June 2004
Vol. X, No. 2
Institute Launches Major New Initiative on Iraq
Congressional appropriation aims to promote peace and stability.
From left: George Ward, Institute Professional Training director; Paul Bremer, CPA Administrator; Dan Serwer, Peace and Stability Operations director; and Ray Salvatore Jennings, Institute chief of party in Iraq. |
A recent congressional appropriation authorizes the Institute to bring the full range of its analytical and operational experience to bear on the complex challenges facing Iraq in the post–Saddam Hussein era. The Iraq supplemental bill signed by President Bush in November 2003 includes a $10 million appropriation for the Institute over the next three years. The bipartisan congressional appropriation was sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). The Institute is using these funds to work with Iraqis to prevent and reduce interethnic and interreligious violence, speed up stabilization and democratization, and reduce the need for a continuing U.S. presence in Iraq.
"This appropriation constitutes a tangible acknowledgment by congressional leaders of the relevance and value of our programs," said Institute president Richard Solomon. "We are committed to ensuring that these funds have a meaningful impact on the situation in Iraq."
Harriet Hentges, Institute executive vice president, said, "the Institute staff will draw on considerable knowledge of and experience in environments emerging from intense violence to develop and implement projects in the context of Iraq's shifting political circumstances." The Institute's goals are clear, she said: preventing interethnic and interreligious violence, promoting the rule of law, training and educating leaders for a democratic Iraq, and training incoming U.S. civilian and military leadership on lessons learned from former U.S. staff in Iraq. According to Hentges, the Institute is launching programs in response to demands from Iraqis while taking the security situation into account.
The logistics of working in what remains a very dangerous environment have necessitated an unusual degree of preparation for Institute staff. Ray Salvatore Jennings, a postwar development specialist and former Institute senior fellow, has been hired as the Institute's chief of party in Iraq. He has been in Baghdad conducting an assessment of security and logistical needs and making plans for activities on the ground. Jennings has established an Institute presence in Baghdad—a combined office and residence provided by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Benefiting from the experience of other organizations that have operated in hostile environments, the Institute has developed a detailed security manual to guide Institute staff on issues ranging from vehicle safety to kidnapping and hostage situations. "Ensuring the safety of our staff is our highest priority," said Solomon.
The Institute's Activities
The Institute's prospective projects for Iraq continue to be defined as more information becomes available and as staff are added, but several are already underway. Led by George Ward, director of the Professional Training Program, interviews were conducted to capture the lessons learned by key U.S. personnel as they return from Iraq. "There have been very few lessons-learned projects undertaken by civilian agencies," said Ward. "This project will debrief civilian and military personnel who have worked on a range of reconstruction projects." The interviews—recorded on video—have been packaged into a briefing module along with other relevant material for distribution via DVD to personnel newly assigned to Iraq. The result will be the effective transmission of lessons learned and best practices from those returning from Iraq to new personnel assigned to reconstruction efforts in that country and other conflict zones.
Ayad Allawi (left), chairs his first meeting with the new Iraqi interim government in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 2, 2004. |
The Institute has also initiated a training program for officials of the new Iraqi government charged with national security responsibilities. Led by Ward and program officer Michael Lekson, the training will help Iraqi officials build their conflict management skills to support the policies of their new democratic leadership—after decades of dictatorship that gravely damaged the human infrastructure needed for effective governance. "The success of the political leadership of the new government will depend on having top-quality, nonpolitical civil servants who can carry out their professional responsibilities," said Ward. The first two workshops in this series were held in April in cooperation with the National Defense University, with two more workshops planned for May and June. Later, the Institute plans to conduct the program in Iraq.
The Professional Training Program is also preparing to launch a multiphase project designed to reduce tensions among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups by training Iraqi facilitators to conduct results-oriented dialogues among government and civil society leaders. The first phase of the project, which is being organized by program officer Anne Henderson, took place in May, when the Institute conducted a conflict management skills workshop in Baghdad for forty Iraqis from the capital and outlying cities, including Kirkuk. In July, the Institute will conduct a follow-up workshop for twenty alumni of the initial trainings, which will complete their preparation as conflict management facilitators. These Iraqi facilitators will then organize and conduct dialogues among leading civil society and government representatives of all ethnic and religious groups in their governorates. The dialogues will help participants develop constructive approaches to governance that transcend ethnic and religious divisions.
Another project, developed by David Smock, director of the Religion and Peacemaking Initiative, in partnership with Coventry Cathedral, contributes to the establishment of an Iraqi Center for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and Peace. The religious landscape of Iraq—with a long oppressed but fragmented Shiite majority, a once-privileged Sunni minority, a substantial Kurdish population habituated to a de facto autonomy, and a small Christian community—is the setting for an intense and sometimes violent competition for political dominance. "The successful transformation of Iraq to a pluralistic and tolerant democracy will require vigorous efforts to promote religious peace," said Smock. Key religious leaders in Iraq have already given the center their blessing and indicated a willingness to participate in it. They have already played a role in some tense mediations in connection with kidnappings.
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The Rule of Law Program, led by Neil Kritz, held its first seminar in April for high-ranking Iraqis to help in the design and establishment of an Iraqi Special Tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of atrocities under the former regime, including Saddam Hussein himself. The seminar, which was held in Amsterdam, brought together a broad range of international experts with Iraqi lawyers and judges, and focused on the legal and practical aspects of establishing a tribunal. Further technical assistance will be provided to Iraqis who will work on the tribunal.
The Research and Studies Program, in cooperation with the U.S. Army's Center for Peacekeeping and Stability Operations, will seek to identify the military police structures that will need to be created to integrate coalition military efforts with the growing Iraqi security forces. The program will also sponsor a series of discussions on Iraq and its neighbors to anticipate and prevent regional conflict. The Grant Program anticipates seeding many new local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as they begin the process of developing a civil society long suppressed by Saddam Hussein's regime. The program hopes to make its first grants this summer and is focusing initially on interethnic and women's issues. It will eventually focus on a broad array of goals:
- Promoting intercommunal and interreligious reconciliation, through such local NGOs as the newly formed Iraq Council for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and Peace.
- Training officials and civil society leaders in conflict management techniques and strategies.
- Designing educational activities and programs to help the transition to democracy and reduce conflict.
- Creating Iraqi institutions committed to religious and ethnic coexistence.
- Supporting programs that promote the rule of law.
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Iraqi Women Visit U.S. 
A delegation of influential Iraqi women visited the United States in early November, on a trip sponsored by the Institute, the World Bank, and other organizations. At a get acquainted session in Washington, Harriet Hentges, executive vice president of the Institute, praised the women's efforts to bring peace and stability to their country and spoke of the Institute's desire to help them achieve that goal. She added that the Institute intends to spend a significant portion of its $10 million congressional supplemental appropriation on programs that focus on Iraqi women. |
The initial focus of the Institute's Education Program, led by Pamela Aall, will be to launch a curriculum project to support a broad transformation in the teaching of conflict resolution in higher education. It will work to identify and develop curriculum and curriculum materials in relevant disciplines and will prepare, print, and disseminate resource materials in Arabic and Kurdish. The Institute builds on the belief that educators are essential participants in disseminating information and knowledge of conflict resolution and peacebuilding, and that students constitute a necessary network of present and future beneficiaries of civic peace. Its recommendations for a curriculum in higher education in Iraq consist of an emphasis on conflict resolution and peace studies, and on democracy-enhancing and -sustaining issues such as academic freedom, institution building, civil society development, rule of law, women's studies, religious and ethnic diversity, and human and civil rights.
The Institute continues to serve as an important forum for discussion and information sharing for the policy, academic, and NGO communities in Washington. It has been expanding its professional network through important sessions with central players such as General David Petraeus, former commander of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division in the Mosul area; Scott Carpenter, who led the CPA governance team; and David Gompert, who had the defense and security portfolio for the CPA. In addition, the Institute has held sessions on the use of oil revenues and the critical role of the middle class in Iraq, among other topics.
Other Institute Resources:
- Focus on Iraq
Complete list of Institute resources on Iraq.
