Warrior Legacy Institute Fellow Brad Patty has a piece up at the American Security Council Foundation's site about how we need to get all of our agencies on the same page to succeed at stability operations. The world is a dangerous place. Two things make it safer for freedom and families: strong leadership, and charitable efforts for those who need it. The United States military has provided strong leadership that is capable of creating a window of stability even in a failed state. Inside that window of stability, as in the eye of a hurricane, we can try to help the people of the region build strength to stand on their own. That requires charity. If the military is our strength, the civilian agencies are often better equipped to be the directors of humanitarian assiatance. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has reached out to the farthest corners of the world: I have seen docks and water pumping stations built in places like Tawi Tawi and Sanga Sanga in the Philippines. The State Department in Iraq has directed the formation of embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams (ePRTs) that work alongside the military. I have attended meetings where a Brigade Commander sat alongside a Foreign Service Officer, negotiating with tribal sheikhs for the building of drip irrigation projects, support for the poultry industry, or sewing centers. This approach is going to be needed in many places around the world, whether an insurgency, or corruption or other factors are causing a government to fail it's people.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/7L6TjRZG6L0/the-whole-of-government-approach.html
Posted
Mar 08 2010, 10:44 PM
by
BLACKFIVE