The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

Will History Repeat Itself? Six years ago, FSOs John Brown, John Brady Kiesling and Ann Wright all resigned from the Service over the decision to invade Iraq. Now, even as President Barack Obama considers a request to send a substantial number of troops to Afghanistan, another member of the Foreign Service has re- signed over the direction of U.S. pol- icy in a war zone. MatthewHoh, a limited non-career Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain who was serving as the senior civilian representative in Zabul province, Afghanistan, sent his four- page letter of resignation to Director General Nancy Powell on Sept. 10 ( www.washingtonpost.com ) . Ex- plaining that he had “lost understand- ing of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ pres- ence in Afghanistan,” Hoh emphasized that his decision was “based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.” The reaction to Hoh’s letter was im- mediate. U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry brought Hoh to Kabul and offered him a job on his senior staff, which he declined. He was then flown to Washington to meet with Ambassa- dor Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hol- brooke, who agreed with much of Hoh’s analysis but not his conclusion, encouraged him to join his team so that he could influence policy. However, a week after initially taking the job, Hoh changed his mind, and the Depart- ment of State formally accepted his resignation on Oct. 21. Digital Journal , a social news site made up of professional journalists, cit- izen journalists and bloggers, com- ments that “Hoh may not be the ‘poster boy’ of opposition to the war, but his letter of resignation will prove fodder for opponents of the war and the media for a long time to come” ( www.digitaljournal.com ) . How- ever, the experience of Brown, Kiesling and Wright raises doubts about whether Hoh’s resignation will have any practical impact. — Steven Alan Honley, Editor A Strategic Doctrine for Civilian Peacebuilders The country’s first civilian doctrine for stabilization and reconstruction ac- tivity saw the light of day in early Oc- tober. Titled “Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction,” the manual released on Oct. 7 is the prod- uct of a joint, two-year effort by the U.S. Institute for Peace ( www.usip. org ) and the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute ( http://pksoi.army.mil/ ) . “The question du jour is what the strategy in Afghanistan should be,” says Beth Cole, a senior program officer in the USIP’s Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations and head of the institute’s Civilian Peace- fare Initiative. “This manual provides a strategic framework that can help guide that strategy.” Though the military has tradition- ally been equipped with doctrine that guides its decisions and actions, civil- ians in post-conflict situations have acted without any unifying framework. Meant to fill that gap, the new manual contains both a comprehensive set of shared principles and a shared strate- gic framework for civilians. It was de- signed as a companion publication to the U.S. Army’s pioneering “Field Manual 3-07: Stability Operations,” re- leased in October 2008. “Ad hoc, disorganized campaigns for peace have been the hallmark of past missions,” says State Department Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization Ambassador John Herbst. In a two-year investigation, everything that had been written by dozens of agencies on stabilization and recon- struction operations was reviewed and “what we know” was consolidated in one place. The new manual, says Herbst, is “the bible for S&Rmissions.” It will be a critical tool for educating and training the thousands of new members in the active, standby and re- D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 C YBERNOTES