USAID Slated for Prime Role in Failed States
FrontLines: April 2008
A new State Department unit to assist failed states will recruit over 4,000 civilian experts in development, government, and relief—many from USAID—said the head of the office, Ambassador Jon Herbst, at a USAID conference on April 2.
Since 9/11 and the U.S. efforts to battle terror, senior U.S. military and civilian officials
have increasingly turned to the “smart power” of foreign assistance, rather than direct military force, to assist in resolving conflicts.
After civilian-military aid teams in Afghanistan and Iraq were able to assist farmers,
students, and families despite ongoing conflict, U.S. planners evolved the concept of three “Response Corps”—one “active,” another “standby,” and the third “civilian”—that call for a major role for USAID.
Despite ambitious preparatory
plans, Congress has consistently
slashed Administration requests for funding. Currently, only 11 people are on active duty to deploy into the field since his office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) was set up four years ago, Herbst said at an Agency meeting on conflict and failed states.
If, however, Congress were
to approve an Administration request for $249 million this year, plans call for the additional hiring of:
- 250 experts for a trained “Active Response Corps,” ready to move in two days and deploy indefinitely, even in conflict zones. Some 93 would come from USAID, 72 from State, 60 from Justice, and the rest from other government agencies and the private sector;
- 2,000 people in a “Standby Response Corps,” ready to in a few weeks and spend 00up to a year overseas—only about 10 to 25 percent would be available at any given time; and
- 2,000 people in a “Civilian Response Corps” modeled on the U.S. military reserves—they would sign up for a four-year commitment and be expected to serve up to a year of that commitment overseas.
Herbst said the new office was set up because of “problems”
in reconstruction and stabilization experienced during
the past several years.
S/CRS would operate “so all the instruments of the U.S. government are utilized in a coherent way” with skilled civilians “ready to deploy,”
he said.
Herbst noted that Niccolo Machiavelli said that “there is nothing harder to do in government
than to create a new system…
I spend 95 percent of my time fighting bureaucratic battles”
over establishing the new office. However, he acknowledged
that he is only recreating skills that existed during the Vietnam War when USAID and other civilian agencies
ran the CORDS (Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support) program to win hearts and minds by agricultural development and other aid.
The new office would create
an inter-agency management
system in failed or failing
states or states in conflict through a country reconstruction
and stabilization group.
“The first group of 250 people will have skills for
coping with a failed state or emergencies” and will include judges, city planners, public health experts, port operators, and others, he said. They will get six to eight weeks of training
with the U.S. military.
The team would stay in-country and work closely with Department of Defense units, similar to the way the Provincial Reconstruction Teams operate in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The most likely agency to be in charge [of country teams] is USAID,” Herbst said. However, depending on the nature of the tasks in a country, other U.S. agencies could take the lead.
Herbst said that, when his office is fully funded and staffed, he hopes to deploy as many as 1,200 people to control all operations in a crisis zone.
NGOs and other partners will continue to be the primary mechanism to deliver aid and will work with other donors.
Finally, Herbst warned that problems of failed states are “complex” and that one must have “modest expectations.” U.S. response should also be made when U.S. national interests are at stake. .
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