Author: Anna Oseran
On Wednesday, Oct. 22, Steve Coll ’80 addressed the Occidental community. The event took place in Mosher 1 under the sponsorship of the Marie S. Young International Affairs Lectureship. DWA Professor Derek Shearer presented Coll and moderated the discussion.
Shearer briefly introduced Coll as an alum who attended Oxy with presidential candidate “Barry” Obama. In addition, “[Coll] was a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post for many years,” Shearer said. Coll is also a member of Occidental’s Board of Trustees.
Steve Coll has an extensive post-Oxy track record. He has authored six major books, one of which won a Pulitzer Prize. Coll’s most recent book is entitled The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century.
The first topic of Coll’s talk was “Day One for the Next President.” Coll spent this past summer in Iraq. “I came out with some strong impressions about where things were headed,” he said. Coll discussed U.S. relations with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. “Maliki is looking to maneuver [. . .] to broaden his political influence [in Iraq],” Coll said.
According to Coll, Maliki will be most effective if he broadens his influence and power, while simultaneously maintaining amicable relations with the United States. A moderate approach of this kind will be regarded more charitably by the U.S, according to Coll.
Coll addressed the question of day as one for the next president further, noting that there is going to be a timeline that requires immediate attention and negotiation. Coll qualified this statement. “There’s going to be a very powerful instinct not to take risks during the first year of the new presidency,” he said.
Coll entertained a wide range of student and faculty questions during his talk. A central discussion topic was General Patraeus and his employment of counterinsurgency strategies.
“There are essentially two schools of intellectual thought,” Coll said, referring to the debate over counterinsurgency strategies. He explained that there are those who endorse Patraeus and his approach to counterinsurgency. This approach is expansionistic and, according to some audiences, tinged with neo-colonialism.
The other school of thought encourages a “lighter footprint,” Coll said. According to Coll, thinkers of this variety note that counterinsurgency strategies as employed by Patraeus are expensive and require a cautious hand.
One student asked about potential causes of the rise in insurgency in Afghanistan. Coll responded to this question, noting three essential causes. Weakness of government is a primary contributor to this rise, according to Coll. Under-researched military approaches and instability in Pakistan are additional contributing factors. “Political geography favors the insurgents,” Coll said.
The final question asked in the discussion was in regards to presidential candidate Barack Obama. “To me the big question about his presidency [. . .] is what is cause and effect in the White House,” Coll said. He went on to talk about the critical importance of Obama learning how to exercise judgment in the White House.
Coll’s final note on Obama’s prospective presidency addressed the importance of fortifying social insurance in this country. “The measure of an Obama presidency [. . .] will be whether he can [insure] all of the uninsured Americans,” Coll said.
Steve Coll’s books are available in the bookstore.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
