Stabilization Operations Beyond Government: Joint Venture Public- Private Partnerships in Iraq and Afghanistan

摘要

Against the backdrop of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a changing strategic environment in the broader Middle East, political leaders now are confronting the difficult question of how to achieve long-term stability. The toppling of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan and removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq displayed the capability of America's military to marshal overwhelming conventional force against its enemies. However, this overwhelming capability soon was eclipsed when this same force struggled to secure durable peace either in Iraq or Afghanistan. No longer is the debate focused on how to 'win the war'; rather, it has shifted to 'winning the peace.' Indeed, global power is measured not by the number of bombs a nation can drop, but by the number of opportunities it can provide. According to John Nagl, 'It is time for America to take the long term view. ... America's stake in a stable, peaceful, secure Middle East will not vanish when the last American combat brigade departs.' General David Petraeus puts it more bluntly: 'To prevail, we need long-term development and stabilization.' Unfortunately, the U.S. Government has not always taken a synchronized, whole-of-government approach to stabilization operations. As I witnessed firsthand during my recent civilian tour with Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), the combination of 1,000 Embassy staff, 500 Provincial Reconstruction Team members, and more than 130,000 Servicemembers did not result in a synchronized long-term approach to Iraq's transition from a conflict to a postconflict state.