Bobst Center

There are 50 Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs): 25 in Afghanistan under the authority of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization International Security Assistance Force (NATO/ISAF), and 25 in Iraq. Of these, the United States leads 12 in Afghanistan and 22 in Iraq. Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) have become an integral part of peacekeeping and stability operations, but they have also been criticized for their mixed effectiveness, over-emphasis on military objectives and priorities, failure to effectively coordinate and communicate with the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and differences in staffing and mission. To date, there has been no comprehensive review of PRT models to evaluate effectiveness or address shortcomings. This report seeks to answer three questions in order to begin filling the knowledge gap:

1. Should the United States and coalition partners continue to use PRTs?
2. Are PRTs achieving the goals for which they are funded?
3. What are the best practices of countries that sponsor and contribute to PRTs?
   

Led by Robert Perito, Visiting Lecturer in Public and International Affairs, nine graduate students spent the fall semester of 2007 researching Provincial Reconstruction Teams, meeting with experts and academics that have studied and worked in PRTs, and conducting field research interviews outside of the United States. In addition to interacting with visiting speakers familiar with the United States’ PRT experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, workshop members traveled to the capitals of Canada, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom to speak with representatives from government, NGOs, think tanks, and the media. The workshop has collectively developed conclusions and recommendations on our findings, to offer advice to the United States and other countries with PRTs on how best to design and use these organizations.

Team members included Nima Abbaszadeh, Mark Crow, Marianne El-Khoury, Jonathan Gandomi, David Kuwayama, Christopher MacPherson, Meghan Nutting, Nealin Parker, and Taya Weiss.  The workshop leader was Robert Perito, senior program officer in the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations, U.S. Institute of Peace. He is the coordinator of the Peacekeeping Lessons Learned Project and the Haiti Working Group. He came to USIP in 2001 as a senior fellow in the Jennings Randolph Fellowship program. Before joining the Institute, Perito was a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Department of State, retiring with the rank of minister-counselor. He served as deputy executive secretary of the National Security Council (1988-1989). He was a congressional fellow in 1980. Perito received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 1990 for leading the U.S. delegation in the Angola peace talks. 

Copy of PRT Report

Managing elections in post-conflict settings has become one of the essential tasks of the international community over the past twenty years. Yet this task is associated with numerous challenges, many of which are still unfolding. This report is a comparative study of three countries which will all hold elections in 2008 or 2009, but which are at very different points on their post-conflict trajectories: Cambodia, Rwanda and Sudan. The selection of these countries for detailed case study treatment makes it possible to explore both how electoral challenges have changed over time within countries and how they compare across countries. In particular the report seeks to address three important research questions concerning states that are emerging from a period of conflict and instability

What constitutes a “good enough” election?

• How does the meaning of “good enough” change as countries move further along their post-conflict trajectory?
• How does the meaning of "good enough" change as countries move further along their post-conflict trajectory?
• What does that imply about how the international community should engage in electoral processes?

Workshop participants included Mary An, Sarah Bush, Britt Lake, Summer Lopez, Ashley McCants, Julie Sawyer, Paul Skidmore, and Carlos Velasco.  Jeff Fischer led the Workshop.  Fischer formerly served as senior director of the Center for Transitional and Post-Conflict Government at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Previously he served as IFES’s Senior Advisor for Elections & Governance and as Vice President in charge of IFES’s operations in Albania, Armenia, Bosnia, the DRC, Kyrgystan, Mali, the Palestinian Territories, and the Ukraine, among other places. In 2005, he served as Senior Advisor to the International Election Commission, Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. In 2000, he served as Director of Election Operations in Kosovo. And in 1999, he was Chief Electoral Officer associated with the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor.

Click here for the report