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1. 

   8/09/08

   weblogian

   I have seen you and blog a lot of time. For whom are you working for and are your focus on Afghanistan only?

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   1. 

      8/09/08

      Nomadic

      I work for a commercial company that specialises in media and communications in transitional countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq...
2. 

   8/09/08

   markstoneman

   Apropos hearts and minds, it's amazing to me how many important lessons from the Cold War we seem to have forgotten, or is it we didn't learn the right lessons?

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   1. 

      8/10/08

      Nomadic

      Never mind the cold war, are aren't learning lessons from any war. Still making the same mistakes over and over.
   2. 

      8/10/08

      markstoneman

      I'm thinking about the Marshall Plan.
      
      Or Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. Didn't the former broadcast in local languages? And the latter---before Reagan at least---even allowed critical presentation of America.
      
      And then there were all the cultural exchanges. The openness of the United States to foreign students, for example. Special scholarships. Nowadays we seem to be closing off the country.
      
      Of course the context is very different now, but surely these experiences are worth considering.
   3. 

      8/11/08

      Nomadic

      Agree stoneman, all experiences are worth considering - especially ones that seem to have worked. I spend a lot of time with government going over "lessons learned" and explaining that at the moment they are still just "lessons identified". There is a big gap and some huge blockages when in comes to putting things into practice - two that spring to mind are party politics (the home agenda) and the short time frames applied in military action (focus on unsustainable quick wins).
   4. 

      8/11/08

      markstoneman

      Your blockages make sense. One thing attractive about the Cold War example—as I understand it—is it transcended party lines and demanded a security focus that went well beyond short-term operational goals. But obviously the Cold War lessons I have identified here were not learned by enough policy-makers, certainly not by the Donald Rumsfelds and Dick Cheneys of the world, who conceive of security in the narrowest possible military operational terms.
3. 

   8/11/08

   Nomadic

   I have written some more on the power of media in Afghanistan:
   public-diplomacy.blogspot.com/2008/08/arm-yourself-with-books.html
   
   @mark - how do you feel about the medias role in conflict prevention???

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