The Foreign Service Journal, April 2023

36 APRIL 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL However, the U.S. did not act like a dominant presence in the stabilization effort. To be sure, staff members in several parts of the U.S. government worked hard on discrete projects for CAR, several of which were extremely effective. What was largely missing was an approach both whole-of-government and politi- cal, one that not only tied together the U.S. government’s own efforts, but fostered an equal level of coordination among the international community as well. The U.S. government is simply not structured to do that; nor are our like-minded national partners. Indeed, once MINUSCA was formed and the initial crisis faded, a junior State Department desk officer was the highest level of consistent political atten- tion that the crisis received within the Washington foreign policy machinery. There were just too many other higher-profile crises competing for limited senior attention. This proved most costly in the failure to build a political relationship with Presi- dent Touadéra. A French-educated, former university rector, he was initially a willing partner. The international community had both the leverage to push Touadéra toward better governance and the tools to help him appear successful to his voters. It was the kind of complicated and politically messy relation- ship, however, that the international community did not know how to navigate. As a result, in allowing stabilization failure to become chronic in CAR, the international community created the perfect environ- ment for Russia’s hybrid military/business strategy to succeed. It is too soon to say if Russia’s strategy is sustainable. It is possible that Central Africans will eventually understand that the Russians have come to exploit instability rather than solve it. Or it is possible that the country may explode into a new cycle of violence that no one will be able to control. The place to start an honest reassessment of policy in the CAR, however, is by recognizing that it is the international community, as much as the Central Africans themselves, that is responsible for stabilization’s failure. Only then can a true search for better outcomes—in CAR and elsewhere—begin. n At the first Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum, held in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 23-24, 2019, President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with CAR President Faustin Touadéra at the welcoming ceremony. (Inset) Putin and his team hold talks with the CAR delegation separately at the summit. REUTERS/ALAMYSTOCKPHOTO REUTERS/ALAMYSTOCKPHOTO