A tale of two schools
Defence, and development. Two sides of the same fight.
Update: On a related note, I've heard it said that as much as possible, reconstruction work in Kandahar should have an "Afghan face." If Afghans believe the development and security work they're seeing is being driven by the Afghan government, they're more likely to support that government, and they're less likely to sabotage those efforts out of xenophobia.
Canada has recently taken a step away from that approach by developing "signature projects" like the Dahla Dam rehabilitation, in an effort to showcase Canadian efforts to both an Afghan and a Canadian audience. You see, if the "Canadian face" is gone altogether, it's hard to justify the expense to taxpayers back home. And if Afghans don't understand that Canadians are there to help them, they're less likely to cooperate with us in both reconstruction and security operations.
It's a delicate balancing task.
Personally, I like the idea of having Afghans drive the priorities - choose which projects to do, on what type of schedule. Then get some buy-in by requiring their sweat equity to get the job done. But at the same time, make sure the Afghans know that this is Canadian help they're getting - that we're their friends, and we're helping them put their country back together after decades of war and conflict.
Kind of like a scaled down version of the NSP, but visibly underwritten by Canada.
Update: On a related note, I've heard it said that as much as possible, reconstruction work in Kandahar should have an "Afghan face." If Afghans believe the development and security work they're seeing is being driven by the Afghan government, they're more likely to support that government, and they're less likely to sabotage those efforts out of xenophobia.
Canada has recently taken a step away from that approach by developing "signature projects" like the Dahla Dam rehabilitation, in an effort to showcase Canadian efforts to both an Afghan and a Canadian audience. You see, if the "Canadian face" is gone altogether, it's hard to justify the expense to taxpayers back home. And if Afghans don't understand that Canadians are there to help them, they're less likely to cooperate with us in both reconstruction and security operations.
It's a delicate balancing task.
Personally, I like the idea of having Afghans drive the priorities - choose which projects to do, on what type of schedule. Then get some buy-in by requiring their sweat equity to get the job done. But at the same time, make sure the Afghans know that this is Canadian help they're getting - that we're their friends, and we're helping them put their country back together after decades of war and conflict.
Kind of like a scaled down version of the NSP, but visibly underwritten by Canada.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 11:32 a.m.
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