Report: It’s time for State’s South Asia bureau and the Af-Pak office to make up and get back together

Posted By Josh Rogin Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 7:05 PM Share

When the late Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) Richard Holbrooke created the SRAP office at the State Department, he took a big chunk of the authority and staff from the Bureau of South and Central Asia (SCA). But now that he's gone and the Afghanistan war is maybe, possibly, starting to wind down, the two bureaus should move toward a reunion, the State Department's Inspector General said in a new report released today.

"Communications between SCA and S/SRAP have not been as effective as they could be," the report stated. "With a likely transition of the [Afghanistan and Pakistan] desks and other S/SRAP responsibilities back to SCA in the next several years, SCA needs to begin to be more broadly engaged in or aware of S/SRAP programs and activities that it may inherit at that time."

When Holbrooke entered the Obama administration, he hired 28 staffers -- none of them from SCA --and then told SCA that the bureau no longer had any control over Afghanistan or Pakistan and its current Af-Pak staffers now worked for him. The Nelson Report's Chris Nelson described a February 2009 meeting, which he dubbed the "Grand Confrontation," in which Holbrooke beat down attempts by then-SCA Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher to hold on to his Af-Pak personnel.

"At a summit in Boucher's office with the assembled DAS's [deputy assistant secretaries], et al, Boucher said something to the effect, ‘As you know, you work for me, and you will continue to report TO me, is that clear?'" Nelson reported. "Holbrooke, not looking at Boucher, responded directly to the stunned staffers with, ‘What part of 'you will report directly to ME did you NOT understand?', and there the meeting ended."

Boucher left later that year to become deputy secretary general of the OSCE and was replaced by Robert Blake.

With the looming figure of Holbrooke gone, SRAP's activities, now guided by Marc Grossman, have been pared down. The office has been directed to focus on Afghan reconciliation, which apparently isn't going well. The report often mentions that the key official in charge of coordinating between SRAP and SCA is a Deputy SRAP who is dual-hatted as a DAS in SCA; that's Frank Ruggiero.

The coordination between SRAP and SCA has actually gotten worse since Holbrooke's death, according to the Inspector General. For example, SRAP and SCA hold their weekly meetings at the same time, so nobody can attend both, and SRAP involvement in SCA work has trailed off.

"The flow of communication between SCA and S/SRAP is inadequate, as is SCA's awareness of S/SRAP programs and activities in such areas as strategic communications and regional economic issues," the report said.

But the report treats the eventual incorporation of SRAP back into SCA as inevitable, and advises both sides to start preparing for it.

"When the transition takes place, SCA's awareness of S/SRAP programs and activities will be essential for continuity. To meet its responsibilities, SCA - particularly the bureau's DASes and office directors - will need to be aware of and participate in appropriate S/SRAP meetings and events."

EXPLORE:AFGHANISTAN, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, PAKISTAN, STATE DEPARTMENT

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NATIVIDAD DARCANGELO

7:16 AM ET

August 17, 2011

It’s time for both of them

Steeped in the culture and politics of Aghanistan after working on the civilian effort there for over a year, Ruggiero was named the acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan by the State Department in the wake of Richard Holbrooke's sudden death in December 2010. In February 2011, Marc Grossman was named to permanently replace Holbrooke, but Ruggiero continues in a key role on the Afpak team. Ruggiero returned to Washington in April 2010 to lend his expertise to Holbrooke and help craft Afpak policy. Previously the top civilian official in southern Afghanistan, Ruggiero helped execute what Obama administration officials call the "civilian uplift" - a dramatic increase in the number of non-military experts working on aid and reconstruction projects in the country and helped Afghan leaders deliver social services.

DOYLE PRAML

7:22 AM ET

August 17, 2011

For concerness

By installing Ruggiero as Holbrooke's deputy, the administration hoped to tap directly into Ruggiero's on-the-ground expertise as Afghanistan reconstruction plans became central to U.S. policy in the region. "Ruggiero should be able to provide Holbrooke, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Obama with ground-truth visibility on the difficulties and possibilities of fostering credible, deliverable governance for Afghans in the south, a centerpiece of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan," reporter Spencer riley steele Ackerman wrote. A respected career civil servant, Ruggiero has worked for both the State and Commerce departments. Before being dispatched to Afghanistan in 2009, he was head of the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

AXELBROOK

10:34 AM ET

August 19, 2011

The Crusades lasted into the

The Crusades lasted into the 16th century, if you very liberal in defining the term. The U.S gained its Independence two hundred years later. RIO I doubt the Native Americans had much of an opinion on the mater..