The new, revised Counterinsurgency Field Manual has been published — and I’m pleased to see that it’s actually incorporated a lot of my work on governance and legitimacy (including a page-and-a-half quote from a report I wrote in 2012, and reference to my PhD thesis)! I think this is the first big-time citation of my […]
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Beyond Lessons Learned: Reengaging the Public about Civilian Capabilities
By Robert D. Lamb ■ Originally published in Stability Operations 9, no. 1 (October 2013) ■ It is easy to find examples of successful stabilization and reconstruction projects: just ask any agency that has funded one and the companies or organizations that implemented it. Or ask those of us who have led independent evaluations of […]
Read more...Measuring Absorptive Capacity (MAC): A New Framework for Estimating Constraints (CSIS brief)
By Robert D. Lamb ■ This policy brief describes a new framework for measuring absorptive capacity in international development, peacebuilding, and stabilization efforts. Absorptive capacity is the form and amount of foreign aid and attention that recipient communities, institutions, or societies can receive without suffering significant social, economic, or political disruptions. Conventional measures of absorptive […]
Read more...MAC: Prototype of a Tool Linking Program Designs and Local Conditions
I spent a good part of last year on a UK-funded project on “absorptive capacity” — which I think too many people in the international development community still think of as “why can’t poor people spend our money better?” Our answer to that, though this research, was basically: “Because we keep asking them to do […]
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