Brookings Press Blog

Brookings Press Author Testifies Before Senate Panel

On October 21, in testimony before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, Vanda Felbab-Brown—author of the forthcoming book Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs—discussed how narcotics production influences security, political, and economic developments in Afghanistan. She also examined the effectiveness of policies to mitigate these effects, offering recommendations for U.S. policy, and equally critically, urging strategic patience: “Meaningful and sustainable progress on narcotics that also advances counterinsurgency and counterterrorism objectives, mitigates conflict, and enhances state building and human security of the Afghan people will take many years and easily decades. Without realistic timelines, there is a real danger that even a well-designed counternarcotics policy will be prematurely and unfortunately discarded as ineffective and that a desire for short-term self-satisfying outcomes will once again drive policy toward ineffective and counterproductive results.”

- Read Felbab-Brown’s testimony.

- Listen to Felbab-Brown discuss opium production in Afghanistan with NPR’s Noah Adams.

- Learn more about Shooting Up.

Planning for Defeat

George Packer discusses Things Fall Apart in The New Yorker

In a recent New Yorker article, "Planning for Defeat: How should we withdraw from Iraq?" correspondent George Packer takes a hard look at Iraq's future. According to Packer, American leaders must "do what they have not yet done—look beyond the next three to six months, to the next two or three years."

Packer examines the merits of several strategies put forth by various think tanks and government officials, including one outlined in Daniel Byman and Kenneth Pollack’s book, Things Fall Apart: Containing the Spillover from an Iraqi Civil War. Byman and Pollack, senior fellows in foreign policy studies at Brookings, assert that the top priority is to prevent the Iraqi conflict from spilling over and destabilizing neighboring states. Things Fall Apart explains what the United States can do to reduce the threat of a wider conflict. Such a containment approach would require deterring neighboring states from intervening, helping mitigate the risks associated with refugees, and striking terrorist havens.

- Read the New Yorker article, “Planning for Defeat.”

- Learn more about Things Fall Apart.

Beyond Preemption

New book examines force and legitimacy in a changing world

America’s recent wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq have raised profound questions about military force: When is its use justifiable? For what purpose? Who should make the decision on whether to go to war?

Beyond Preemption, moves this debate forward with thoughtful discussion of what these guidelines should be and how they apply in the face of today’s most pressing geopolitical challenges: terrorism, WMD proliferation, and humanitarian emergencies. Brookings senior fellow Ivo Daalder and his colleagues draw on three years of crossnational dialogue with politicians, military officials and strategists, and international lawyers in presenting specific proposals on forging a new international consensus regarding preemption and the proper use of force in today’s world.

- Learn more about Beyond Preemption.

Presidential Problems in Pakistan

Cohen explores Pakistan’s future as it relates to the country’s struggling President Musharraf

Stephen P. Cohen, a senior fellow at Brookings, outlined his thoughts on Pervez Musharraf’s tenure as Pakistani President thus far in an editorial that appeared in The Washington Post on July 3, 2007. Cohen provided a frank account of Musharraf’s inadequacies in the latter’s role as president and army chief, saying that Musharraf’s “fatal flaw” was that he “wanted to be liked,” making him likely to implement strategies that may not be in the best interest of the country. In addition, Cohen added that Musharraf’s “one strength” was that the majority of Musharraf’s political opponents are even more lackluster than he is—aside from the notable exception of Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaundry.

Musharraf, Cohen elaborated, holds a position that will be crucial in helping to determine the country’s uncertain and possibly unstable future. Should a “nuclear-armed and terrorism-capable Pakistan” rise to power, the reverberations could shake the foreign policy foundations of today’s superpowers. Cohen analyzes Pakistan’s tumultuous history, in his 2006 book The Idea of Pakistan. His upcoming book Four Crises and a Peace Process, coauthored by P.R. Chari and Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, analyzes past conflicts in India and Pakistan and applies the lessons learned from each to the possibility of long-lasting peace in the region.

- Read “The Pakistan Time Bomb” on washingtonpost.com.

- Learn more about The Idea of Pakistan.

- Learn more about Four Crises and a Peace Process.