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Armed Humanitarians: The Rise of the Nation Builders by [Nathan Hodge]

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Nathan Hodge

Armed Humanitarians: The Rise of the Nation Builders Kindle Edition

by Nathan Hodge (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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In May 2003, President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq. But
while we won the war, we catastrophically lost the peace. Our failure
prompted a fundamental change in our foreign policy. Confronted with the
shortcomings of "shock and awe," the U.S. military shifted its focus to
"stability operations": counterinsurgency and the rebuilding of failed
states. In less than a decade, foreign assistance has become
militarized; humanitarianism has been armed.

Combining recent history and firsthand reporting, Armed Humanitarians
traces how the concepts of nation-building came into vogue, and how,
evangelized through think tanks, government seminars, and the press,
this new doctrine took root inside the Pentagon and the State
Department. Following this extraordinary experiment in armed social work
as it plays out from Afghanistan and Iraq to Africa and Haiti, Nathan
Hodge exposes the difficulties of translating these ambitious new
theories into action.

Ultimately seeing this new era in foreign
relations as a noble but flawed experiment, he shows how armed
humanitarianism strains our resources, deepens our reliance on
outsourcing and private contractors, and leads to perceptions of a new
imperialism, arguably a major factor in any number of new conflicts
around the world. As we attempt to build nations, we may in fact be
weakening our own.

Nathan Hodge is a Washington, D.C.-based writer
who specializes in defense and national security. He has reported from
Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and a number of other countries in the
Middle East and former Soviet Union. He is the author, with Sharon
Weinberger, of A Nuclear Family Vacation, and his work has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and many other newspapers and magazines.

Print length

348 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bloomsbury USA
Publication date

February 15, 2011
File size

1504 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hodge (coauthor of A Nuclear Family Vacation), a journalist specializing in defense and national security issues, takes a critical look at the post-9/11 shift in U.S. foreign policy toward nation building in a timely and balanced account. Drawing upon firsthand reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan and extensive interviews with key figures behind the shift, the author traces how the initial failure to secure Afghanistan and Iraq led to the "military's embrace of counterinsurgency"--a shift to "armed social work" that blended force and humanitarianism and became the new face of American foreign policy. Hodge locates the origins of the new paradigm in the work of defense intellectuals like Thomas Barnett (The Pentagon's New Map) and the support of a cadre of military officers, led by Gen. David Petraeus, who embedded the doctrine in the military's counterinsurgency manual and oversaw its adoption during the 2007 surge. While acknowledging some tentative successes, the author argues that nation building detracts from the military's primary mission and is best left to development and diplomatic agencies. Hodge calls for a national conversation on the issue of nation building, and his carefully reported and sprightly written critique is a good place to begin. (Feb.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Nathan Hodge is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who specializes in defense and national security. He has reported from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and a number of other countries in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. His work has appeared in Slate, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and many other newspapers and magazines.

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Booklist

Journalist Hodge, who has spent more than a decade writing about the defense industry, addresses the twenty-first-century foreign policy shift that calls for the U.S. military to engage in “armed humanitarianism.” A necessary progression from the much-maligned “nation building” of the 1990s, this change stems from the Pentagon’s realization that soft power is required to address the economic struggles of disenfranchised peoples that are at the root of most international conflicts. Drawing on an enormous amount of location research in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, the Republic of Georgia, and elsewhere, Hodge exhibits a startling grasp of the primary challenges to our national security as he addresses corruption on the ground overseas, our bloated defense budget, and ongoing difficulties with the State Department’s overdependence on military contractors. Readers of Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea (2009) will appreciate repeated references to that title and how its philosophy of active civilian engagement is admired and emulated by military in the field. Equal parts inspiring and frustrating, this is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand U.S. foreign policy. --Colleen Mondor --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

“Drawing on an enormous amount of location research in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, the Republic of Georgia, and elsewhere, Hodge exhibits a startling grasp of the primary challenges to our national security… Equal parts inspiring and frustrating, this is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand U.S. foreign policy.” —Booklist

“In his fast-moving, well-argued assessment, [Hodge] warns about a military stretched too thin, distracted from its primary mission of fighting and winning wars; about a U.S. treasury strained to the breaking point; and about the huge and clumsy footprint often left by the new class of soldier/diplomats. For a civilian readership increasingly alienated from the culture of its military, Hodge provides an important guide to what the reformers have wrought.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Hodge calls for a national conversation on the issue of nation building, and his carefully reported and sprightly written critique is a good place to begin.” —Publishers Weekly

“An important, timely book: Nathan Hodge, one of the nation’s best defense reporters, tells a compelling story about U.S. soft power, showing how military force and humanitarian aid has coalesced during missions abroad. A must read.” —Tara McKelvey, author of Monstering: Inside America’s Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War

“A fascinating and important first-hand account of the new American way of war.” —Sean Naylor, author of Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda

“A fascinating and alarming examination of one of the least explored trends in American policy: the militarization of foreign aid. As Hodge powerfully illustrates with a storyteller's eye for detail, time and again in recent years the American military has been called to a task it is ill-equipped to perform—nation-building—with disastrous consequences. In the process, the work of 'bona-fide' civilian foreign assistance workers has become infinitely more suspect, complicated and perilous. An indispensable guide for anyone who wises to understand the terrible price being paid for the outsourcing of American foreign policy.” —Scott Anderson, author of The Man Who Tried to Save the World

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004NNUZ7I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (February 15, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 15, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1504 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 348 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #432,994 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #271 in National & International Security (Kindle Store)
- #384 in 21st Century History of the U.S.
- #435 in International Relations (Kindle Store)

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The Forgiven Former Feminist

Great gift for husband!

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2014

Verified Purchase

I bought this for my husband (he is in the Army) and he LOVED it. He said it was a great read.

One person found this helpful

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Amele Komlan

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

thanks

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David Southworth

Great Description of the US Challenge in Early 21st Century Wars

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2012

This short book by journalist Nathan Hodge covers the acceleration of the development over the last ten years of war of capabilities within the US military to do nation building. The US military felt that it had to undertake this effort because, in the view of the author, the civilian parts of the US government responsible for these issues of development, namely the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, had failed in its mission. In light of this perceived failure the military stepped in and created military and police training teams, the Human Terrain System, and the Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. These efforts still weren't great enough because of the scale of the task, so the US government contracted out security and intelligence functions to private companies, many of whom have had questionable returns on investment.

Overall this is an excellent review of a complicated and important issue. Hodge, a skilled investigator and writer, can occasionally lapse into writing that takes a too familiar tone. But overall this is an excellent story for those interested in the story of how the US government reacted to the continuing wars and Iraq and Afghanistan since the early 2000s.

4 people found this helpful

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Armed Humanitarians: The Rise of the Nation Builders Kindle Edition

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