What we've been reading lately

Lions and Jackals: Pakistan's Emerging Counterinsurgency Strategy. Foreign Affairs.

"As in Bajaur, officers decided to execute a presence-oriented approach: troops cleared areas; established small bases inside populated areas, instead of drawing back to large bases; enforced curfews; and aided fledgling local governments. Unlike past operations, where the military failed to block escape routes during actions on the Taliban's mountain hideouts, this time they applied a "corner, choke, and contain" strategy..."

Our Reply to Obama. Now that the U.S. president has offered Africa his advice, here's our riposte for him. Foreign Policy.

"...aid can undermine the very government that it is meant to assist. Our capital, Monrovia, is filled with billboards heralding roads, clinics, and schools that are "owned" by various NGOs and donors. All these services would usually fall to a government to provide, but donors often prefer to look elsewhere. People are quick to perceive, rightly or wrongly, that the Liberian government cannot meet development challenges and provide a sustainable peace for our people. That vital accountability of governments to their people shatters."

"Afghan Women Speak Out: Mariam Nawabi" Huffington Post.

"There is a plan to send 4,000 outside-civilian advisers, but these advisers go in for a year and are barely acclimated and then it's time to go. Instead they should send expats back in, they won't have as many language issues, and can be more effective at delivering real support. Afghanistan has had a huge brain drain -- so much of countries brain power left or killed. They need to come back."

"Wired: Danger Room." What's next in national security.

"As a truce with Taliban militants in Pakistan’s Swat valley disintegrates and the country braces for an exodus of refugees, the Washington is quickly coming to view Pakistan as an existential threat. Once seen as a crucial adjunct to securing Afghanistan, nuclear-armed Pakistan itself now seems on the brink of implosion. And that’s a much more frightening problem."

The photo is mine, from a bookstore on Talat Haarb Square in downtown Cairo. Some of the books: "The Iraq War," something about Iran, and a book on Condeleezza Rice.