Though investment in entrepreneurs is not a silver bullet for development, economic growth and job creation stimulated by small and medium-sized enterprises can foster stability and help curb conflict in fragile states. Comprehensive programs that help SMEs increase their access to finance, markets, networks, and skills should be offered as part of a package of services to best leverage the efforts now under way to promote entrepreneurship.

John B. Bellinger III argues that Libyans should be allowed to choose whether they want to try members of the Qaddafi regime in their own courts.

Max Boot testifies before the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia on the future of the U.S. relationship with Iraq.

Michael J. Hicks of Ball State University and Mark L. Burton of The University of Tennessee provide a preliminary estimate of damages, in monetary value, from the 2010 Pakistan floods.

International endorsement of a plan to hand security responsibilities to Afghan forces in 2014 indicates NATO's military commitment is not open-ended. But meeting the deadline amid ongoing Afghan governance issues could prove challenging.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, discusses the state of Democracy in Western Africa and the progress she has made as the head of the Liberian state.

An interactive map of the Horn of Africa.

Washington's approach to rebuilding economies devastated by conflicts and natural disasters is flawed.

Ambassador Christopher Hill talks about Iraqi governance and the political and security implications of elections scheduled for early next month.

Watch Ambassador Christopher Hill talk about Iraqi governance and the political and security implications of elections scheduled for early next month.

Listen to Ambassador Christopher Hill talk about Iraqi governance and the political and security implications of elections scheduled for early next month.

Steve Simon and Jonathan Stevenson argue that it is not in American interests to take on the
"grand and onerous responsibility of rebuilding the Afghan state."

Report

Lydia Khalil argues that domestic drivers in Iraq, rather than overhauled military or diplomatic strategy from without, will shape the nation's stability.

A discussion on NATO's role in current combat and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, as part of the Council on Foreign Relations' NATO At 60 Symposium.

This report provides a definition of Afghanistan reconstruction oversight and a summary of recent developments that have affected reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. It also includes an overview of significant initiatives underway to improve the recontruction strategy.

Hard Lessons reviews the Iraq reconstruction experience from mid-2002 through the fall of 2008.

On paper Iraq's justice system appears sound, but Michael Wahid Hanna of The Century Foundation says "major systemic and structural problems" plague Iraq's legal framework.

Listen to retired lieutenant general Jay M. Garner, former director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq, discuss the situation on the ground in 2003.

Watch retired lieutenant general Jay M. Garner, former director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq, discuss the situation on the ground in 2003.