Program Overview

• Hosts: Ray Suarez, Deborah Amos
• Length: 51 min.
• Original Airdate: Oct 2008

“One of the most important lessons of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that military success is not sufficient to win.” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

"In these environments, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, it isn’t a classical war of armies facing each other but rather it is a state and nation building, building institutions that serve the people." U.S. Representative to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad

But try building institutions when people are still shooting at each other and the streets are littered with bombs. History shows that post-conflict nation building is tough enough. But when the conflict doesn’t really end, you wind up with the military not only shooting bad guys, but building schools and picking up the trash--and that’s not exactly army doctrine.

Ray Suarez looks at how and why the Bush Administration has struggled to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.

Deborah Amos traces the history of US efforts to rebuild war-torn nations, from post-World War II Germany and Japan to US interventions in the Balkans.

Ray Suarez looks back at the Clinton administration’s attempt to bring law and order to the troubled island-nation of Haiti.

Deborah Amos takes us to Baghdad, where civil-military reconstruction teams are trying to rebuild the country under less than ideal conditions.

Guests on this program include:

Frederick Barton, Co-director, Post-conflict Reconstruction Project, The Center for Strategic and International Studies

Zalmay Khalilzad, US Ambassador to the United Nations, former US Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan

Clare Lockhart, Founder of the Institute for State Effectiveness, former UN Advisor to Afghanistan

George Packer, Staff Writer for the New Yorker Magazine and author of “The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq.”

James Dobbins, Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation

Larry Rossin, Former Director for Inter-American Affairs on the National Security Council

Walter Slocombe, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the Clinton Administration

Vicki Huddleston, former Deputy Chief of Mission in Haiti

Rick Olson, Retired Army General, former Special Advisor to the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and former Combined Joint Task Force Commander in Afghanistan

Colonel Gerry Gibbons, Deputy Team Leader for ePRT 6

John Bennett, Team Leader for ePRT6

John Crifield, USAID Representative to ePRT6

Dick Hawkins, Team Leader of ePRT 8