Two new studies by independent panels are harshly critical of the way the US government prepares for stabilization missions after major combat, like in Iraq, and they place the blame on an interagency process that does little to harness the various departments and agencies for unified action.
One study, released on Wednesday by the Council on Foreign Relations, lays out a series of steps that should be taken by the military and the government in order to plan for the postwar period with the same degree of seriousness given to planning for war.
Another report, scheduled to be released yesterday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), proposes measures to assure that efforts of all government departments be coordinated and more effective -- similar to the way the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 ordered the four armed services to move toward joint military operations.
The council study, In the Wake of War: Improving US Post-Conflict Capabilities, was led by two former national security advisers, Brent Scowcroft and Sandy Berger. The council, based in New York, is a non-partisan research organization that studies foreign policy.
It urges the president and the secretary of defense to make clear to the military that stability operations "are a strategic priority," and that such missions are as critical to national security as major combat.
The National Security Council (NSC) must, in a more muscular way, establish policy and coordinate civilian and military actions in these postconflict missions, the report added.
The State Department should take the lead in all civilian efforts of stabilization and reconstruction missions, with the Agency for International Development in charge of those day-to-day operations on the ground.
The report also urges the US to push for the creation of a multilateral reconstruction trust fund of about US$1 billion to be managed by the G8 member nations.
The report notes that the military's proven ability for speedy combat offensives now outpaces the ability to carry out reconstruction plans, and the authors warn that, in cases like Iraq, it might take more troops to stabilize and rebuild a nation than it does to topple its leadership.
The report by the CSIS, an independent public policy research group, urges a more integrated national security apparatus and promotes broad institutional changes within the executive branch.
The CSIS urges a more active role for the NSC, arguing that it should be recast "from its traditional role of preparing decisions for the president to more active involvement in ensuring that presidential intent is realized" through government actions.
It cautions that the NSC should not be involved in conducting operations, but recommend that a new position of senior director be created to ensure that interagency planning is fully integrated.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS