No One in Charge: Coordination in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations and Peacebuilding

About

Policymakers have become increasingly concerned that lack of coordination has been a critical weak link in international efforts to achieve stabilization, reconstruction, and lasting peace.  As a result, they have poured resources into trying to achieve coordination.  In spite of the large investment, however, coordination has remained elusive, and fragmentation of efforts the norm. One reason for this failure is that policymakers have largely been asking the wrong question: how to create a strong, overarching coordination authority.  This is neither possible nor desirable in stabilization and reconstruction operations. The more policy-relevant, and theoretically interesting, question is: how are coordinated results achieved in the absence of centralized control? This seminar will offer an answer to this question, presenting a theoretical model of coordination in peacebuilding, as well as preliminary empirical evidence from research on U.S. civil-military coordination in Afghanistan.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.