In the book "Engineering Peace: The Military Role in Post-Conflict Reconstruction," Colonel Garland Williams analyzes the post-conflict reconstruction gap in three case studies—Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan—and shows how military engineering brigades accompanying peacekeeping contingents can be put to use immediately after the conflict ends to restore vital infrastructure and social institutions. In the book's concluding chapter, Williams proposes changes in U.S. national security decision making to integrate military engineering brigades into post-conflict reconstruction, thus making U.S. military officials less wary of "mission creep" and nation-building.

Over the years the functional gap between peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction has received a lot of attention because it remains the most troubled phase of peace operations. Due primarily to the transition in leadership from a predominately military to a civilian-led mission, tasks that are essential to maintaining the momentum towards a stable and secure society fall into the transition abyss. With no clean cut handoff between these phases, those whose responsibility it is to carry out functions that could very well expedite the transition to peace on the ground face a variety of challenges. The speakers addressed these challenges that complicate this transition and offer their own experience-based insights on some "best practices."

Speakers

• Colonel Garland Williams, U.S. Army, Former Institute Senior Fellow
• Paul Hughes
  Iraq Program Officer, Peace and Stability Operations, U.S. Institute of Peace;
  Colonel (ret.) U.S. Army, former Director of National Security Policy
• Dana Eyre
  Office of Iraq Reconstruction, U.S. Agency for International Development;
  former Senior Policy Advisor to the UN Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General, Kosovo Mission
• Daniel Serwer
  Director, Peace and Stability Operations and Balkans Initiative
  U.S. Institute of Peace, Moderator

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