Quote Originally Posted by Eric Chen View Post
Dear Small Wars Journal,

I would appreciate your reaction to YONHAP NEWS: "Afghanistan kidnappings keep Korean missionaries from going overseas".

My gut reaction is that the removal of humanitarian people and organizations from places like Afghanistan and Iraq is devastating to the larger political process because these entities - perhaps more than our military civil affairs and government-based aid/development orgs - embody the positive (progressive) promise of the Western relationship in its most interactive form.
I wonder just how "devastating" this really is, given how genuinely small most NGO aid operations are, especially in GWOT-related conflict zones. Removal of such NGOs would undoubtedly be devastating from a humanitarian standpoint in places like Eastern and Central Africa, but folks on the ground like LTC Odom can certainly point to instances where they often did just as much harm as good. Moreover, I question exactly how much of a real IO boost they provide in GWOT-related areas considering that my own limited experience of work with such organizations is that their circle of contact with native populations is actually rather small (outside of relief camp-style operations in Africa).

Further, I believe their physical introduction, relationship-building, and then removal under threat has been more damaging to our mission, demoralizing to the local population, and empowering to the insurgents than if they had been absent from the beginning. The tactic of targeting "non-combatants" has been repeatedly validated, and more significantly, I worry that the gap left by the removal of aid groups has severely undermined the full-spectrum interactions necessary to bring about the so-called "political" solution in the peace-building process.

However, even as a recent Poli Sci - IR graduate (Columbia '07), I have heard very little about the effect of the removal of aid groups on the COIN and peace-building missions. I hope to read expert analysis from SWJ to help me better understand the impact. Thank you.

Eric Chen
I think you are correct that insurgents definitely get a short-term publicity boost in the Western media, and probably a longer-term IO boost among the local population when they successfully kidnap and kill Westerners, NGO or not. Whether or not the "full spectrum interactions" you speak of really help towards creating political momentum in resolving conflicts is more questionable. NGOs have their place in alleviating human suffering, but rarely do they actually influence the political process within countries --- and when they do, it is not always to the good. Witness, for example, the embarassment brought on Karzai by this past incident involving Korean missionaries. I can't imagine the fact that this particular group sang Christian hymns and held a service inside an Afghan mosque makes Kabul very happy either.