Illusions of Control: Dilemmas in Managing U.S. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria

Over the last two decades, the United States has supported a range of militias, rebels, and other armed groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Critics have argued that such partnerships have many perils, from enabling human rights abuses to seeding future threats. Is it possible to work with such forces but mitigate some of these risks? In Illusions of Control: Dilemmas in Managing U.S. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, Erica L. Gaston explores U.S. efforts to do just that, drawing on a decade of field research and hundreds of interviews with stakeholders to unpack the dilemmas of attempting to control proxy forces. The book has been described by reviewers as a "grim but necessary autopsy of America’s policy failures” in the last two decades (Ariel Ahram) and a book that casts light on the "moral hazards and strategic pitfalls of partnerships forged in war" (H.R. McMaster). Gaston’s conclusions point to a need not for more risk mitigation measures and tools, but for more strategic thinking in how risks are managed and weighed in U.S. Security Policy.

Join New America's Future Security Program as they welcome Erica L. Gaston to discuss her book Illusions of Control. Erica L. Gaston is senior policy advisor and head of the Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace Programme at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. She is also an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a nonresident fellow at both the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Global Public Policy institute. The conversation will be moderated by New America Vice President and Arizona State University Professor of Practice Peter Bergen.

Join the conversation online using #IllusionsofControl and following @NewAmericaISP.

PARTICIPANTS

Erica L. Gaston
Author, Illusions of Control
Senior Policy Advisor, United Nations University Centre for Policy Research
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia University Centre for Policy Research

MODERATOR

Peter Bergen
Vice President, New America
Co-Director, Future Security
Professor of Practice, Arizona State University