The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2009

A few ways the world changed while you weren’t looking.

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | DECEMBER 2009

The ‘Civilian Surge' Fizzles

In November 2007, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered a now-famous speech at Kansas State University in which he acknowledged that "military success is not sufficient to win" counterinsurgency wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan and called for an increased role and increased funding for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In its Afghan strategy this March, Barack Obama's administration seemed to be following through on this advice, calling for a "civilian surge" of State Department and USAID personnel to complement the increased number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. "What we can't do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to be able to solve our problems," Obama told 60 Minutes, echoing Gates's rhetoric.

Just one month later, however, the administration asked Gates to identify 300 military personnel to fill jobs in Afghanistan intended for civilian experts, as not enough civilians were available. Defense Undersecretary Michèle Flournoy acknowledged that the government was "playing a game of catch-up" after years of not developing civilian expertise.

The Pentagon has also been taking over traditional State Department functions in neighboring Pakistan, an unprecedented step in a country where U.S. troops aren't formally allowed to operate. Under a supplemental funding bill passed in June, the Pentagon was given temporary authority to manage a $400 million fund designed to boost the Pakistani military's counterinsurgency capabilities. Military assistance of this kind is usually supervised by the State Department, but Gates -- along with Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus -- argued successfully that the State Department lacked the capability to administer it.

The State Department may yet live up to the initial vision of Gates and Obama -- a planned "civilian response corps" that would be able to deploy as many as 400 civilians to conflict areas seems promising -- and Foggy Bottom is slated to eventually take over the Pakistan counterinsurgency fund. But for now, the dream of a civilian surge to match the military effort seems far off. As analyst Anthony Cordesman, who has advised the U.S. military on Afghanistan, put it, "[W]e need to stop talking about 'smart power' as if we had it."

DAVID MCNEW/Getty Images

 

 SUBJECTS:
 

Joshua E. Keating is deputy Web editor at Foreign Policy and edits FP's Passport blog.

ALWAYSSKEPTICAL

1:53 PM ET

November 29, 2009

flooding?

"The environmental consequences -- increased flooding in coastal regions around the world..."

The melting of the Artic ice will not cause flooding. The ice would displace the same amount of water in liquid form as it now does in solid form.

 

JACKERHACK

6:47 AM ET

December 18, 2009

Oh no, it will

You forget that about 1/9th of ice floats above water. When it melts, it will cause the water level to rise.

 

DARCYLARCY

1:21 AM ET

December 22, 2009

Actually...

If the ice and sea water were of similar-enough composition, then once the ice melts, the resulting "new" water would be exactly the same volume as the water that was deplaced by the floating ice. In other words, the increasing density of the ice as it melts would exactly offset the difference in volume. The threat of sea level rise has nothing to do with the volume difference of ice and water (at least, not so directly).

However, water's freezing process partitions out much of the salt content. Therefore, what melts from floating sea ice is fresher, less dense water which *does* have a larger volume than the salt water that it displaced when it was solid. While it's not really my field, I believe that the volume difference should be on the order of 2.5%, based on the densities of sea water (64 lbs/ft3) and fresh water (62.4 lbs/ft3).

 

GRANT

4:24 PM ET

November 29, 2009

I don't see quite so much

I don't see quite so much cause for concern on the Feingold-Brownback* bill, as long as the U.S doesn't see the need to engage itself to heavily in the fighting. Though there are few things I would love to see more than Kony on trial the U.S doesn't have the best record when it comes to operations with other nations. Also, if memory serves one of the reasons why the U.S has had so much trouble finding a base for Africom is partially out of memories about U.S operations during the Cold War (as well as anti-U.S sentiment in the nations).

In re. to ALWAYSSKEPTICAL: We shouldn't presume that yet. The planet isn't so simple as to be measured by human perspective, and island nations are beginning to see changes in water.

*That's what they'll call it, you heard it here first.

 

W_NELSON

10:47 AM ET

November 30, 2009

NW Passage has been open for years:

Correction:

-------
Only one problem: The Northeast Passage has been opened for commerce since 1934 – and never ‘closed’.
-------

From here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/06/times_thermageddon_r_us/

 

F1FAN

10:20 AM ET

December 1, 2009

I'm surprised

I'm surprised that 'climategate' isn't on this list. The media in the US has categorically ignored it.

 

MUGWAMP

1:55 PM ET

December 3, 2009

rising coast lines

It is true that the Arctic sea ice is floating and already contributing to the current coastal levels. It is also true that if the Arctic sea ice is melting, then the ice on massive Greenland and Canada's northern islands will also melt. That is the source of concern. Worse yet, is that once the reflective ice and snow are gone from the tundra regions of the north, large amounts of methane will be released. The oceans also have large amounts of frozen methane that could be released, as we move to a higher temperature range. Methane is a much more potent green house gas than CO2. Humans may have started this pattern, but Mother Nature has the means to extend it. Finding ways to adapt to the inevitable, while we try to slow the pace of climate change is the challenge.

 

LINKBUILDINGSERVICES

4:32 AM ET

December 12, 2009

surprising

Its surprising to see that some people still taking the
The environmental consequences lightly.

 

SANDNESSC

4:06 PM ET

December 14, 2009

A ROTC for spies

My question is in regards to this line in the section titled "A ROTC for spies"

"The U.S. intelligence community already funds national security studies programs at more than 14 U.S. colleges and universities."

The question is does anyone have a list of the 14 colleges that this article is talking about.