January 29th, 2009 by Cecile

At U.S. News and World Report Antonia Chayes and Dipali Mukhopadhyay caution that an increase in foreign military forces in Afghanistan may not necessarily prove effective. Instead, they argue for a re-balancing of peace-building and reconstruction efforts that will shift more responsibility to international civilian organizations. While the temptation to turn to the “high esteem, enormous budget, and unparalleled capabilities of the military” may be great, it is important to capitalize on the well-established expertise of NGOs and foreign donor agencies.

Meanwhile, Mother Jones reports on the so-called stand off between the New York Times and the White House on Wednesday, in which NYT noted that President Obama was adopting a policy in Afghanistan that favored waging war over development. The White House denounced this claim, saying that no decisions had been made but a reevaluation of policy was taking place.

Posted in Afghanistan, Foreign Aid, Military, NGOs |