Eric Ham, MPP'04, Pursuing a Strategy for State-Building

Eric K. Ham, MPP'04, recently authored the report, S.O.S. A U.S. Strategy of State-Building, which offers recommendations for confronting state fragility, using the Arab Spring as the test case, with the aim of developing a framework for addressing the issues wrought by weak states.

Produced by the Society for International Development's Fragile State Strategy Group, the report gives several recommendations to address these issues presented by weak and fragile states including making the state building strategy part of the President’s National Security Strategy to be led by a high level official such as an Undersecretary for State-building within the Department of State; a decoupling of the strategy of state building from military and intelligence activities focused on counter terrorism and counter insurgency; and multilateral coordination between, governments, NGO’s, the private sector, and civil society. 

Ham co-chaired The Fragile Strategy Group which featured some of the foremost experts working on fragile and failed states including former Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and former CIA Director General Michael Hayden, Ret. 

To read the report, visit this link: http://www.sidw.org/assets/sos_final%20report.pdf