C.V. Starr Lecture II

State-building and the Interplay Between U.S. and Local Institutions: Lessons from Iraq with speaker Jeremiah S. Pam, Esq., Former U.S. Treasury Financial Attaché in Iraq.

  • Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008
  • Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
  • Location: Wellington Conference Center (5th floor of the Building)
  • Contact: Michael Rhee at (212) 431-2865. You may also send an e-mail to mrhee@nyls.edu
  • Click here for registration materials: There is no charge for this lecture. But registration is still required.

Since the U.S. intervention in 2003 and the transfer of sovereignty in 2004, the United States has made an extraordinary commitment of civilian resources—including the expenditure of billions of dollars—to the non-military state-building effort in Iraq. But progress toward the establishment of a functioning and sustainable Iraqi state has been fitful and uneven at best. What lessons should we draw from the U.S. civilian experience in Iraq for future state-building endeavors?

Much of the commentary to date has focused on early U.S. policy mistakes in Iraq and on Iraqi political and religious conflicts. However, Jeremiah S. Pam argues that a significant and underappreciated element limiting the effectiveness of U.S. state-building efforts in Iraq has been the institutional dynamic between U.S. agencies involved (such as the State Department, Agency for International Development, and Treasury Department) and Iraq’s own civilian agencies and administrative structure.

Drawing on firsthand experiences with Iraq from multiple perspectives from 2003 to 2008, Pam will illustrate, during his C.V. Starr Lecture, how a closer look at these institutional and legal dynamics can shed new light on both the intrinsic challenges of state-building, as well as the policy and organizational changes that would make future efforts more effective. He will also discuss the implications of this analysis for American foreign policy.

Jeremiah S. Pam is a visiting research scholar at the Center for Economies and Conflict at the U.S. Institute of Peace. From May 2006 to May 2007, Pam served as the U.S. Treasury Financial Attaché in Baghdad, where he was the senior Treasury official in Iraq and led the U.S. Embassy’s financial diplomacy and policy efforts. In March and April 2008 in Iraq, Pam helped to conduct a nationwide assessment of Iraqi governance and U.S. governance assistance efforts. Previously, he was an international finance lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York, where he advised governments—including Iraq—and international financial institutions on sovereign debt restructuring. Pam holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, an M.A. in Political Science from Columbia University, and an A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard College.