Post-Conflict Stability and Reconstruction: The Lessons of Iraq

September 19, 2006, Washington, DC

Andrew Garfield and Frank G. Hoffman
Senior Fellows, FPRI

In the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush announced that henceforth those states that harbored or fostered terrorism would be held as accountable as the terrorists. The translation of the war on terrorism from groups to state meant either to change a government's behavior, or, failing that, to change the government itself. Military force might overthrow a regime such as the Taliban or Saddam’s Iraq but what would be put in its place? And how could the United States and its allies assure the success of the new political order?

In 2005, the Foreign Policy Research Institute initiated a pair of studies that would analyze the lessons learned thus far from what the military calls Phase IV, or stabilization and reconstruction following the end of major conflict. Andrew Garfield led a British and American research team that interviewed British officers and officials for their perspectives on the efforts of their US Coalition partner in Iraq. Frank G. Hoffman surveyed U.S. Marine efforts in Iraq.

The newly completed studies have been designed to aid US military and civilian planners to refine a set of best practices, including a set of principles that can become a consensus, as we confront a long and difficult struggle. Executive summaries have been circulated as FPRI E-Notes:

Succeeding in Phase IV: British Perspectives on the U.S. Effort To Stabilize and Reconstruct Iraq, Andrew Garfield, 9/8/2006
Changing Tires on the Fly: The Marines and Postconflict Stability Ops, Frank G. Hoffman, 9/10/2006

The full reports will be distributed at the briefing and will be made available online here at www.fpri.org.

About the Speakers

Andrew Garfield

A former European Director of the Terrorism Research Center, Deputy Director of International Policy Institute (IPI) at King’s College London, and Senior Director of Influence and Insight for the Lincoln Group, Mr. Garfield is now a Senior Fellow at FPRI. Mr. Garfield is also a former senior British military, then civilian intelligence officer and former senior policy advisor at the UK Ministry of Defense. While serving in the UK Defense Intelligence Staff he led two major studies that reviewed key aspects of that organization’s approach to post-Cold War intelligence analysis and recommended radical changes to policy and organization that were subsequently implemented in full.

Frank G. Hoffman

A retired Marine infantry officer and a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, George Mason University, and the US Naval War College, Mr. Hoffman served as an analyst in the Pentagon and on the Armed Forces’ 1994–95 Roles and Missions Commission and as a staff member on the Commission on National Security (Hart-Rudman Commission). He is a Senior Fellow of FPRI and a Research Fellow at the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) in Quantico, VA.