The Foreign Service Journal, December 2004

56 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 4 n March 2004, Senators Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Joseph Biden, D-Del., introduced the Stabilization and Reconstruction Civilian Management Act. The bill (S. 2127) would cre- ate a “Stabilization and Reconstruction Coordinating Committee” charged with estab- lishing the administrative structure, personnel and resources to deal more effectively with nation-building in the future. This interagency committee would be chaired by the president’s national security adviser. The legislation would also establish a rapid-readiness office within the State Department to coordinate nation- building efforts. It would authorize the Secretary of State to create a “Response Readiness Corps” composed of both “active-duty” and “reserve components” of the Foreign Service, as well as personnel from non-foreign affairs agencies, to mobilize resources quickly when inter- national crises arise. It would also establish programs within the Foreign Service Institute, the Army War College and the National Defense University to train civilian and military personnel in post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction, to ensure that the United States has a cadre of professionals who under- stand the complexity and scope of efforts needed to put failed or destroyed states back on the road to economic, political and social development. Noting that American incursions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries have been followed by “cobbled together” post-conflict nation-building, Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, argues that because “international crises are inevitable, and in most cases, U.S. national security interests will be threatened by sustained instability … the United States must have the right structures, personnel and resources in place when an emergency occurs.” Sen. Biden, the commit- tee’s ranking minority member, observes that: “As a nation, we have accepted the stabilization and recon- struction missions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, but we need to go a step further and create structures that can plan and execute strategies to deal with future emergencies” by establishing an office within the State Department to coordinate civilian implementation of nation-building policies. Although the Lugar-Biden bill was reported to the Senate on March 18, Congress has taken no action on it. In August 2004, however, Secretary of State Colin Powell created an Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) within the State Department that fell short of the government-wide functions called for in S. 2127, but nonetheless moved in the direction urged by Sens. Lugar and Biden. That office is charged — when crises arise and when directed by the Secretary of State — with ensuring a “unified interagency civilian response to implement programs for transitional security and law enforcement, justice reform, good governance, promoting civil society, economic reconstruction, humanitarian response, community building and social sector reform.” The S/CRS coordinator, however, has no budgetary authority to control intergovernmental agency reconstruc- tion and stabilization activities, and little or no political or administrative authority outside of the Department of D OES THE U.S. N EED A N ATION -B UILDING A GENCY ? P OST - CONFLICT NATION - BUILDING HAS BEEN AN INSTRUMENT OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY SINCE THE TURN OF THE 20 TH CENTURY . E FFORTS ARE UNDER WAY TO MAKE IT A MORE EFFECTIVE DIPLOMATIC TOOL IN THE 21 ST . D ENNIS A. R ONDINELLI AND J OHN D. M ONTGOMERY Dennis A. Rondinelli is the Glaxo Distinguished International Professor of Management at the Kenan- Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. John D. Montgomery is Ford Foundation Professor of International Studies Emeritus at Harvard University. They are co-editors of Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Lessons from Development Experience (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004). I