The Foreign Service Journal, May 2004

press conventions that favor sharper questioning of official policy,” states Moeller. A summary version as well as the complete study, including the method- ology used, detailed results and a set of recommendations for improving WMD coverage, are available online at http://www.cissm.umd.edu/ . Nation-Building: No More Reinventing the Wheel? The State Department and USAID will add nation-building to their core missions if twin bills introduced in the House and Senate in late February are signed into law. S.2127, the “Stabilization and Reconstruction Civilian Management Act of 2004,” was sponsored by Sen. Lugar, R-Ind., Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. The bill urges the president to create a Stabilization and Reconstruction Co- ordinating Committee to be chair- ed by the national security adviser. It also authorizes the development of an expert civilian response capability to carry out stabilization and reconstruc- tion activities in a country or region that is in, or is in transition from, con- flict or civil strife (see the bill sum- mary at http://thomas.loc.gov/ ). The legislation would have the Secretary of State establish an Office of International Stabilization and Re- construction, a Response Readiness Corps of up to 250 personnel and a Response Readiness Reserve to aug- ment the corps. Finally, the Secretary of State, along with the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army, is to estab- lish a stabilization and reconstruction curriculum for use at FSI, the National Defense University and the U.S. Army War College. An identical bill, H.R.3996, was introduced in the House of Rep- resentatives by Rep. Adam Schiff, D- Calif., and six co-sponsors. “Over the past decade, the U.S. has made major investments in the com- bat efficiency of its forces,” Am- bassador James Dobbins, director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center, testified at a March 3 hearing on the legislation ( http://foreign.senate.gov/hear ings/2004/hrg040303a.html ). “There has been no comparable increase in the capacity of U.S. armed forces or of U.S. civilian agencies to conduct post combat stabilization and reconstruction operations. … Each time we have sent out new people to face old problems, and seen them make old mistakes.” “The facts speak for themselves: in nearly every operation from Somalia to Iraq, a lack of rapidly deployable civilian capabilities has left military forces performing tasks for which they do not have a comparative advantage and has extended the duration of their deployments,” Dr. John J. Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, testified. CSIS set up a “Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project” in 2001 and in collaboration with the Association of the U.S. Army issued a report, “Play to Win,” in January 2003 ( http://www. csis.org/isp/pcr/playtowin.pdf ). Recently, the PCR Project led a team of experts to Iraq to perform the first independent assessment of recon- struction efforts there. The report, “Iraq’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Field Review and Recommendations,” is available at http://www.csis.org/ isp/pcr/IraqTrip.pdf . What Lies Ahead for Saudi Arabia? Though world attention has for months been riveted on Iraq, as the occupation comes to an end there, the focus is bound to turn to questions of democratic reform in the broader Middle East. Saudi Arabia, arguably one of the most important and delicate pieces of the puzzle, is likely to come under increasing scrutiny. Happily, there is plenty of material available on the Internet on develop- ments in Saudi Arabia and issues in the U.S. relationship with this pivotal nation. The most up-to-date and pro- lific resource is the Web site of the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( www.csis.org ). In a compre- hensive report titled “Saudi Arabia Enters the 21st Century,” Anthony H. Cordesman examines “all of the major factors affecting Saudi Arabia’s strate- gic, political, economic and military position and future implications of cur- rent trends” ( http://csis.org/burke/ saudi21/index.htm ). T he report has also been published in book form. In December, Cordesman, the Arleigh S. Burke Chair in Strategy at CSIS, and three colleagues visited Saudi Arabia. The transcript of a pub- lic session Jan. 30, in which they shared their observations, makes for interesting reading ( http://csis.org/ mideast/saudiforum.pdf ). S ubs- quent policy papers such as “The Prospects for Stability in Saudi Arabia in 2004” (Feb. 19, 2004) and “Ten M A Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 C YBERNOTES