Nadia Gerspacher

At least nine U.S. troops have been killed in the last two weeks by Afghan “insider” attacks, eroding trust between NATO and its Afghan partners. While some of these attacks have been caused by insurgent infiltration of Afghanistan’s security forces, cultural differences and personal disputes have been the source of others, officials say. In a recent special report, USIP’s Nadia Gerspacher finds that better advisory training could help reduce such potentially volatile – and deadly – tensions.

USIP's Nadia Gerspacher explains why U.S. and other NATO advisers are so important in places like Afghanistan and how we can make sure they’re ready to hit the ground running.

So-called capacity building, the transfer of knowledge and skills, has become a key approach to addressing stabilization and reconstruction in post-conflict and post-crisis environments. But we should also think of capacity building as the approach to preventing conflict: “preventive capacity building.” In an environment of austerity and fiscal responsibility, strengthening the capacity of fragile states in order to assist in the development of their ability to manage conflict makes more sense than ever.

Peacebuilding operations in conflict and post-conflict societies often undermine local capacity, ownership, and sustainability. The acknowledged remedy is to empower local actors to take the lead in planning and implementing programs, but few empowerment strategies that work in practice have been documented and explained.

USIP's Nadia Gerspacher explains the value of programs that help build the Afghan ministries in the wake of troubling reports from Afghanistan.

With the Obama administration poised to transition the bulk of its forces out of Afghanistan by 2014, it’s all the more critical to build credible, accountable and enduring institutions there.