Center for a New American Security

CNAS Senior Fellow Richard Fontaine testified on the problems associated with contracting in conflicts and areas for reform before the U.S. Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The State Department's Policy Planning staff has struggled to remain relevant and offer meaningful long-term plans since its inception. This policy brief suggests that the upcoming Quadrennial Defense and Diplomacy Review is the right time to reform the Policy Planning staff to give the State Department an adequate long-view strategic vision.

Ahead of the September release of the State Department's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, this working paper examines the importance of force planning in allowing USAID and State to expand their organizational capabilities and regain influence in bureaucratic power.

This policy brief provides a brief survey of past initiatives to overhaul the State Department and offers suggestions for restructuring the State Department after the QDDR based on that review.

Recent congressional hearings on government contractors in conflict zones illustrate the acute awareness on Capitol Hill and across all branches of government of the urgent need for contracting reform. This factsheet details specific policy recommendations for Congress as laid out in the CNAS report Contracting in Conflicts: The Path to Reform.

CNAS President Dr. John Nagl testified before the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan on the proper role and oversight of security contractors supporting U.S. operations in Southwest Asia.

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there are currently more private contractors than U.S. troops on the ground. This report calls for the U.S. government to embark on a path of ambitious reform that will increase federal oversight and better protect U.S. taxpayer dollars from potential waste, fraud and abuse.

Faced with a shifting and complex global environment, this report calls for a recalibration of American strategy, noting, "The United States can best pursue a protracted period of global order by resisting the temptation to solve all the world’s problems.

This report offers an assessment of the Obama Administration's public engagement strategy by analyzing the public engagement dimension of key foreign policy areas and in countries of strategic importance - including Iran, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This report notes that America's counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan has focused more on waging war at the operational and tactical levels at the expense of the strategic and political levels and offers recommendations to design an effective political campaign.