre (sic) (AFRICOM).
At the same time and as a matter of irony, though,
the South African National Defence Force became, for
all practical purposes, the leading South African for-
eign policy instrument in Africa during the Mbeki ad-
ministration.
60
The human security paradigm is sup-
posed to inform South African military involvement
on the continent, and the South African armed forces:
389
have to be transformed from an instrument of aggres-
sion to an instrument of protection [in] the develop-
ment of the individual and the community.
61

As a consequence, both the U.S. and the SA mili-
taries are actively involved in African security. Yet,
the South Africans view their military involvement as
human security-related and that of the United States
as military security-orientated. For the ANC govern-
ment, South African military deployments into Africa
are meant as a force of good, while the U.S. military
instrument in Africa is seen as a force of destruction.
More specifcally, the U.S. force utility, according to
ANC logic, is shaped by conventional warfghting ap-
plications, while South African military involvement
is driven by the human security and peacetime ap-
plications of military force. The differences between
perceptions and reality in the South African and U.S.
military involvement in Africa may thus raise ques-
tions of South African hypocrisy in the United States.
CONCLUSION
This discussion was intended to provide an over-
view of possible areas of cooperation or disagreement
between the United States and South Africa in Africa
in general and African security in particular. South
Africas economic and security interests are to a large
extent restricted to Southern Africa. Yet, Africa fea-
tures very prominently as a foreign policy focus area
in South African foreign policy. The explicit focus on
Africa has very little to do with South African interests
in Africa and is only explainable within the context of
domestic politics, geostrategic realities and identity
politics, historical considerations of struggle politics
390
and alignment with the underdogs of the world, the
current imbalances in global governance, and a com-
mitment to end confict and violence in a search for
peace and stability on the African continent. This con-
glomerate of factors makes the development of con-
sistency in the South African foreign policy toward
Africa extremely diffcult and the policy itself very
complex and complicated. It is diffcult to understand
and to predict future actions and reactions.
Until fairly recently, Africa did not feature very
strongly on the U.S. political agenda. That, though,
seems to be changing, and Africa is increasingly be-
coming a priority region for the U.S. Government. The
increasing prioritization of Africa seems to be rooted
in geopolitical changes and the rising interest of China
and India in African resources and markets in par-
ticular; the U.S. need to achieve its objectives in the
Global War on Terror in Africa; and to secure access
to Africas oil resources. Thus, both the United States
and South Africa seem to have limited but growing
interests in Africa. As a non-African country, the U.S.
approach to Africa is rooted in caution and a search
for key partners, South Africa being one. The military-
political nature of AFRICOM demonstrates the U.S.
caution toward and recognition of the uniqueness
of Africa.
South Africa, as an identifed key partner in Africa,
has not always been very positive about U.S. military
involvement in Africa. South Africa is using its own
military as a key component of its own foreign policy
engagement on the African continent. Though South
Africa seems to be more open and accommodative of
U.S. economic involvement in and support to Africa,
U.S. security involvement in Africa is not very posi-
tively considered. More specifcally, South Africa ap-
391
pears to look toward its own military use in Africa as
something positive that is contributing toward peace
and security in Africa. That is not necessarily its view
of U.S. military involvement in Africasomething
that is perceived as neo-colonial in nature.
ENDNOTES - CHAPTER 14
1. South African Government, Department of International
Relations and Cooperation, Strategic Plan, 20102013, 2010, Preto-
ria, South Africa, p. 7, available from www.dfa.gov.za/department/
strategic%20plan%202010-2013/index.htm.
2. For statistics in this regard, please see the South African
Department of Trade and Industry, available from apps.thedti.gov.
za/econdb/raportt/rapregi.html.
3. The Southern African Development Community (SADC)
is an intergovernmental organization in Southern Africa and is
headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. The purpose of SADC is
to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as
political and security cooperation among its 15 member states.
The member states are Anglo, Botswana, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia,
Tanzania, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Sey-
chelles, and Madagascar.
4. S. Naidu and J. Lutchman, Understanding South Africas
engagement in the region: Has the leopard changed its spots?
Stability, Poverty Reduction, and South African Trade and Investment
in Southern Africa, Proceedings of a conference presented by the
Southern African Regional Poverty Network and the EUs CWCI
Fund, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa,
March 2930, 2004, p. 12.
5. See C. Alden and M. Soko, South Africas economic rela-
tions with Africa: hegemony and its discontents, Journal of Mod-
ern African Studies, Vol. 43, No. 3, 2005, pp. 367392.
392
6. This is clearly demonstrated through the ANCs political
lingua franca, addressing each other, for example, as comrades.
7. The South African government consists of the ANC, the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the
South African Communist Party (SACP) in a tripartite alliance.
8. The word representivity (verteenwoordiging in Afrikaans) is
deeply imbedded in the South African lingua franca as a way to
explain the need for representativeness in society at large. It is
widely used throughout society and is seen as the driving need
underpinning affrmative action and equal opportunities for all
in society.
9. The term Black Diamonds is a collective term used in
South Africa to refer to members of the new black middle and
ruling class who, in many instances, benefted from the affrma-
tive action policies of the post-1994 ANC government and who
became very rich and infuential in a relatively short period of
time. Depending on the circumstances, it is used in a derogatory,
complimentary, or lighthearted manner.
10. The voice of the ANC Youth League and its leader, Juluis
Malema, has been very strong in this regard.
11. See the service delivery plans of the Department of
Public Service and Administration, available from www.pmg.
org.za/minutes/20070528-service-delivery-improvement-plans-sdip-
dpsa-closeout-report.
12. See, for example, the opinion piece of Moeletsi Mbeki on
South Africas Tunisia Day, available from www.businessday.
co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=133902. Also see the view expressed
by the Rector of the University of the Freestate, available from
www.iol.co.za/news/politics/government-has-f-you-attitude-1.1182705.
13. A. Van Zyl, Hope can help overcome conditional help-
lessness in SA, The Sunday Independent, Opinion and Analysis,
November 6, 2011, p. 17.
14. Speech by the Deputy President TM Mbeki, on behalf of
the ANC, on the occasion of the adoption by the Constitutional
393
Assembly of The Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill 1996,
May 8, 1996, available from www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/orders/
new2002_mbeki.htm.
15. Department of International Relations and Cooperation,
Strategic Plan, 20102013, Pretoria, South Africa: South African
Government, 2010, p. 7, available from www.dfa.gov.za/department/
strategic%20plan%202010-2013/index.htm.
16. E. Sidiropoulos, South African foreign policy in the post-
Mbeki period, South African Journal of International Affairs, Vol.
15, No. 2, p. 114.
17. See, for example, the negative reference to the United
States in terms of the unique dominance of one hyper power
in the world. African National Congress (ANC), Resolutions, 52nd
National Conference, Polokwane, South Africa, 2007, p. 37, avail-
able from www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/conf/conference52/.
18. Ibid, p. 43. It is noted that [t]he conference urges Africa
to remain united and resolute in the rejection of the African Com-
mand Centre (sic) (AFRICOM).
19. T. Mbeki, Africans must guard as new colonialism walks
roughshod over international law and human decency, The Sun-
day Independent, Analysis, November 6, 2011, pp. 89.
20. For a detailed exposition of the South African reaction to
the creation of AFRICOM, see A. J. Esterhuyse, The Iraqization
of Africa? Looking at AFRICOM from a South African Perspec-
tive, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 2008, pp.
111-130.
21. G. Mills, SAs bit of this and bit of that foreign policy,
Sunday Times, Times Live, November 27, 2011, available from
www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2011/11/27/sa-s-bit-of-this-
bit-of-that-foreign-policy.
22. Sidiropoulos, p. 116. Also see African National Congress
(ANC), Resolutions, p. 37.
394
23. South Africa is often criticized for its preference to remain
silent on the controversial land distribution and other contentious
policies of Robert Mugabes ZANU-PF government in Zimbabwe.
The Mbeki Administration was known for its so-called Silent Di-
plomacy toward the Zimbabwe crisis.
24. Sidiropoulos, p. 116.
25. This is a typical example where the importance of devel-
opment and democracy had to bend the knee and make provision
for African solidarity, Africanism, and a general anti-colonial and
anti-western sentiment.
26. Department of Defence, Strategic Plan (MTEF FY 2010/11
to FY 2012/13), Pretoria, South Africa: South Africa Government,
p. 23, available from www.pmg.org.za/fles/docs/100303dodplan.doc.
27. See, for example, the United States Security Strategy for Sub-
Sahara Africa, Washington, DC: Department of Defense, Offce
of International Security Affairs, August 1995. For a chronology
of U.S. involvement in Africa, see U.S. Africa Command, Fact
sheet: U.S.-Africa relations chronology, available from www.afri-
com.mil/getArticle.asp?art=1645.
28. Booker is the executive director of the Washington-based
Africa Policy Information Center and the New York-based Africa
Fund (ACOA).
29. S. Booker, The colour line: US foreign policy and national
interests in Africa, South African Journal of International Affairs,
Vol. 8, No. 1, Summer 2001, p. 2.
30. A. J. Esterhuyse, Die militre betrokkenheid van die Verenigde
State van Amerika in sub-Sahara Afrika: 1993-2001 (The Military In-
volvement of the United States of America in Sub-Saharan Africa:
1993-2001), Unpublished MSS thesis, University of Pretoria, Pre-
toria, South Africa, September 2003, pp. 5253.
31. See the Bureau of African Affairs, May 14, 2007, available
from www.state.gov/p/af/.
395
32. J. E. Frazer, African affairs, US foreign policy in the 21st
century: Regional issues, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
State, September 2006, pp. 45, available from usinfo.state.gov/jour-
nals/itps/0906/ijpe/ijpe0906.pdf.
33. Booker, p. 3; D. A. Dickson, United States Foreign Policy To-
wards Sub-Sahara Africa, Lanham, MD: University Press of Amer-
ica, 1985, p. 172.
34. M. Clough, Free At Last? US Policy Towards Africa and
the End of the Cold War, Lawrenceville, NJ: Africa World Press,
1992, p. 3.
35. Dickson, p. 173.
36. Clough, p. 3.
37. E-mail correspondence with Dr. Dan Henk, U.S. Air War
College, July 30, 2007.
38. Clough, pp. 2025.
39. Dickson, p. 170;
40. Clough, p. 3.
41. Ibid, p. 2.
42. P. J. Schraeder, United States Foreign Policy Towards Africa:
Incrementalism, Crisis, and Change, London, UK: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1994, p. 2.
43. See the discussion of this phenomenon in D. Henk, The
environment, the US military, and Southern Africa, Parameters,
Summer 2006, pp. 101102.
44. L. Ploch, Africa command: U.S. strategic interests and
the role of the U.S. military in Africa, CRS Report for Congress,
Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, July 22, 2011,
pp. 1319, available from www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34003.pdf.
45. Ibid., p. 14.
396
46. M. Malan, AFRICOM: A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing? Wash-
ington, DC: Refugees International, Testimony before the Sub-
committee on African Affairs, Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate, August 1, 2007, available from foreign.senate.gov/imo/
media/doc/MalanTestimony070801.pdf.
47. Strategic Plan, 20102013, p. 7.
48. Ibid., p. 8.
49. National Security Strategy, Washington, DC: The White
House, May 2010, p. 45.
50. Secretary of Defense, Quadrennial Defense Review Report,
Washington DC: Department of Defense, February 2010, p. 61.
51. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, The National Military
Strategy of the United States: Redefning Americas Military Power,
Washington DC: Joint Chiefs of Staff, February 8, 2011, p. 12.
52. National Security Strategy, p. 45.
53. Strategic Plan, 20102013, p. 8.
54. Ibid., p. 9.
55. Ibid., p. 17.
56. BBC News, Mandela taken off US terror list, available from
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7484517.stm.
57. F. Osman, Is South Africa joining the American-led war
on terrorism? Media Review Network, March 19, 2008, available
from www.mediareviewnet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task
=view&id=20&Itemid=38.
58. J. Duncan, With us or against us? South Africas posi-
tion in the War against Terror, Review of South African Political
Economy, Vol. 34, No. 113, September 2007, p. 514.
59. Many ANC leaders were explicit in labelling the NATO
action against the regime of Muammar Gaddaf as imperialist.
397
In South Africa, a clear line is not necessarily drawn between
what NATO is doing and what the United States is doing as part
of NATO. See, for example, the article in the infuential Busi-
ness Day, available from www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.
aspx?id=156734.
60. See the consecutive strategic plans of the South African
Department of International Relations and Cooperation, formerly
known as the Department of Foreign Affairs. For the most recent
strategic plan, see South African Department of Relations and
Cooperation, Strategic Plan 20092012 (n.d.), available from www.
dfa.gov.za/department/stratpla2009-2012/strategicplan2009%20-%20
2012.pdf.
61. Chapter 6: DefenceA defence perspective on the 2007
State of the Nation address, Strategic Plan of Parliament, Preto-
ria, South Africa: Parliament of the Republic of South Africa,
2007, available from www.parliament.gov.za/content/07_Chapter%
206~2.pdf8.
399
CONTRIBUTORS
FOUZIE MELANIE ALAMIR has worked as an aca-
demic researcher and lecturer at the University of
the Armed Forces and the German Federal Staff and
Command College from 1997 to 2002. After an assign-
ment with the Federal Ministry of Defense from 2002
to 2004, she joined the German Agency for Technical
Cooperation as a Program Manager for Security Sec-
tor Reform. From 2006 to 2011, she worked for the
private enterprise, IABG, as Head of Comprehensive
Security. Following a period of work as a private con-
sultant from 2011 to 2012, she assumed the position
of Head of Competence Centre Security Sector at
the German Agency for International Cooperation in
January 2013. Dr. Alamir has feld experience in Af-
ghanistan, Azerbaijan, Ghana, and Indonesia, among
others. In 2006, she worked as a Political Advisor to
the Senior Civilian Representative of the North Atlan-
tic Treaty Organization (NATO) in International Secu-
rity Assistance Force (ISAF) HQ, Kabul. Her felds of
expertise cover a broad range of security policy issues,
including the security-development nexus, civil-mili-
tary interfaces, aspects of comprehensive security and
interagency cooperation in the context of international
crisis management and peacebuilding. She is familiar
both with military and civilian approaches to crisis
management and peacebuilding at the strategic, op-
erational, and tactical levels. Dr. Alamir has published
numerous articles in books and scientifc journals.
EMMANUEL KWESI ANING is a Clinical Professor
of Peacekeeping at Kennesaw State University and the
Provost and Academic Vice President for all academic
programs at the Kof Annan International Peacekeep-
400
ing Training Centre (KAIPTC), Accra, Ghana. His rich
experience in security issues has been tapped by a
number of organizations including the United Nations
(UN), where he wrote a Secretary-Generals report in
2008 for the UN Security Council on the relationship
between the UN and regional organizations on peace
and security, especially the African Union, leading
to the establishment of the Prodi Commission; the
African Union, where he served as its frst Expert on
Counter-terrorism, peace, and security; and the Eco-
nomic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).
Dr. Aning is currently a member of the World Eco-
nomic Forums Council on Confict Resolution. He
has written numerous book chapters, monographs,
and articles in several international peer reviewed
journals. Dr. Aning holds a B.A. from the University
of Ghana, a Master of Philosophy (Cand. Phil) and a
Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
MICHAEL ASHKENAZI is the Program Leader for
SALW Control at the Bonn International Center for
Conversion, a German applied research center focus-
ing on security and development. He has conducted
research in Afghanistan, China, Guinea Bissau, Japan,
Korea, Liberia, Nepal, South Sudan, Timor Leste, and
Uganda. Dr. Ashkenazis current research interests
range from traditional security providers through
arms and ammunition storage, disarmament, demo-
bilization, and reintegration (DD&R), security sector
reform (SSR), to the effects of small arms and light
weapons (SALW) on societies and development. He
has previously worked on Japanese religion, food
culture, and business culture, and on migration. Dr.
Ashkenazis research has been disseminated through
numerous publications, including the Training and
401
Education on Small Arms (TRESA) publications and
numerous courses across the world, including in Co-
lombia, Germany, Ghana, Mozambique, South Sudan,
and UN Headquarters. Audiences range from police
and military offcers through nongovernmental orga-
nization (NGO) members to parliamentarians. Previ-
ous to working for BICC, Dr. Ashkenazi was professor
of anthropology, teaching graduate and undergradu-
ate students at universities in Canada, Israel, and
the UK. He has also served as infantryman, platoon
and company commander, and in staff positions. Dr.
Ashkenazi was educated in Israel, Japan, and the
United States.
FESTUS KOFI AUBYN is a Research Fellow at the
Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research (FAAR)
of the Kof Annan International Peacekeeping Train-
ing Centre (KAIPTC), Ghana, and a Doctorial Candi-
date in Peace and Confict Studies at the University
of Ibadan, Nigeria. His research interests are in the
areas of confict, peace and security in Africa with a
particular focus on transnational organized crimes,
peace operations and election security. Among Mr.
Aubyns recent publications are Ghana in Alex J.
Bellamy and Paul D. Williams (eds.), Providing Peace-
keepers: The Politics, Challenges and Future of UN Peace-
keeping Contributions (Oxford University Press, 2013);
Unconstitutional Changes of Government: Confront-
ing Africas Democratic Paradox (AU Herald, Vol. 3);
and Africas Resistance to Peacekeepings Norma-
tive Change (CSS ETH Zurich and Geneva Centre for
Security Policy, Policy Paper, 2013).
402
ROBERT H. ROBIN DORFF is Dean of the College
of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) and Profes-
sor in the Department of Political Science and Inter-
national Affairs. He joined KSU as Dean of CHSS in
July 2012 from the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) at
the U.S. Army War College (USAWC), where he was
Research Professor of National Security Affairs (2007-
12) and also held the General Douglas MacArthur
Chair of Research since 2009. Dr. Dorff held faculty
positions at Michigan State University and North
Carolina State University. He has served on the US-
AWC faculty as a Visiting Professor (1994-96) and as
Professor of National Security Policy and Strategy
in the Department of National Security and Strategy
(1997-2004), where he also held the General Maxwell
D. Taylor Chair (1999-2002) and served as Department
Chair (2001-04). Dr. Dorff has been a Senior Advisor
with Creative Associates International, Inc., in Wash-
ington, DC, and served as Executive Director of the
Institute of Political Leadership in Raleigh, NC (2004-
06). Dr. Dorff remains extensively involved in strate-
gic leadership development, focusing on national se-
curity strategy and policy, and strategy formulation.
His research interests include these topics as well as
failing and fragile states, interagency processes and
policy formulation, stabilization and reconstruction
operations, and U.S. grand strategy. He has published
and lectured frequently on these topics and has spo-
ken all over the United States and in Canada, Europe,
Africa, and Asia. Dr. Dorff holds an M.A. and Ph.D.
from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
CHARLES J. DUNLAP, JR., is a Visiting Professor of
the Practice at Duke Law School and the Executive
Director of its Center on Law, Ethics, and National Se-
403
curity. Prior to retiring as an Air Force major general
in June 2010, he assisted in the supervision of more
than 2,500 military and civilian attorneys worldwide.
His 34-year career included tours in both the United
Kingdom and Korea, and he deployed for military op-
erations in Africa and the Middle East. Totaling more
than 120 publications, General Dunlaps writings ad-
dress a wide range of topics, including various aspects
of national security law, airpower, counterinsurgency,
cyber power, civil-military relations, and leadership.
General Dunlap speaks frequently at professional
conferences and at numerous institutions of higher
learning, to include Harvard, Yale, MIT, UVA, and
Stanford, as well as the National Defense University
and the Air, Army, and Navy War Colleges. He serves
on the Board of Advisors for the Center for a New
American Security. General Dunlap is a distinguished
graduate of the National War College and holds an
undergraduate degree from St. Josephs University
and a law degree from Villanova University.
ABEL ESTERHUYSE is an associate professor of strat-
egy in the Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch
University at the South African Military Academy. Be-
fore joining the Faculty of Military Science, Professor
Esterhuyse served as a lieutenant colonel in the South
African Army. He teaches a wide variety of courses in
the School for Security and Africa Studies of Stellen-
bosch University, regularly publishes on contempo-
rary military issues, and has a keen interest in (South
African) military history. He is the editor of Scientia
Militaria: The South African Journal of Military Studies.
Professor Esterhuyse is a graduate of the summer pro-
gram in military history at the U.S. Military Academy,
West Point, and the program on the analysis of mili-
404
tary operations and strategy (SWAMOS) of Colum-
bia Universitys Saltzman Institute of War and Peace
Studies. He holds an M.S.S. from Pretoria University
and a Ph.D. from Stellenbosch University.
WILLIAM FLAVIN is the Division Chief of the Doc-
trine, Concept, Education, and Training Division at
the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations
Institute (PKSOI), located at the U.S. Army War Col-
lege in Carlisle, PA, since July 2007. Previous assign-
ments include a senior foreign affairs analyst with
Booz Allen and Hamilton on contract to assist PKSOI
for doctrine development. From 1995 to 1999, he was
a colonel in the U.S. Army serving as the Deputy Di-
rector of Special Operations for the Supreme Allied
Commander of Europe at the Supreme Headquarters,
Allied Powers Europe. He was a senior fellow at CSIS
for his Army War College year and then taught at
the Army War College. Colonel Flavin holds a B.A.
in History from VMI and an M.A. in History from
Emory University.
VOLKER C. FRANKE is Special Assistant to the Vice
President for Research and Graduate Dean for Stra-
tegic Partnerships and Associate Professor of Confict
Management at Kennesaw State University. He is the
Founding Director of the Ph.D. program in Interna-
tional Confict Management at Kennesaw State Uni-
versity (2010-12) and served as Director of Research at
the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC),
one of Germanys premier peace and confict research
and capacity building institutes (2006-08). From 1998
to 2007, he was Director and Managing Editor of the
National Security Studies Case Studies Program at
Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School of Citizenship
405
and Public Affairs. Dr. Franke is the author of Prepar-
ing for Peace: Military Identity, Value-Orientations, and
Professional Military Education (Praeger 1999) and more
than 30 journal articles, book chapters, case studies,
and research reports on issues related to peace and
security studies, confict management, civil-military
relations, development policy, and social identity. He
is also the editor of Terrorism and Peacekeeping: New Se-
curity Challenges (Praeger 2005), Security in a Changing
World: Case Studies in U.S. National Security Manage-
ment (Praeger 2002), and co-editor (both with Robert
H. Robin Dorff) of Confict Management and Whole
of Government: Useful Tools for U.S. National Security
Strategy? (SSI, 2012). Dr. Franke holds an MA in po-
litical science and sociology from Johannes Gutenberg
University in Mainz, Germany; an M.P.A. from North
Carolina State University; and a Ph.D. in political sci-
ence from Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School.
KARL-THEODOR zu GUTTENBERG served as Ger-
man Federal Minister of Defense from 2009 to 2011
and as Federal Minister of Economics and Technology
from February 2009 to October 2009. As Minister of
Defense, zu Guttenberg led the most signifcant struc-
tural reform to the German Bundeswehr since 1955,
particularly leading the effort of transforming the
Bundeswehr from a conscription-based army to an
all-professional military. He also served as a member
of the German parliament or Bundestag from 2002 to
2011 and as a leading member of the Bundestags For-
eign Affairs Committee from 2005 to 2008. Minister
zu Guttenberg is leading a new transatlantic dialogue
initiative at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) which will bring European and Ameri-
can thought-leaders, practitioners, and offcials to-
406
gether on a variety of security and economic related
issues to develop a bold, new strategic vision to re-
invigorate the transatlantic relationship and prevent
strategic drift. By exploring the global shift of power,
the increased global economic and market instability
and the challenge to multilateral institutions, the fo-
cus of the project will examine how the transatlantic
relationship can lead in this increasingly complex geo-
political setting.
CHRISTOPHER HOLSHEK is an international peace
and security consultant focusing on civil-military rela-
tions in policy and practice as well as peace operations
related civil-military training and education. A Senior
Fellow with the Alliance for Peacebuilding and a civil-
military strategic analyst with Wikistrat, he was re-
cently a Senior Associate with the Project on National
Security Reform as well as Country Project Manager
in Liberia for the U.S. Department of Defenses De-
fense Institutional Reform Initiative working in Africa
on defense ministerial capacity development in order
to promote civilian oversight of the military. A retired
U.S. Army (Reserve) Civil Affairs (CA) offcer, Mr.
Holshek has 3 decades of civil-military experience at
the strategic, operational, and tactical levels in joint,
interagency, and multinational settings across the full
range of operations, among them command of the frst
CA battalion to deploy to Iraq in support of Army, Ma-
rine and British forces, as the Kosovo Forces (KFOR)
Civil-Military Liaison Offcer to the UN Mission in
Kosovo, and in the Balkans in the mid-1990s, and as
Senior U.S. Military Observer and Chief of Civil-Mil-
itary Coordination (CIMIC) for nearly 2 years in the
UN Mission in Liberia, where he broke new ground in
applying CIMIC concepts central to the development
407
of UN civil-military policy and training. In his fnal
tour as Military Representative at the U.S. Agency for
International Development for USEUCOM/SHAPE,
Mr. Holshek helped link security and development at
the national strategic level in an interagency setting as
well as stand up the National Response Center for the
Haiti earthquake.
ROBERT KENNEDY, a former senior government of-
fcial, returned to his position as Professor in the Sam
Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Insti-
tute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, in January 2003 af-
ter serving as director of the joint German-American
George C. Marshall European Center for Security
Studies in Germany. In nearly 35 years of govern-
ment service, Dr. Kennedy has also served as Civil-
ian Deputy Commandant, NATO Defense College,
Rome, Italy; Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Na-
tional Security Studies at the USAWC, researcher at
the U.S. Army SSI, Foreign Affairs Offcer, U.S. Arms
Control and Disarmament Agency; an enlisted man in
the Army; and a command pilot on active duty with
the U.S. Air Force and later with the Reserve forces.
Dr. Kennedys most recent works are Of Knowledge and
Power: the Complexities of National Intelligence (2008),
The Elements of Strategic Thinking in Gabriel Mar-
cella, ed., Teaching Strategy: Challenge and Response
(2010), The Road to War: Congress Historic Abdication of
Responsibility (2010), and National Security Reform:
12 Central Questions for Responding to the Security
Challenges of the 21st Century, in Volker Franke and
Robin Dorff, eds., Confict Management and Whole of
Government: Useful Tools for U.S. National Security
Strategy (2012).
408
MICHAEL LEKSON is director of gaming for the
Academy for International Confict Management and
Peacebuilding, United States Institute of Peace. United
States Institute of Peace. He joined the Institutes
Professional Training program in 2003 as a program
offcer. He came to the Institute following a 26-year
career in the Department of State, where he was dep-
uty assistant secretary of state for arms control, over-
seeing all multilateral arms control negotiations and
treaty implementation. Prior to that, Mr. Lekson was
deputy to the special representative of the president
and the secretary of state for implementation of the
Dayton Peace Accords. He was also director of the Of-
fce of European Security and Political Affairs, where
he helped develop and implement policies to adapt
NATO to the post-Cold War world, and of the Offce of
United Kingdom, Benelux, and Ireland Affairs, where
he worked intensively on the Northern Ireland peace
process. During his Foreign Service career, Mr. Lekson
served as a consular offcer in Bilbao, Spain, and as a
political offcer in U.S. embassies in Costa Rica, Peru,
and the United Kingdom. He was deputy U.S. repre-
sentative to the Organization for Security and Coop-
eration in Europe (OSCE) during that organizations
augmentation of its democracy building, confict pre-
vention, and confict management efforts in formerly
communist countries, especially in the Balkans and
Central Asia. Prior to joining the Department of State,
he served 2 years in the U.S. Army as a feld artillery
offcer. Mr. Lekson has a B.A. in English from Princ-
eton University and a masters in linguistics from
Stanford University.
409
LISELOTTE ODGAARD is an Associate Professor at
the Royal Danish Defence College. Her most recent
international position was in 2008-09, when she was
a residential fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Interna-
tional Center for Scholars, Washington, DC. Her areas
of expertise include International Relations, Asia-Pa-
cifc Security, and China Studies. Ms. Odgaards most
recent monograph is China and Coexistence: Beijings
National Security Strategy for the 21st Century (Wood-
row Wilson Center Press/Johns Hopkins University
Press, May 2012). Ms. Odgaard has been selected to be
a contributor to the 2014 Nobel Symposium.
DWIGHT RAYMOND joined PKSOI at the USAWC in
July 2009 after retiring from the Army as an infantry
colonel. His military assignments included infantry
leadership, command, and staff positions; faculty po-
sitions at the United States Military Academy and the
USAWC; theater-level plans positions in Korea; and
training and advisory assignments at the National
Training Center and in Iraq as an advisor to an Iraqi
Army brigade. He has developed military doctrine re-
lated to the Protection of Civilians, and is one of the
primary authors of the Mass Atrocity Response Op-
erations (MARO) Military Planning Handbook. Mr.
Raymond has a Bachelors Degree from the United
States Military Academy and masters degrees from
the University of Marylands School of Public Affairs,
the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies,
and the USAWC.
F. WILLIAM SMULLEN III is Director of the Max-
well Schools National Security Studies Program and
a member of the faculty of Syracuse Universitys S.I.
Newhouse School of Public Communications as a Pro-
410
fessor of Public Relations. Prior to his appointment at
Syracuse University, he was the Chief of Staff to Sec-
retary of State Colin L. Powell beginning in January
2001. A veteran of 30 years in the U.S. Army, his last
active duty assignment was Special Assistant to the
11th and 12th Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
NATHANIEL L. WILSON is a Program Assistant in
the Academy for International Confict Management
and Peacebuilding, U.S. Institute of Peace. He cur-
rently works on development of a Countering Violent
Extremism course curriculum to be delivered inter-
nationally. Previously, he was a Research Assistant
at the Partnership for Global Security in Washington,
DC, and at a different position, he spent a summer
working on civil rights issues in Israel. Mr. Wilson
also undertook translation work and research for the
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and
the Reponses to Terrorism (START) at the University
of Maryland-College Park. He has an abiding interest
in the Middle East and is learning Arabic. Mr. Wilson
holds a B.A. in political science from the University of
Missouri-St. Louis and an M.A. in international rela-
tions, U.S. foreign policy specialization, from Ameri-
can Universitys School of International Service.
U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE
Major General Anthony A. Cucolo III
Commandant
*****
STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE
and
U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE PRESS
Director
Professor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr.
Director of Research
Dr. Steven K. Metz
Editors
Dr. Volker C. Franke
Dr. Robert H. Dorff
Editor for Production
Dr. James G. Pierce
Publications Assistant
Ms. Rita A. Rummel
*****
Composition
Mrs. Jennifer E. Nevil
Editors:
Volker C. Franke
Robert H. Dorff
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U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE
Pillars of a New American
Grand Strategy