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State’s Afghanistan “civilian surge light” may not be enough

Federal agencies have sent hundreds of civilians to Afghanistan ahead Thursday’s presidential election. The goal is to help that country choose its next l...

Federal News Network Staff

August 18, 2009 10:37 am

< a min read

wfedstaff | June 2, 2015 10:59 pm

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Federal agencies have sent hundreds of civilians to Afghanistan ahead Thursday’s presidential election. The goal is to help that country choose its next leader in a peaceful way and to help Afghans rebuild their war-torn nation. But the State Department has sent just 3-in10 of the staffers it had planned, and that’s leading some to question whether their efforts will be effective. Rick Barton, director of the CSIS Post Conflict Reconstruction Project and former director of the Office of Transition Initiatives at USAID, joins us with with his take on how all this will shape up.