Exposing One of Our Flanks: Failures in US Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan (2001-2012) and Lessons for Future US Foreign Engagements

April 23, 2013 | Erik Leklem, Senior Advisor for Global Defense Reform in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Partnership Strategy and Stability Operations

The success of US policy in Afghanistan and our reputation in the region is at risk, but in a mission area that is not widely understood: security ministry development and capacity building.  Without capable, civilian-led security ministries, Afghanistan’s security forces may be exploited by malign actors, be less combat effective, and fracture along ethnic lines, especially after Transition in 2014.

The Future of Security Sector Reform

April 10, 2012 | Mark Sedra, Senior Fellow, Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Research Scholar, University of Waterloo, Canada

Sedra directs all of CIGI’s Security Sector Governance Projects, which produce field-based research and analysis on numerous ongoing war-to-peace transitions, including those in Afghanistan, Burundi, Haiti, Southern Sudan and Timor-Leste. In addition to his work at CIGI, Mark is a research scholar in the University of Waterloo’s department of political science and a faculty member at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. He is a member of the International Security Sector Advisory Team, an initiative developed at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces. He has co-authored two books, served as an editor for two others and produced numerous journal articles, book chapters, policy papers, technical reports and op-eds. Mark has also served as a consultant and adviser to numerous government agencies, intergovernmental bodies and non-governmental organizations, such as DFAIT, the Canadian Ministry of Public Safety, the British Department for International Development and the United Nations.

A Crisis of Trust

April 5, 2012 | A Panel Discussion of the Challenges and Prospects for Sustained Security Force Assistance to Afghanistan

This panel of distinguished subject-matter experts will reflect on their recent experiences working as embedded advisors to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and discuss what is necessary to salvage and regain the trust necessary for any long term strategic partnership and sustained security assistance beyond the projected end of combat operations in 2013.

Building the Rule of Law from the Bottom-Up

Feb. 15, 2012 | A Video-Teleconference with US Army Brigade Leaders and Afghan Prosecutors

Professor David Crane (College of Law/INSCT) will moderate a video-teleconference with key leaders and JAG officers from the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Fort Drum, NY) and Afghan prosecutors from the Zharay District of Kandahar Province.

Over the past 10 months, 3/10 Mountain has worked tirelessly with their Afghan partners to support capacity- and legitimacy-building efforts in legal institutions at the local level. Recent accomplishments include being one of the first districts to (1) develop a warrant-based system of search and seizure; (2) conduct criminal trials in public; and (3) integrate informal Afghan dispute resolvers (Huquqs) into the legal system to serve as arbitrators and strengthen the link between local Afghans and their government.

UN Perspectives on Postconflict Reconstruction

Dec. 6, 2011 | Pedro Medrano Rojas, Director, World Food Programme’s New York Office

Rojas was appointed Director of the World Food Programme’s New York Office in July 2009. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Medrano was the WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. Earlier, he served as the WFP Representative to India and Regional Manager for Southeast Asia. Mr. Medrano previously served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Chile to the FAO, IFAD and WFP in Rome, beginning in 1993 until 1998. Between 1995 and 1997, Mr. Medrano was President of the World Committee on Food Security, where he presided over the preparations for the World Food Summit held in November 1996 in Rome, Italy.

Transition and Reconstruction: Evolving US-Afghan Partnerships

Nov. 9, 2011 | Afghan Gov. Iqbal Azizi, Laghman Province, and Miguel Sapp (SU Law ’88; MPA ’89), Director, Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team

INSCT welcomes Afghan Governor Iqbal Azizi and Miguel Sapp for a discussion on the evolving nature of U.S. and Afghan partnerships.

God Grew Tired of Us

July 13, 2011 | Film Screening

John Dau, Founder, John Dau Foundation (Transforming Healthcare in South Sudan)

Building Capacity and Legitimacy in the Afghan Security Forces: Recent Experiences of the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan

April 12, 2011 | Panel Discussion

A panel of key leaders from the 2-22 Infantry Battalion (1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum), which spent the last year mentoring, instructing, and advising members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) under the charge of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan. Members of the panel will share their recent lessons learned in building ANA capacity and legitimacy in the midst of a complex counterinsurgency.

The Power of Hope

Oct. 18, 2010 | Film Screening

With Gabriel Bol Deng, Founder, Helping Offer Primary Education (HOPE) for Sudan

The UN in Post-Conflict Countries: Mandates, Missions, and Minefields

April 8, 2010 | Tim Sisk, Director, Center for Sustainable Development and International Peace and Director, Humanitarian Assistance Certificate Program

Professor Tim Sisk discusses UN peace operations and what can be done to dramatically improve the capacity of the UN to more effectively address the challenges of consolidating peace after civil war.

Weak States and Global Threats: What Are the Connections?

Feb. 25, 2010 | Patrick Stewart, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Particularly since Sept. 11, 2001, it has been commonplace to assert that the main threats to the US and the world community emanate less from great powers than from weak and failing states. Yet surprisingly little empirical research has investigated the precise connections between weak governance in the developing world and today’s main transnational threats. Is it true that state fragility contributes to transnational spillovers like terrorism, WMD proliferation, organized crime, and infectious disease? What is the nature of these linkages—and what can be done about them? Author Stewart Patrick, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who will summarize the arguments of his book, Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security (OUP).

Roles and Perspectives of Non-state Armed Groups in Post-War Security Transition

October 26, 2009 | Veronique Dudouet, Researcher, Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management

Veronique Dudouet is a researcher at the Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management in Berlin, Germany. She will address the roles that rebel and insurgency movements play in the termination of armed conflicts and the building of a more peaceful and stable political and social order. Her presentation will draw on preliminary findings from an ongoing participatory action research project with members of various non-state groups around the globe.

Security First:  U.S. Priorities in Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking

April 17, 2009 | Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, Ph.D., USA (Ret.), SU Visiting Professor of Strategy & Military Operations

Five Critical Steps for Improving Post-Conflict Operations

March 2, 2009 | Dr. Karin von Hippel, Co-Director, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies

The goals of this class are to provide students with a broad overview of the interdisciplinary field of conflict analysis and resolution, to introduce them to faculty and the work they are doing in this field, and to help them to develop a framework for diagnosing and responding to conflicts within their own area of interest. Over the course of the semester we will explore the diverse range of theories of social conflict found across the social science disciplines. Of particular interest throughout the course will be uncovering how our theories about the nature of social conflicts result in our making particular choices about which conflict resolution activities make sense under which conditions. Relying on a number of guest speakers, documentaries, and group projects, we will consider how conflict manifests across multiple levels of analysis, as well as within specific topical areas.

This course will examine major humanitarian activities worldwide since 1992. It will review disasters caused by nature and by man, including conflicts and major economic stress. While the course will be organized around those themes, it will also discuss the key challenges for women and children, for refugees, for displaced people, and will review the involvement of governments, UN agencies, NGOs, militaries, donors, the press and others. Preparation will include readings from books and articles, as well as videos. Students will be graded on their class participation, presentations, and written reports. Offered by Catherine Bertini.

This seminar examines history, doctrine, and policy involving U.S. engagements with foreign governments, organizations, and individuals.  Our focus will be the historical development and contemporary negotiation of the diverse legal orders, subjects, and spheres of action implicated in contemporary foreign relations.  Economic relations will occupy much of our attention. Central questions include: (1) With what method does the U.S. negotiate its coexisting obligations under conventional, customary, constitutional, statutory, and administrative legal orders? (2) What roles do legal subjects such as legislatures, executives, courts, agencies, non-state entities, non-governmental organizations, and multi-national corporations play in ordering foreign relations? (3) How do the foregoing methods and roles differ across contexts of war, occupation, aid, trade sanctions, finance, and migration? We will address the proceding descriptive questions’ nomative corollaries as well. By both canvassing and critiquing foreign relations history, law, and policy, students will acquire the basic knowledge and skills required for analysis and argument within the field. Offered by Tucker Culbertson.

This course (cross-listed in the economics dept.) will familiarize the student with a variety of alternative theories on what causes (or hinders) economic development. Different strategies and outcomes from a variety of settings will be presented and discussed. The goal of the course is to develop the student’s understanding of international, national, sectoral, local, and household level issues related to economic development and the language used by economists to discuss these issues. Special attention will be given to the following questions: Are there differences between economic growth and economic development? What are the environmental implications of economic development?; and How are industrial/urban needs balanced against agricultural/rural needs in development?

The goals of this class are to provide students with a broad overview of the interdisciplinary field of conflict analysis and resolution, to introduce them to faculty and the work they are doing in this field, and to help them to develop a framework for diagnosing and responding to conflicts within their own area of interest. Over the course of the semester we will explore the diverse range of theories of social conflict found across the social science disciplines. Of particular interest throughout the course will be uncovering how our theories about the nature of social conflicts result in our making particular choices about which conflict resolution activities make sense under which conditions. Relying on a number of guest speakers, documentaries, and group projects, we will consider how conflict manifests across multiple levels of analysis, as well as within specific topical areas.

Peacekeeping has become an increasingly important area of international action. In this seminar we will consider how this came about and the current challenges that face multilateral peacekeeping. This seminar has two interconnected sets of activities.

The first involves exposing with seminar participants the history, theory and practice of peacekeeping, familiarizing them with the high points in the development of peacekeeping, and exposing them to social and cultural perspectives on peace operations. The second is research leading to the preparation of a paper dealing with an aspect of peacekeeping. The papers may be individual projects or be conducted jointly by up to three participants. Several developmental milestones for preparing the white paper occur throughout the semester.

The literature on peacekeeping is large, especially having increased dramatically after 1991. I have selected journal articles, book chapters, documents, reports, and UN resolutions that you can find through the Syracuse University Library electronic databases, on 2-hour reserve at Bird Library, on-line, or occasionally posted to Blackboard. The readings for each week are intended to prime your own exploration.

Peacekeeping is often divided into two distinct eras. The first encompasses its founding in 1948 and runs through the end of the Cold War. This roughly 43 year-long period of peacekeeping is referred to in various ways, for example, “Traditional Peacekeeping,” or “First Generation Peacekeeping.” The second describes peacekeeping after the end of the Cold War. It too is referred to in many ways: “Second Generation Peacekeeping,” “Multi-functional Peacekeeping,” “Complex Operations,” and “Humanitarian Peacekeeping” are just a few of the names. Each name reflects a different understanding of what is happening.