Agency Stovepipes Vs Strategic Agility


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US Nation-Building in Afghanistan


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Why has the US so dramatically failed in Afghanistan since 2001? Dominant explanations have ignored the bureaucratic divisions and personality conflicts inside the US state. This book rectifies this weakness in commentary on Afghanistan by exploring the significant role of these divisions in the US’s difficulties in the country that meant the battle was virtually lost before it even began. The main objective of the book is to deepen readers understanding of the impact of bureaucratic politics on nation-building in Afghanistan, focusing primarily on the Bush Administration. It rejects the ’rational actor’ model, according to which the US functions as a coherent, monolithic agent. Instead, internal divisions within the foreign policy bureaucracy are explored, to build up a picture of the internal tensions and contradictions that bedevilled US nation-building efforts. The book also contributes to the vexed issue of whether or not the US should engage in nation-building at all, and if so under what conditions.




The History Of The Seabees: From The First Advanced Navy Base During The War of 1812, Formation Of The Seabees During World War II To Present Operations


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Over 500 total pages ... Contains the following publications: 1. HISTORY OF THE SEABEES COMMAND HISTORIAN NAVAL FACILITIES ENGINEERING COMMAND (1996) 2. Seabees in World War II Through 2012 (2012) 3. Utilization of Advanced Journeyman Training in the U. S. Naval Construction Force (1997) 4. U.S. NAVY SEABEES AS A STABILITY ASSET (2009) 5. Effects of National Strategic Policy on the Military Engineer Force Structure from 1919 through 1991 (2009) 6. SEABEES: NATIONAL INSTRUMENT OF POWER PROJECTION (2013) INTRODUCTION: INTRODUCTION The Seabees of the United States Navy were born in the dark days following Pearl Harbor when the task of building victory from defeat seemed almost insurmountable. The Seabees were created in answer to a crucial demand for builders who could fight. Using sailors to build shore-based facilities; however, was not a new idea. Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans did it. In more recent times, from the earliest days ofthe United States Navy, sailors who were handy with tools occasionally did minor construction chores at land bases. After the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into the war, the use of civilian labor in war zones became impractical. Under international law civilians were not permitted to resist enemy military attack. Resistance meant summary execution as guerrillas. The need for a militarized Naval Construction Force to build advance bases in the war zone was self-evident. Therefore, Rear Admiral Ben Moreell determined to activate, organize, and man Navy construction units. On 28 December 1941, he requested specific authority to carry out this decision, and on 5 January 1942, he gained authority from the Bureau of Navigation to recruit men from the construction trades for assignment to a Naval Construction Regiment composed of three Naval Construction Battalions. This is the actual beginning of the renowned Seabees, who obtained their designation from the initial letters of Construction Battalion. Admiral Moreell personally furnished them with their official motto: Construimus, Batuimus -- "We Build, We Fight."




Iraq


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This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. A large-scale assistance program has been undertaken by the U.S. in Iraq since mid-¿03. By Spring '09, over $49 billion had been appropriated for Iraq reconstruction. In June '09, A significant number of reconstruction activities, especially those involving construction of roads, sanitation, electric power, oil production, and other infrastructure, are completed or near completion. Most large-scale infrastructure programs are no longer funded. However, many small-scale, targeted community-level infrastructure efforts are funded. The key emphases of the aid program are the training of Iraqi forces and programs assisting the development of Iraqi governing capacities and supporting the work of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Illustrations.










Terrorism


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Provincial Reconstruction Teams


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Local Interests and American Foreign Policy


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This book provides an alternative perspective on how social interest-groups form and interact to affect interventions. It combines historic, sociological and international relations perspectives in a framework through which to view the relevant socio-political dynamics in ‘target societies’. At a time when American foreign policy seeks to redefine its objectives and its methods of intervention, the monolithic ideological assumptions of the state as the panacea to all social ailments, both as a format and a vehicle of norm delivery, seemingly dooms American foreign policy and European allies, to the repetition of old mistakes. In environments where interests and priorities are shaped on a highly localised basis, interventionist agendas often lack relevant meaning. The book focuses in particular on the contrast between the assumptions inherent in ‘Western’ interventionist strategies and social interest formation in Afghanistan, Somaliland, and Somalia. Based on extensive fieldwork, the book draws on available literature and on interviews with local population or international aid and development workers. The conclusion is that in the cases examined, the agency of local interest groups largely controls the outcome of external strategies. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of US Foreign Policy, International Relations and Security Studies.




Career Diplomacy


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Career Diplomacy—now in its second edition—is an insider's guide that examines the foreign service as an institution, a profession, and a career. Harry W. Kopp and Charles A. Gillespie, both of whom had long and distinguished careers in the foreign service, provide a full and well-rounded picture of the organization, its place in history, its strengths and weaknesses, and its role in American foreign affairs. Based on their own experiences and through interviews with over 100 current and former foreign service officers and specialists, the authors lay out what to expect in a foreign service career, from the entrance exam through midcareer and into the senior service—how the service works on paper, and in practice. The second edition addresses major changes that have occurred since 2007: the controversial effort to build an expeditionary foreign service to lead the work of stabilization and reconstruction in fragile states; deepening cooperation with the U.S. military and the changing role of the service in Iraq and Afghanistan; the ongoing surge in foreign service recruitment and hiring at the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development; and the growing integration of USAID’s budget and mission with those of the Department of State.