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State University of New York Press - Jade Wu

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169 pages

English

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Honorable Mention, 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Political Science Category

From the hot savannah of Malawi to the cold, damp gray of Kosovo and into the volatile war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States and other donors have invested enormous financial and human resources in major peacekeeping and development efforts. Why then is the world no closer to being a "better and safer" place? Both a salient critique of US foreign assistance and a thought-provoking memoir, Flash Points describes the issues with personnel, language, and gender dynamics, as well as the cross-cultural challenges that often undermine and betray the best intentions of policy makers comfortably situated in Washington. Revealed in illuminating flashbacks, Jade Wu recalls her experiences in each of these four countries highlighting how, all too often, Americans in the field and the US government were unable to learn the lessons that ought to have been learned when dealing with host countries and their people. The final results were efforts poorly conceived and executed and, ultimately, detrimental to American national interests.
List of Illustrations
Note on Names, Terms, and Statements
Introduction

Part I. Fresh in Malawi

Flashback One

1. Decisive Call

2. Biggest Fear

3. Settling In or Just Settling?

4. Navigating Intricacies

5. Disturbing Trends

6. Meeting the President

7. No Longer a Guest

8. Politically Correct

9. Working the System

10. Lesson Learned

11. Changed and Unchanged

Part II. Crisis in Kosovo

Flashback Two

12. Manhattan of Humanitarians

13. A New Class

14. No Perfect Solution

15. Dicey Meeting

16. Showdown in a Salon

Part III. Surprise in Iraq

Flashback Three

17. Ultimate Rejection

18. Embarrassing America

19. Behold Iraqi Americans

20. He-whore or Husband?

21. Eye-openers 1–?

22. Fredericks of Baghdad

Part IV. Numbers in Afghanistan

Flashback Four

23. AK-47 as an Accessory

24. Not Here to Question!

25. Who We Were

26. Outnumbered in Kunduz

27. Separate but “Equal”

28. Female Problems, Policy Implications

29. Security Twists

30. Rocking the Boat

31. West Knows East?

32. Not at Any Cost

Part V. Bureaucracy in Washington

Flashback Five

33. A Route Less Taken

Epilogue
Afterthoughts
Acknowledgments
Index

Sujets

Diplomacy

Memoir

Political economy

Central

Diplomatie (homonymie)

National

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	12 avril 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438465470
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1248€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

FLASH POINTS
FLASH POINTS
LESSONS LEARNED AND NOT LEARNED IN MALAWI, KOSOVO, IRAQ, AND AFGHANISTAN
Jade Wu
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 Jade Wu
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. The above restrictions do not apply to the Wikimedia maps.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wu, Jade, 1970– author.
Title: Flash points : lessons learned and not learned in Malawi, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan / by Jade Wu.
Other titles: Excelsior editions.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Series: Excelsior editions
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031499 (print) | LCCN 2016039843 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438465456 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438465470 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Economic assistance, American—Malawi. | Economic assistance, American—Kosovo (Republic) | Economic assistance, American—Iraq. | Economic assistance, American—Afghanistan.
Classification: LCC HC60.W85 2017 (print) | LCC HC60 (ebook) | DDC 338.91/73—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031499
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Bruce.
For the brave men and women who tried to make their professions better by speaking truth to power.
And for the American people, whose hard-earned tax dollars funded innumerable programs overseas.
It is easy in a time of great events … to overlook one of the hard facts of history: a nation may lose its power and integrity slowly, in minute particles.
—William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American (1958)
Contents
List of Illustrations
Note on Names, Terms, and Statements
Introduction
I F RESH IN M ALAWI
Flashback One
1. Decisive Call
2. Biggest Fear
3. Settling In or Just Settling?
4. Navigating Intricacies
5. Disturbing Trends
6. Meeting the President
7. No Longer a Guest
8. Politically Correct
9. Working the System
10. Lesson Learned
11. Changed and Unchanged
II C RISIS IN K OSOVO
Flashback Two
12. Manhattan of Humanitarians
13. A New Class
14. No Perfect Solution
15. Dicey Meeting
16. Showdown in a Salon
III S URPRISE IN I RAQ
Flashback Three
17. Ultimate Rejection
18. Embarrassing America
19. Behold Iraqi Americans
20. He-whore or Husband?
21. Eye-openers 1–?
22. Fredericks of Baghdad
IV N UMBERS IN A FGHANISTAN
Flashback Four
23. AK-47 as an Accessory
24. Not Here to Question!
25. Who We Were
26. Outnumbered in Kunduz
27. Separate but “Equal”
28. Female Problems, Policy Implications
29. Security Twists
30. Rocking the Boat
31. West Knows East?
32. Not at Any Cost
V B UREAUCRACY IN W ASHINGTON
Flashback Five
33. A Route Less Taken
Epilogue
Afterthoughts
Acknowledgments
Index
Illustrations Map of Malawi Figure 3.1 Lunzu, 1995 Figure 3.2 Me, shopping in Lunzu market, 1996 Figure 3.3 My students, Lunzu Secondary School, 1996 Figure 3.4 My house at Lunzu Secondary School Figure 3.5 Blantyre, 1995 Figure 6.1 President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and me, thirty-fifth anniversary of U.S. Peace Corps in Malawi, State Lodge, Lilongwe, 1996 Figure 8.1 A few teachers, Lunzu Secondary School, 1996 Map of the Republic of Kosova (Kosovo) Map of Iraq Figure 17.1 My trailer, TONI compound, Baghdad, 2010 Figure 17.2 TONI compound’s walls. View from inside the International Zone, Baghdad, 2010 Figure 17.3 Trash piled inside the International Zone, Baghdad, 2010 Figure 18.1 Students and me ( front row, center ), International Zone, Baghdad, 2010 Figure 21.1 Mosque I prayed in, Baghdad, 2010 Map of Afghanistan Figure 23.1 View of Kabul mountains from Newport. Note the guard towers and the barbed wire, 2011 Figure 23.2 Quonset hut office buildings inside Newport, 2011 Figure 24.1 Locals jaywalking in Kabul, 2011 Figure 24.2 School girls, Kabul, 2011 Figure 24.3 Downtown Kabul, 2011 Figure 26.1 Main courtyard, international side, Kunduz RTC, 2011 Figure 26.2 Grounds, Kunduz RTC, 2011 Figure 26.3 U-Haul-shaped offices and residences, Kunduz RTC, 2011 Figure 28.1 Afghan police trainees, Kunduz RTC, 2012 Figure 29.1 Me at the courthouse grounds with a bulletproof vest that had no side protection panels, Kunduz, 2011 Figure 31.1 Me with the warden and his staff, Kunduz Men’s Prison, 2012
Note on Names, Terms, and Statements
Names …
For the protection of all concerned, except for public figures and the author herself, all names of individuals and some identifying characteristics have been changed.
For security reasons, the names of TONI and Newport compounds are pseudonyms.
Terms …
U.S. foreign assistance encompasses a large number of overlapping but related fields, including development, humanitarian assistance, and peace-building, reconstruction, and stabilization. The terms denoting these fields are used throughout the work. The author is fully aware that there may be distinct differences among these fields that nevertheless are often simultaneously pursued or blend from one to the other. This work is not about defining these terms but about examining our conduct in the field of helping others abroad.
Statements …
This work is based on the author’s observations and experiences. The statements of the author should not be construed to be the official statements of the entities mentioned. The author has no intention to embarrass, slander, defame, or malign anyone. The important point here is that these events took place and what we can learn from them to improve the way we conduct ourselves in the field of U.S. foreign assistance.
Introduction
Flash! Flash! And flash ! The memories kept coming back. Walking down the street from my apartment in Arlington, Virginia, I saw moments from my time overseas return. A branch would fall, a squirrel would jump, a motor would roar—and boom, scenes from the past flashed back.
Like many young Americans who went overseas to poorer countries with little life experience and a big bag of hope, I wanted to “save the world.” I wanted to fix things, solve problems and make life better for the less fortunate. Yet once in the field, not only had I found intricacies on the ground more difficult to navigate than I had imagined, I was surprised and aghast at the quality of many Americans working abroad. Whereas in the “do-gooders’” world one would have expected to find devotion, compassion, knowledge, and creativity, I witnessed a great deal of ignorance, nonchalance, poor judgment, and a proclivity toward waste—much of which went unchecked and was repeated in one developing country I went to after another. From Peace Corps volunteers to American subcontractors, these mentalities and actions affected how the locals perceived Americans and eventually worked against many U.S. policies and programs.
But that wasn’t all.
Where money was big and greed was bigger, as they were with overseas contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, I saw the alarming saturation of huge contracting companies that brought in a different kind of workforce and politics. Thriving on appearances, statistics, and the bottom line, these companies brought in many Americans whose focus on their big salaries detracted from their relationships with the locals and the purpose of their programs, corrupting the reasons why the U.S. was in these countries in the first place.
This story is my personal, unvarnished account as an implementer, the “little guy” on the ground who was part of executing U.S. policy and programs. There have been many books by renowned policymakers, top government advisors, and high-ranking military officers but too few by those whose faces were closest to the soil, the local people, the programs, and the problems.
It is the story of how I entered the field of U.S. foreign assistance and what I saw as America spent large amounts of money, time, and lives to “make the world a better and safer place.” From the hot savannah of Malawi through the cold damp gray of Kosovo and into the volatile war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, I tell my version with candor, humor, sadness, and irony.
I tell this tale as a conscientious civilian who became so appalled by what I found that I felt compelled to speak truth to power. I speak because the American people have the right to know. They have the right to know what types of activities, mentalities, and personalities their hard-earned tax dollars paid for—and continue to pay for.
As the U.S. encounters difficulties in many developing countries, particularly in the Islamic world, this story is about the lessons learned—or, more accurately, many that should have been learned—when dealing with people in another country of a different culture and religion. It was written to stimulate thought, questions, and, hopefully, action for the better.
As of this writing I have worked in foreign assistance in six countries besides the United States. Yet I am only discussing incidents in four because my memories from