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David Rieff on Development Contractors in War Zones

Global Engagement

by  |  on August 18th, 2010  |  0 comments
Development Meeting in Iraq - Image Credit: US Embassy/Baghdad

Development Meeting in Iraq – Image Credit: US Embassy/Baghdad

I have written before about the negative effects on the US Government because of an over-reliance on contractors, especially by USAID.  But the distortion runs both ways – the organizations scrambling for and implementing those contracts are also affected.  In an article this month in The New Republic, “How NGOs Became Pawns in the War on Terrorism,” David Rieff describes how a wide range of NGOs (and I would add some for-profit firms) were changed by their desire (perhaps need) to follow the enormous sums of money available to work in Iraq and Afghanistan.

…in late 2001, after the invasion of Afghanistan, then Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a speech to NGO representatives, articulated a view of their role, at least in conflict zones where U.S. forces were fighting and areas where the country had a strong national interest, that were straight out of the civil affairs-oriented counterinsurgency strategy pioneered by General Edward Lansdale in the Philippines in the 1950s and Vietnam in the early ’60s. The NGOs, Powell said, were a tremendous “force multiplier” for the U.S. military, and, by extending the reach of the U.S. government, would do much to help accomplish the intervention’s goals.

He notes that the conflict zones are rapidly expanding beyond Afghanistan and Iraq, as is the development funding contracted out as part of that overall effort:

The problem is that the terms of the so-called global war on terrorism are such that the conflict zones–that is the areas that either now are or are likely to soon become places where NGOs will be expected to further U.S. policy aims–are constantly expanding. The war zone itself is now commonly assumed to include Yemen, Somalia, Mauretania, Chad, and Mali, as the extensive deployments of U.S. military trainers in these countries (in the case of the Sahelian countries, since the launching in 2005 by the U.S. military’s European Command of its Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative, now administered by the new Africa Command) amply demonstrates.

Many times in my work on development projects I have encountered local groups known as GONGOs (government-organized non-governmental organizations).   These are organizations that are set up to appear to be separate from the government so that they can qualify for international donor money and also make the domestic political system appear to be more open than it really is.  But the notion that they are true NGOs is misplaced as they are beholden to government for legal authority to operate and for funding.  Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Zimbabwe have been brilliant at GONGO-creation. Do we now see a collection of NGOs in the US that are, in reality, GONGOs? If the vast majority of one’s budget come from the government and your organization is working in support of counter-insurgency operations in combat zones, just how non-governmental can you claim to be?

I highly recommend reading Rieff’s entire article, as well as his more recent piece on a similar topic, “Losing Hearts and Minds: Development and its Discontents.”

In addition, anyone interested in the role of contractors in conflict zones should read the congressional testimony of Richard Fontaine from the Center for a New American Security. It can be found here.

 

Author

James Ketterer

James Ketterer is Dean of International Studies at Bard College and Director of the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program. He previously served as Egypt Country Director for AMIDEAST, based in Cairo and before that as Vice Chancellor for Policy & Planning and Deputy Provost at the State University of New York (SUNY). In 2007-2008 he served on the staff of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education. He previously served as Director of the SUNY Center for International Development.

Ketterer has extensive experience in technical assistance for democratization projects, international education, legislative development, elections, and policy analysis – with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. He has won and overseen projects funded by USAID, the Department for International Development (UK), the World Bank and the US State Department. He served on the National Security Council staff at the White House, as a policy analyst at the New York State Senate, a project officer with the Center for Legislative Development at the University at Albany, and as an international election specialist for the United Nations, the African-American Institute, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is currently a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association and has also held teaching positions in international politics at the New School for Social Research, Bard College, State University of New York at New Paltz, the University at Albany, Russell Sage College, and the College of Saint Rose.

Ketterer has lectured and written extensively on various issues for publications including the Washington Post, Middle East Report, the Washington Times, the Albany Times Union, and the Journal of Legislative Studies. He was a Boren National Security Educational Program Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and in Morocco, an International Graduate Rotary Scholar at the Bourguiba School of Languages in Tunisia, and studied Arabic at the King Fahd Advanced School of Translation in Morocco. He received his education at Johns Hopkins University, New York University and Fordham University.

Areas of focus: Public Diplomacy; Middle East; Africa; US Foreign Policy

Contributor to: Global Engagement


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