Nathaniel Myers is no longer with the Carnegie Endowment.
Nathaniel Myers was a visiting scholar in Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule of Law program. His research focuses on the intersection of American foreign assistance and foreign policy, and the efforts of the U.S. Agency for International Development to advance short-term strategic and security objectives.
He previously worked in the Office of Transition Initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2011 to 2014, directing its post-conflict program in Sri Lanka, managing its program in Yemen, and helping to develop and guide new and existing programs in Southeast Asia, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Between 2007 and 2009, Myers consulted for the World Bank in Ethiopia and Indonesia on governance and anti-corruption initiatives, designing new programs and undertaking analytical projects. Prior to that, he developed and managed grants in Indonesia’s Aceh province for the Asia Foundation, advised a coalition of local NGOs in Cambodia in its preparations for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, and studied patterns of judicial and police misconduct for the UN Mission of Support in East Timor. In 2004 he served as a deputy regional political director for the Kerry-Edwards campaign.
Myers is also an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. He has written for a range of leading outlets including the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, Foreign Policy, and Virginia Quarterly Review.
While Washington’s reliance on existing aid systems and structures is administratively and politically convenient, it reduces strategic effectiveness and undercuts long-term development efforts.
The U.S. government has some very good ideas about how to apply civilian tools to help stabilize fragile states and staunch the spread of extremism more effectively. The problem is not a lack of insight or strategic direction—the problem is in the execution.
The U.S. government certainly needs civilian tools to advance its short-term interests in these difficult environments, but continuing to retrofit or cannibalize long-term USAID programs imperils both its short- and long-term security strategy.
