"A fascinating and alarming examination of one of the least explored
trends in American policy: the militarization of foreign aid. As
Hodge powerfully illustrates with a storyteller's eye for detail, time
and again in recent years the American military has been called to a
task it is ill-equipped to perform - nation-building - with disastrous
consequences. In the process, the work of 'bona-fide' civilian
foreign assistance workers has become infinitely more suspect,
complicated and perilous. An indispensable guide for anyone who wises
to understand the terrible price being paid for the outsourcing of
American foreign policy."
-- Scott Anderson, author of The Man Who
Tried to Save the World
"Equal parts inspiring and frustrating, this is a must-read for anyone
seeking to understand U.S. foreign policy."
-- Colleen Mondor,
Booklist
Kirkus Reviews:
"In his fast-moving, well-argued assessment, he warns about a military
stretched too thin, distracted from its primary mission of fighting
and winning wars; about a U.S. treasury strained to the breaking
point; and about the huge and clumsy footprint often left by the new
class of soldier/diplomats. For a civilian readership increasingly
alienated from the culture of its military, Hodge provides an
important guide to what the reformers have wrought."
Publishers Weekly (10/25):
"Hodge (coauthor of
A Nuclear Family Vacation), a journalist
specializing in defense and national security issues, takes a critical
look at the post-9/11 shift in U.S. foreign policy toward nation
building in a timely and balanced account. Drawing upon firsthand
reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan and extensive interviews with key
figures behind the shift, the author traces how the initial failure to
secure Afghanistan and Iraq led to the "military's embrace of
counterinsurgency"--a shift to "armed social work" that blended force
and humanitarianism and became the new face of American foreign
policy. Hodge locates the origins of the new paradigm in the work of
defense intellectuals like Thomas Barnett (The Pentagon's New Map) and
the support of a cadre of military officers, led by Gen. David
Petraeus, who embedded the doctrine in the military's
counterinsurgency manual and oversaw its adoption during the 2007
surge. While acknowledging some tentative successes, the author argues
that nation building detracts from the military's primary mission and
is best left to development and diplomatic agencies. Hodge calls for a
national conversation on the issue of nation building, and his
carefully reported and sprightly written critique is a good place to
begin."
"One of the top young reporters out there, Nathan Hodge wrestles with
the key foreign policy question of our times: How did American foreign
policy get so out of balance and where do we head to next? Perceptive
and informative, Armed Humanitarians weaves strong analysis with
lively stories from the field. If you want to understand the dilemmas
that our soldiers and diplomats face today trying to build stability
in forlorn places that range from Haiti to Afghanistan, read this
book."
--P.W. Singer, author of Wired for War: The Robotics
Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
"Go down the rabbit hole with Nathan Hodge as he takes you through the
military's shiny new world of kinder, gentler warfare. Fascinating,
painfully honest, always interesting and most importantly a milestone
guide to the future of war."
-- Robert Young Pelton, author, The
World's Most Dangerous Places
"A fascinating and important first-hand account of the new American
way of war."
--Sean Naylor, author, Not a Good Day To Die: The Untold
Story of Operation Anaconda
"Drawing on a decade of reporting from nearly every hotspot and
hellhole on the globe, one of America’s savviest defense writers
reveals how the Global War on Terror led to a military transformation
George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld never envisioned in pursuit of a
policy they rejected. Armed Humanitarians takes the reader from
Baghdad to Bagram and Tbilisi to Timbuktu, delivering a boots-eye view
of our new nation-building military -- and an eye-opening look at the
heavy costs in blood and treasure that go with it."
--Richard
Whittle, former Dallas Morning News Pentagon correspondent and author
of The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey
"Hodge deftly and convincingly shows how American 'nation building'
became a mission of 'armed social work.' Essential reading to
understand what went wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the perils
that lie ahead"
--Ken Silverstein, author of The Radioactive Boy
Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor
"An important, timely book: Nathan Hodge, one of the nation’s best
defense reporters, tells a compelling story about U.S. soft power,
showing how military force and humanitarian aid has coalesced during
missions abroad. A must read."
--Tara McKelvey, author of Monstering:
Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the
Terror War