Tag: nation building

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Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Addresses “Toughing It Out in Afghanistan”

Should the US start pulling their troops out of Afghanistan in 2011 leaving only a small peace-keeping force of 20,000 in 2014? Or should we stay in Afghanistan providing assistance until the Afghans don’t need us  anymore? By setting a time line do the U.S. and NATO signal to the Afghan people that we are not committed to their development or security? If that is the case, are we creating an opportunity for the insurgency to wait patiently to once again, continue to wreak havoc on the war-ravaged country?
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To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens #1

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens examines the human effects of international interventions in war-ravaged Kosovo, more than five years after the war.

Although Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb 17, 2008, the time leading up to that was filled with frustration and impatience for all parties. This short project exposed the limbo that permeated throughout the province in 2003 and 2004 leading up to it’s independence. Exposing a few of the many complexities inherent in nation-building, and as American commitments multiply, it was time to examine closely the experience to date of one of these experiments, the 1999 US-led NATO intervention in Kosovo. Kosovo’s post-war experience provides powerful insights into the critical steps and missteps encountered in the nation-building experiment, and serves as a valuable lens for viewing the potential success or failure of other such experiments. Kosovo’s progress to date can teach us about the limits of externally-imposed agendas, and draw our attention to the critical need for home-grown solutions.
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To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens #2

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens 2

To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens examines the human effects of international interventions in war-ravaged Kosovo, more than five years after the war.

Although Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb 17, 2008, the time leading up to that was filled with frustration and impatience for all parties. This short project exposed the limbo that permeated throughout the province in 2003 and 2004 leading up to it’s independence. Exposing a few of the agendas, and draw our attention to the critical need for home-grown solutions.
Continue reading “To Build a Nation: Kosovo, Behind the Lens #2”

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Afghan Kids Want Computers

Afghan Kids Want Laptops

On this day we travel to a high school in Charikar in Parwan Province,  a 90- minute car drive from Kabul centre.  The school does not have electricity or running water but the students have more things on their minds.  Computers.

Can’t see in on Vimeo?  Watch it on YouTube.


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Afghanistan’s Great Donor Scandal: Higher Education

Billions of dollars are poured into Afghanistan each year to ostensibly bring stability to the war-ravaged country.

A lack of shared national or international vision or strategy, no security, rampant corruption, Afghanistan is a place most do not want to dwell.  International donors, wanting a quick fix and an end to the Afghan war, throw millions of dollars at short-sighted projects that add little or no value to the Afghan community it vows to support.   Continue reading “Afghanistan’s Great Donor Scandal: Higher Education”