Rethinking Reconstruction
Summary:Canada's domestic politics and overseas reconstruction efforts lack the vision and nuance to succeed in an increasingly complex and 'tumultuous' world, former CARE Canada CEO says
By BRANDON CURRIE
GV Content Editor
WATERLOO, ON - If a career in international development has the ability to make one judgmental - if not completely cynical - in how we try and assist developing countries, it stands to reason that some of its longest-standing practitioners are also some of its fiercest critics.
Such is the case with Dr. John Watson. A 30-year veteran in the field, former CEO of CARE Canada and world traveler who's visited over 100 countries, Watson is skeptical not only about how we go about reconstructing failed states, but is also wary of the political establishment in Ottawa driving foreign policy.
"These are tumultuous times. Anyone who is brave enough to comment on long-term trends risks being proved wrong in short order by events in the real world," Watson explained, perhaps at his own peril, during lecture at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). "But it is because of the current unsettled state of politics, war and the economy that it behooves us all to think deeply about what is happening and consider radical alternatives in public policy."
As an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and a senior fellow at the Munk Centre for International Studies, academic life has afforded Watson the opportunity to step back from the field and consider such alternatives. What he sees is not particularly encouraging.
"Our domestic politics are increasingly sick," Watson stated in reference to the upcoming federal election. "In Canada, we seem to have forgotten how to think for ourselves... Whatever we think of Mr. Dion's Green Plan, the dynamics of this election are indicating that a platform that attempts to be visionary - at a time when vision is sorely needed - will lose out to a ‘stay the course' approach."
To Watson, this "institutional stasis" also runs through the government agencies that carry out Canadian foreign policy.
"I have seen the part of the bureaucracy that I know best, [the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)], go from being one of the most creative development agencies in the world to a bureaucratic nightmare that has stopped thinking for itself. Yet it remains impervious to reform... because politicians deliver the message that it's not success in poverty alleviation that they want CIDA to pursue so much as they avoidance of clear failure and scandal.
"Meanwhile, those close to CIDA who should be raising a dissenting voice and vision are quiet because they're paranoid of losing funding. Consultants, think-tanks, universities and NGOs are simply unable to speak out," he criticized.
On the ground in places like Afghanistan, Watson said that both civil servants in Ottawa and our military forces have failed to understand the effect that underlying oral traditions have on peace building - specifically with ethnic Pashtuns in Kandahar province.
The Pashtunwali code of honour, he explained, demands that its adherents host and protect passersby - in this case foreign insurgents from neighbouring Pakistan. As such, it's easy to see how al-Qaeda and other militants have been difficult to uproot. And in the absence of a more nuanced perspective, "the tendency is for the military to involve us in more and more combat operations."
But it's not only Canada that has failed to recognize and work with Watson calls the ‘natural state' of failed states. In places like Eastern Chad and Rwanda, he explained, the West has ignored traditional sources of authority that pre-date and supercede the modern state. "As outsiders with a can-do attitude trying to get things done, we have a real tendency to offer solutions that strengthen the written law code and formal instruments of governance. But we would have much more success if we left the messy, violent process of building states... to local actors and pre-state governance structures," Watson said.
He mentioned Somalia - possibly the most spectacular recent example of state failure - claiming that Ethiopia's 2006 invasion interrupted an organic process whereby the Islamic Courts Union was slowly becoming the country's legitimate government.
"In short, what we regard as bad features of failed states - the presence of warlords, endemic corruption - may actually be key features of the natural state. Uncritically targeting these elements may undermine any chance at stability that exists in these places."
GV Content Editor
WATERLOO, ON - If a career in international development has the ability to make one judgmental - if not completely cynical - in how we try and assist developing countries, it stands to reason that some of its longest-standing practitioners are also some of its fiercest critics.
Such is the case with Dr. John Watson. A 30-year veteran in the field, former CEO of CARE Canada and world traveler who's visited over 100 countries, Watson is skeptical not only about how we go about reconstructing failed states, but is also wary of the political establishment in Ottawa driving foreign policy.
"These are tumultuous times. Anyone who is brave enough to comment on long-term trends risks being proved wrong in short order by events in the real world," Watson explained, perhaps at his own peril, during lecture at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). "But it is because of the current unsettled state of politics, war and the economy that it behooves us all to think deeply about what is happening and consider radical alternatives in public policy."
As an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and a senior fellow at the Munk Centre for International Studies, academic life has afforded Watson the opportunity to step back from the field and consider such alternatives. What he sees is not particularly encouraging.
"Our domestic politics are increasingly sick," Watson stated in reference to the upcoming federal election. "In Canada, we seem to have forgotten how to think for ourselves... Whatever we think of Mr. Dion's Green Plan, the dynamics of this election are indicating that a platform that attempts to be visionary - at a time when vision is sorely needed - will lose out to a ‘stay the course' approach."
To Watson, this "institutional stasis" also runs through the government agencies that carry out Canadian foreign policy.
"I have seen the part of the bureaucracy that I know best, [the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)], go from being one of the most creative development agencies in the world to a bureaucratic nightmare that has stopped thinking for itself. Yet it remains impervious to reform... because politicians deliver the message that it's not success in poverty alleviation that they want CIDA to pursue so much as they avoidance of clear failure and scandal.
"Meanwhile, those close to CIDA who should be raising a dissenting voice and vision are quiet because they're paranoid of losing funding. Consultants, think-tanks, universities and NGOs are simply unable to speak out," he criticized.
On the ground in places like Afghanistan, Watson said that both civil servants in Ottawa and our military forces have failed to understand the effect that underlying oral traditions have on peace building - specifically with ethnic Pashtuns in Kandahar province.
The Pashtunwali code of honour, he explained, demands that its adherents host and protect passersby - in this case foreign insurgents from neighbouring Pakistan. As such, it's easy to see how al-Qaeda and other militants have been difficult to uproot. And in the absence of a more nuanced perspective, "the tendency is for the military to involve us in more and more combat operations."
But it's not only Canada that has failed to recognize and work with Watson calls the ‘natural state' of failed states. In places like Eastern Chad and Rwanda, he explained, the West has ignored traditional sources of authority that pre-date and supercede the modern state. "As outsiders with a can-do attitude trying to get things done, we have a real tendency to offer solutions that strengthen the written law code and formal instruments of governance. But we would have much more success if we left the messy, violent process of building states... to local actors and pre-state governance structures," Watson said.
He mentioned Somalia - possibly the most spectacular recent example of state failure - claiming that Ethiopia's 2006 invasion interrupted an organic process whereby the Islamic Courts Union was slowly becoming the country's legitimate government.
"In short, what we regard as bad features of failed states - the presence of warlords, endemic corruption - may actually be key features of the natural state. Uncritically targeting these elements may undermine any chance at stability that exists in these places."
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