Harsch Publishes Op-Ed on Strategy for Afghanistan Withdrawal
Michael Harsch, Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a Foreign Policy op-ed on the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and ways to ensure stability in the region.
In the article, titled “Afghans Don’t Need U.S. Troops. They Need Islands of Stability,” Harsch suggests promoting “islands of stability,” a region-driven approach to stabilizing fragile states that could allow the United States to help expand local peace and prosperity in Afghanistan, even amid ongoing conflict, without requiring it to have boots on the ground. Through this approach, localities with more public participation in government and investment in essential services like infrastructure and education will create positive spillover into neighboring regions.
Harsch also emphasized three key factors the U.S. should focus on in it’s withdrawal from Afghanistan: decentralization, long-term aid, and disincentivizing foreign subversion.
An excerpt:
Islands of stability are regions with relatively high levels of security and public service provisions in otherwise fragile, conflict-affected states. Existing islands in states like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Somalia have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of adversity and can provide an important source of stability for the central state. They also accomplish what outside interventions typically fail to promote at the central-state level: a monopoly on violence through long-term cooperation between the government and its citizens.
The full op-ed can be read on Foreign Policy‘s website.
Michael Harsch is a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School and a Fellow at the NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC). His research examines global and local institutions’ role in promoting security, effective government, and economic development, with a focus on fragile and conflict-affected states. He is the author of The Power of Dependence: NATO-UN Cooperation in Crisis Management (Oxford University Press, 2015). Read more about Professor Harsch on his faculty profile.