Rathmell: It is high time to get serious about following the indirect approach
Andrew Rathmell, a two tour British veteran of civilian duty in Iraq, said at the UNC-Chapel Hill conference that with the massive costs of direct intervention increasingly apparent, we need to become serious about carrying out the indirect approach, such as better training of foreign militaries and police forces. I think he is right. The ...
Andrew Rathmell, a two tour British veteran of civilian duty in Iraq, said at the UNC-Chapel Hill conference that with the massive costs of direct intervention increasingly apparent, we need to become serious about carrying out the indirect approach, such as better training of foreign militaries and police forces. I think he is right.
Andrew Rathmell, a two tour British veteran of civilian duty in Iraq, said at the UNC-Chapel Hill conference that with the massive costs of direct intervention increasingly apparent, we need to become serious about carrying out the indirect approach, such as better training of foreign militaries and police forces. I think he is right.
The key task in the coming decades, he said, is “helping to police these zones of disorder.” If the indirect approach really is the way to go, Rathmell noted, then that has significant implications for foreign policy (like more focus on bolstering weak states) and on the structure of major Western militaries.
Alas, where was the latest QDR on this issue?
More from Foreign Policy


At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment
Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.


How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China
As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.


What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal
Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.


Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust
Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.