Stabilization and Reconstruction Staffing - RAND Corporation

The Problem 3• How long are personnel to stay in Iraq? How much should theybe paid?Bearing out the contrasts in the above quote, several instances ofthe shortcomings of the U.S. effort illustrate problems that involvedstaffing: the abilities of the staff in the field, the ability of offices back inthe states to continue to function because of staffing shortages, and theability to match staff experience with that perceived as being appropriateby indigenous leaders. For example,• members of a personnel-evaluation team that visited the CPA inJanuary 2004 characterized the staff as a pickup organization inplace to design and execute the most demanding transformationin recent U.S. history.• bureaucratic and tactical considerations of running some individualoffices within DoD caused some office directors to activelydiscourage personnel from joining the CPA and overshadowedthe strategic goal of achieving success in Iraq.• in many cultures (such as those in the Middle East), age, seniority,and gender indicate gravitas and importance. Young, inexperiencedpeople in senior jobs are not taken seriously or, worse,are perceived as showing a lack of seriousness on the part of theUnited States.BackgroundThe United States has intervened in other countries and has conductedstate-building efforts for well over a century. 5 Most recently, it participatedin several interventions and state-building efforts duringthe 1990s to aid in controlling the consequences of state breakdown.The rationale for U.S. engagement in peace-building and statebuildingefforts received a new urgency after the attacks of September5 The Mexican War may be the first large-scale intervention, but certainly from the time ofthe Spanish-American War and U.S. deployments to Cuba and the Philippines this has beena task the United States has taken on with some frequency.