Edifice complex

Posted By Stephen M. Walt Thursday, May 28, 2009 - 4:55 PM Share

McClatchy News reports that the United States is planning to spend over $700 million dollars to build a major new embassy complex in Pakistan, while negotiating to purchase a five-star hotel to serve as the new consulate in Peshawar. These new facilities are intended to support the "surge" of diplomats and aid workers that the United States intends to deploy as part of President Obama's deepening involvement in Central Asia. The obvious comparison is to the huge U.S. embassy in Iraq (which cost nearly $600 million dollars and occupies on 104 acres (in downtown Baghdad), but I’m also reminded of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, which was one of the largest U.S. facilities in the 1970s and was later occupied by Iranian students in the infamous 1980 hostage incident.

I'm all for providing U.S. officials with adequate facilities, but this idea merely underscores the inherent contradictions in the current U.S. approach. One of America's main problems in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan is the widespread popular belief that it is now addicted to interfering in these societies, usually in a heavy-handed and counter-productive way. In their eyes, Washington is constantly telling them which leaders to choose, which leaders should step down, which extremists to go after and how they should reorder their own societies to make them more compatible with our values. And oh yes, we also drop bombs and fire missiles into their territory, which we would regard as an act of war if anyone did it to us. Even when well-intentioned, these activities inevitably lend themselves to various conspiracy theories about America's "real" motives, and reinforce negative impressions of the United States. As of last year, only 19 percent of Pakistan’s population had a favorable view of the United States, and this hardly makes it easier to get meaningful cooperation on issues that we should (and do) care about, such as the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

Building a costly new embassy -- which will undoubtedly resemble a giant fortress -- is not going to help win "hearts and minds" there, or allay concerns about our ambitions in that part of the world. And if we need a facility like that in order to execute our overall strategy, doesn’t that cast some doubt on the merits of the strategy itself?

EXPLORE:CENTRAL ASIA, AFGHANISTAN, DIPLOMACY, ISLAM, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, PAKISTAN, STATE DEPARTMENT

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GRAND SEN-OR

6:56 PM ET

May 28, 2009

yhe former U.S. embassy in

yhe former U.S. embassy in Tehran, which was one of the largest U.S. facilities in the 1970s and was later occupied by Iranian students in the infamous 1980 hostage incident.

HAHHA, Professor you made my day Mate!, Thank you, yes, the US is addicted to support ex-shahs;->

Grand Sen~or.

BRETT

7:53 AM ET

May 29, 2009

I take it then that they're

I take it then that they're not really worried that, as Gates has warned, US domestic support for operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan will dry up in a year, otherwise they wouldn't be making such groundwork on these things.

Or perhaps it's just a recognition of reality - any US Embassy is going to be a target in that country.

SSKELLY

5:33 PM ET

May 29, 2009

If you're gonna go, go big

At least if you're an AMCIT or one of the fortunate, chosen few TCNs in the neighborhood when the balloon goes up, the 5-star Pearl Continental Peshawar/U.S. Consulate will be a great place to fort up and await the NEO cavalry, racking up bonus points all the while. And it's only 2 clicks from the airport, a steal at twice the price.

KEYRAN

8:48 AM ET

May 30, 2009

The sanity of it all

When I check Walt out a few times a week, I am constantly impressed by his sanity--on subjects for which sophisms or plain lunacy is the rule.

Day after day he hardly missed a beat; he remains the patriot and humanist--and indeed a Friend of Israel--in his insistence that the War Party in both countries is destructive to its hopes and wishes for the children--raised in a country which suffers from a Love of Anxiety---- on account of which it is allowed to annihilate all neighbors.

Gaza is a huge prison and Israel is a huge sanatorium of adolescents. And Walt is one of the few righteously wise psychiatrists for all the people in the bedlam of the Near East.

DAVE PORTER

8:52 PM ET

May 30, 2009

Send students, don't build fortress!

Yes, the symbolism is wrong and the function is wrong. Functionally, as you said, building a giant fortress is no way to win heart and minds. Better to take $50 million of it to fund 500 US university students per year for ten years studying in Pakistan at $10,000 per year per student. Then add to that 500-1000 US high school students per year doing the same only paid by their local school districts (cost less than most school districts now pay per student per year). For $700 million, or $70 million per year for ten years, the US could probably send 7,000 university/high school students per year for ten years to live with a Pakistan family and study in Pakistan. That would be, IMHO, the priority use of available funds.

MAX123

7:04 AM ET

June 23, 2009

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