Reconstruction and Stabilization (general)

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"Now that the new US strategy for prosecuting the war in Afghanistan has been determined, military leaders and media pundits are turning their attention to discussions of the best manner in which to implement and execute the strategy. As the military develops plans supporting the strategy and journalists search for stories about the plans, both will ask three questions:

First, what made US forces successful during the Iraq war; second, do those successes provide lessons learned for Afghanistan; and finally, how could US personnel translate those lessons to future military operations regardless of the culture and geography? This essay is certainly not the first to investigate these three questions; however, it is unique because it supports no political or military agenda regarding the war in Afghanistan."

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By Richard Fontaine

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The U.S. government and its contract employees have been thrust together as partners in a shared endeavor, the scale, cost and duration have taken nearly all observers by surprise. Private contractors now represent an enduring feature of American conflicts, stabilization operations and reconstruction efforts. In light of changes in business practices, the provision of government service and the character of modern warfare, this surprising circumstance is unlikely to change. The reality is that America’s reliance on private contractors is not likely to fade, and it is time for the United States to adapt to this new way of war.

Nine years after America’s initial engagement in Afghanistan, and seven years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq – and with continuing American commitments and interests across the globe – action is long overdue. America’s national security policy demand  new ways of organizing, managing and overseeing the use of private contractors in overseas engagements. It requires new standards and new levels of oversight at home. It means thinking hard about what tasks should be outsourced and which should not. And it entails a greater understanding by policymakers and the American public of the role that the private sector has come to play in current and future engagements.

This testimony aims to draw together the most salient issues surrounding the use of contractors in American conflicts and chart a path forward. Taken together, the recommendations outlined above would reform, rationalize and improve the process of employing private contractors in ES&R roles. The government, the military, the contracting community and ultimately the American people will benefit from reform of the ES&R contracting system that ensures the private sector’s role in American engagements aligns firmly with our nation’s interests and values.

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Reconstruction Under Fire: Case Studies and Further Analysis of Civil Requirements

By Brooke Stearns Lawson, Terrence K. Kelly, Michelle Parker, Kim Colloton, and Jessica Watkins

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Successful counterinsurgency (COIN) requires the integration of security and civil COIN to create conditions that allow the population to choose between the government and insurgents, eliminate the grievances that gave rise to the insurgency, and present the population with choices that are more attractive than what the insurgents can offer. Building on a framework for integrating civil and military counterinsurgency first described in Reconstruction Under Fire: Unifying Civil and Military Counterinsurgency, this volume presents an approach to the civil component of counterinsurgency that builds on detailed background, context analysis, and threat analysis to identify and develop critical civil COIN activities. It illustrates this approach using three case studies: Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, Nord-Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Al Anbar province in Iraq. The approach builds on the best aspects of existing conflict assessment methodologies and adds new elements developed specifically for this project. The resulting framework goes beyond the strategic and operational decisions related to designing a program that is appropriate for a given conflict context.

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