September 28, 2011

Ending or preventing conflict almost always means talking to the people who understand it best: the women.

“If you’re going to improve the lives of the people on the street, you’ve got to pay attention to the women,” USIP’s Paul Hughes told a group of military officers, as though to let them in on a little peacebuilding secret. “They are the ones who understand the conflict.”

It was one of many pieces of sage advice Hughes gave to a group of Air Force officers visiting USIP in September as part of a tour of Washington. The group, about 50 majors and lieutenant colonels, visited from the Air Command and Staff College’s Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. The officers are studying the role of the Air Force officer and his or her role in political-military strategy.

Hughes, a retired Army colonel and now the chief of staff at USIP, outlined some of the big efforts in which USIP has been engaged in recent years – from a strategic review of the nation’s “strategic posture” to an independent review of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) in 2010.

The QDR Independent Panel was co-chaired by former Defense Secretary William Perry and USIP’s Stephen Hadley, national security adviser under former President George W. Bush. USIP’s report on the QDR tackled everything from defense acquisition and personnel policy reform to how to reinvigorate the nation’s ability to exert “soft power” around the world. The report also looked at major foreign policy issues, terrorism and geopolitical dynamics with India, the Middle East and China.

“We see China, clearly, clearly as the next big challenge,” Hughes told the Air Force officers. “I’m not going to call it an opponent or anything like that because there is still time to work with China – you can work with them or against them.”

The report also looked at the American government’s “interagency process,” and Hughes used the opportunity to school the up-and-coming mid-grade officers on how important it is for the different pieces of government to collaborate -- and collaborate effectively – with one another.

“The interagency process is a good process but it is not totally functional because it doesn’t include everybody who is important today in the kinds of conflicts we face,” Hughes said. “You don’t see Agriculture, Treasury or Commerce. These are actors who have a role to play now if you’re concerned about governance, the rule of law and economic development,” he said.

USIP also hosted the Iraq Study Group and published its widely anticipated report in 2006. The report sparked a national discussion about the war and was widely seen as one of the main drivers to a change of course in Iraq.

The 160-page document was downloaded 1.5 million times within three months of its release, according to USIP.

One Air Force officer asked about USIP’s work in the field. Hughes called USIP a “field operating agency,” and touched on some of the work USIP does in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan.

“We go and help people get started, then we hand it off and we’re out of there,” he explained to the officers, noting the small size of USIP in terms of employees and resources. “We’re a very low-budget organization,” he said.

Another officer asked just who calls USIP. “Everybody,” is the short answer Hughes gave, from agencies of the U.S. government, to nongovernmental organizations to world leaders. USIP fulfills a distinct role, Hughes told the officers, but not a redundant one.

“We do not do the State Department’s work,” he said. “We are not in competition with our Department of State – we are more of a gap-filler for the U.S. government.”