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Leaving Gaza
By: David Holdridge Stripped of the usual polemics and accompanying rhetoric, here, in the wake of Operation Pillar of Defense, an American humanitarian worker tries to give a citizen's perspective...
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Right Relations in the 21st Century
By: David Holdridge “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for...
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The Hegemon at the Crossroads
By: David Holdridge As the US presidential election looms, David Holdridge argues that Washington must make some fundamental changes if it is to be relevant to the new global dynamic, particularly in...
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Central Asia: Trending to 2025
By: Will Lynch Even as Asia has been booming, the Arab world awakened and Africa now rising, Russia's "near abroad" is now on the ropes. The expectations following Independence have been dashed. Here...
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Beirut: "An Army Charging Upon the Land"
By: David Holdridge As the Syrian Civil War disrupts Lebanon's perpetually precarious military and political balance, we are urged to listen carefully to the rumours and prophecies of a Lebanese...
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Realpolitik: From the Palace to the Street
By: David Holdridge The enduring languor of the American economy, the disillusionment with nation building, and the increasingly participative nature of governance in the Arab world are challenging...
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Fear and Faith in Paradise: Exploring Conflict and Religion in the Middle...
From life along the Tigris River in the 1970s to the ongoing Arab Spring uprisings, Phil Karber has witnessed decades of change throughout the Middle East. Fear and Faith in Paradise draws on his...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 13
By: David Holdridge Leaving Iraq – February, 2006 I had wanted to stay past the end of 2005 when the permanent government would be elected. We all knew that the Sunnite insurgents and Al Qaeda...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 12
By: David Holdridge The Avant Garde: How we left Iraq... It was the summer of 2005 and for the time being a group of us humanitarian workers had found an acceptable security situation in Khanaqin, a...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 11
By: David Holdridge From Hanoi to Baghdad. The Avant Garde of Western Civ. Later on, that year, there were a growing number of Op-eds and other such analyses that were comparing Iraq to Vietnam and...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 10
By: David Holdridge An Increasingly Lonely Pursuit – March 2005 As Spring approached I had left my assignment in Iraq, briefly, to attend an NGO (Non Governmental Organization) meeting in Amman,...
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New Book Reveals Gross Mismanagement of US Funding in Afghanistan
By: Bridging the Divide Here is a stirring account of how America's intent to win hearts and minds through official largesse backfires - terribly. no read more
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 9
By: David Holdridge Green Zone: February, 2005 Co-incidentally there was a meeting of the minds (mine and the donors) that this was an appropriate and historic time for me to go to the Green Zone to...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 8
By: David Holdridge The Election By January of 2005, the whole world was watching the great presumption of George W. Stumbling though the process had been - at times like a drunken sailor - through...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 7
By: David Holdridge R and R - December 2004: San Sebastian, Spain The road back, I suspected, would be tough. I had told my wife that I only had about one more of these assignments in me - maybe two....
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 6
By: David Holdridge Relocation – April, 2004 There are only a few months when the weather is pleasant in South Central - when one's brain is not starting to boil from the heat or when one is not...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 5
By: David Holdridge South Central, Iraq: January 2004 January in Kut was dismal. There was no infrastructure for draining the black water which covers the town during the rains and the hardscrabble...
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“Nothing really made it easy except that things got complicated”: the story...
By: Jenny Hodgson (Global Fund for Community Foundations) The Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF) interviewed Marwa El-Daly, founder of the Waqfeyat al Maadi Community Foundation (WMCF),...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 4
By: David Holdridge Kuwait – September, 2003 no read more
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I Know That I Know Nothing
By: Rosa Brooks After the Arab Spring, Western nations rushed to aid the newly empowered revolutionaries. But even a sincere commitment cannot compensate for a lack of knowledge. Aid without...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 3
By: David Holdridge Baghdad – April 2003 I decided that since Baghdad was now occupied by the Yanks, it no longer made sense to rush in the two symbolic relief trucks. Their entry into the mess would...
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Controlling the Narrative: Part 2
By: David Holdridge Amman, Jordan: March 2003 Twelve years later, after almost a decade of following the war in the Balkans east from Zagreb to Belgrade, culminating afterward with a rather...
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War, What is it Good For?
By: Greg Tuke Does it never strike you as puzzling that it is wicked to kill one person, but glorious to kill ten thousand?”-Lewis Richardson, Historian no read more
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Public diplomacy: A Higher Calling For Public Relations
By: John Paluszek It is not hyperbolic to say it:Public relations professionals now have an epic opportunity to serve the global society and thereby win new appreciation of our profession. In fact,...
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Planning - Science or Shibboleth?
By: Sarah Grant "Every complexity, we are told, is the process of evolution. Yet our development planners seem to think that they can do better...that they can create complex things at one throw by...
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US Ambassador to Iraq Jim Jeffrey Recognizes Moaffak Al Khafaji on...
By: Bridging the Divide On December 3rd, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the US Embassy in Baghdad hosted a celebration to honor key leaders in the Iraqi disability community in...
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On the Competence of the Egyptian Military: What Road Building Teaches Us...
By: John Harris There’s a reason why engineering companies build roads, why politicians govern, and why militaries run wars. It’s because these are complex, specialized, tasks, not to be undertaken...
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Commission on Wartime Contracting Reveals Large-scale Government Waste
By: Bridging the Divide Former Congressional Representative Christopher Shays, who most recently served as a Co-Chair on the bi-partisan Commission on Wartime Contracting, discusses the results of...
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Tunis, New York and Other “Occupied” Cities: Neighbors in the Newly-Aroused...
By: John Paluszek Note: This article originally appeared as a blog post for the Foreign Policy Association no read more
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Smart Power and the Disabled
By: David Holdridge As we look forward to America’s role and responsibility as Hegemon in the 21st century, we can assume three essential components of smart power as it seeks to frame the diverse...
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Disability and the Gender Factor in South Central Iraq
By: Karen Saba "Hey - there you go, a Down Syndrome girl pushing the gender agenda" no read more
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Hope for Iraq's Future Prevails Despite Government's Lack of Progress
By: Ibn Al Rafidain Most Iraqis are no doubt wishing to raise their country from its collapse and are keen on maintaining the unity of its land and people. Conversely, there are only a few from this...
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Foreign Relations - Not Smart Yet
By: David Holdridge On September 9th, in remembrance of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Secretary of State Clinton, in an address at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, chose to emphasize the...
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A More Effective Approach to Solving the World's Issues
By: Bridging the Divide no read more
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A Crippled Oil Industry Has Bought Libya Time - Use it Wisely
By: Nick Lewandowski The rapid collapse of the Qaddafi regime left the Libyan oil industry in chaos. The country’s oil derricks and pipelines, which sit atop Africa’s largest oil reserves, have been...
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New Film Explores Promise and Uncertainty of Egypt's Revolution
By: Reem Morsi “Their Feast” tells the story of the very recent history of Egypt. The film starts with the youngest child, 7 year old, Yahya, waking up his mother very early in the morning in...
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Foreign Assistance: Time for a Change (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
By: David Holdridge (The following article was originally published on August 31, 2011 on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog) no read more
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A Kilometer in Ahmed’s Shoes
By: Nick Lewandowski Albert Einstein’s favorite way of approaching difficult problems was with his imagination—“thought experiments,” to be precise. The theory of relativity was developed in part by...
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Conceptualizing People with Disabilities for Implementing Inclusive Relief...
By: Karen Saba no read more
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Congressman Frank Wolf in Iraq
By: Bridging the Divide The Congressman shares his remembrances of BtD's David Holdridge and Mercy Corps in his new book, Prisoner of Conscience. The following excerpt describes his visit to Al Kut,...
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New Documentary Provokes Debate on Israel-Palestine Conflict
By: Elena Buryan The screening of Israel vs Israel documentary took place in East Jerusalem only days before the application of the State of Palestine for admission to membership in the United...
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The Courage of Our Convictions: U.S. Opportunity in Mideast, Africa Turmoil
By: John Paluszek If the United States has the courage of its democratic convictions – and patience -- the revolutionary turmoil in the Middle East and Africa presents an epic opportunity for sharing...
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Drones: From the Arcade to the Arsenal
By: David Holdridge As new technologies change the way war is waged, important new 'sociologies' emerge - both within the nations inventing and using the new weapons and among those upon whom they...
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America and Qatar: Amazing Bedfellows
By: David Holdridge David Holdridge, a frequent visitor to Qatar over the past decade, argues that sooner rather than later the US will realize that it should distance itself from the autocracies of...
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Syria: All the King's Horses...
By: David Holdridge David Holdridge, who was awarded permission by the Syrian Government in 2008 to set up a Relief and Development office in Damascus, warns of the untoward outcomes of US...
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Sequestration: Perhaps a Silver Lining for US Foreign Assistance
By: Sarah Moulton New technologies and civil society engagement can provide better results through foreign assistance from the US to the Middle East. yes read more
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