Using Foreign Assistance for Success

More on this event

“To meet the complex challenges of our time we must use all the tools of our national power: defense, diplomacy and development… Military means alone will not work in Afghanistan, to move in a new direction we must forge a new strategy” said Rudy deLeon, Senior VP for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress, in his opening remarks at “Swords and Ploughshares,” a CAP event hosted Thursday.

The event featured a newly released CAP report, “Swords and Ploughshares: Sustainable Security in Afghanistan Requires Sweeping U.S. Policy Overhaul,” by Reuben Brigety, Director of CAP’s Sustainable Security Program. The report issued the findings and analysis of a three-day simulation CAP conducted to test how much “bang for the buck” the U.S. government could achieve in stabilization and reconstruction operations if it undertook many of the foreign assistance reforms advocated in previous CAP reports, using Afghanistan as the model. The simulation demonstrated that robust foreign assistance reform is necessary for success in Afghanistan and other similar regions. Brigety discussed the report with Patrick Cronin, Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.

President Barack Obama and many experts in the field understand that it is critical to create a stable environment in Afghanistan and other troubled spots abroad, and the Obama administration will release a new policy for Afghanistan in the upcoming weeks. Similarly, CAP’s Sustainable Security Program is based on the premise that improving people’s quality of life in areas of conflict is crucial to improving national security. The debate surrounding security in Afghanistan therefore runs parallel to the debate about reforming foreign aid and assistance, which “is broadly acknowledged to be profoundly flawed—some would say profoundly broken,” as noted by Brigety.

The purpose of CAP’s simulation was two-fold: to test the Sustainable Security Program’s policy recommendations and to develop relative policy options for foreign assistance in Afghanistan. CAP conducted two rounds of simulations, the first of which referred to the current set of circumstances regarding Afghanistan. The final round took place under “maximalist capabilities,” which Brigety described as essentially “a blank-slate wish list based on CAP’s policy proposals.”

The simulation revealed the overwhelming need for economic development and stability on the local level. Improving agriculture and education, integrating civilian and military planning, and the need for increased police training—currently a prohibited activity for USAID—all emerged as crucial to achieving sustainable security in Afghanistan. The simulation participants agreed that “maximalist capabilities” were not sufficient, further confirming the vital role that foreign assistance must play. The exercise also illustrated the lack of development experts—another fundamental resource—which would prove especially problematic in the formation of creative, successful, and wide-scale development strategies for Afghanistan.

Cronin called the simulation “one of the best” he had ever been involved in. According to him, U.S. policy toward Afghanistan must actively address all of the simulation’s conclusions, and “development is not just one of those elements—it’s a package deal.” Economic development cannot take a back seat to defense and diplomacy; sustainable security in Afghanistan depends on a multilateral approach that includes all three.

Brigety and Cronin both agreed that pursuing more stable environments in troubled regions will require the Obama administration to retool its foreign assistance programs quickly and efficiently in the coming months and years. Both U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives will be much better served because of the efforts.

For more on sustainable security, please see:

• “Swords and Ploughshares: Sustainable Security in Afghanistan Requires Sweeping U.S. Policy Overhaul” by Reuben Brigety
• Video: Sustainable Security in Action: An Afghanistan Simulation
• Testimony: Striking the Appropriate Balance by Reuben Brigety