Contact Information
E-mail: andrea.strimling@tufts.edu
Address: Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy
160 Packard Ave.
Medford, MA 02155
Phone: +1.617.384.8072
CV and Bio
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (expected 2010); Master of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (1996); Bachelor of Arts cum laude, Dartmouth College (1988)
Fellowships and Awards
Research Fellow, International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School (2008-Present); Graduate Research Fellow, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (2007-2008); Fulbright Senior Scholar, Rand Afrikaans University, South Africa (2001)
Dissertation
Andrea Strimling's dissertation, “Achieving Coordination: Organizational Structure and Process in Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations and Peacebuilding” seeks to explain how coordination among autonomous actors, including civilian government agencies, military forces, the UN, regional organizations, and NGOs, is achieved in the absence of an overarching coordination authority.
This is both a theory-building and policy-prescriptive dissertation. From a policy perspective, it responds to the urgent need to increase coordination in peacebuilding and stabilization and reconstruction operations. Coordination among the diverse actors and activities that together constitute peacebuilding – security, humanitarian relief, reconstruction, conflict resolution, human rights, and economic and political development – is necessary for effectiveness. However, the substantial investments the US Government, its multilateral partners, the UN, NATO, EU, and NGOs, and others have made to achieve coordination have yielded limited results. Peacebuilding remains fragmented, resulting in inefficiencies, negative interactions between activities, and missed opportunities for synergy. This has undermined effectiveness, with serious consequences for the people living in these societies and for the international community.
Prior research has provided important theoretical foundations for understanding the importance of coordination and the challenges to achieving it. It has not, however, sufficiently addressed a fundamental reality – that coordination by command, as in a fully centralized approach, is not possible when dealing with autonomous actors. Consequently, prior research has not leveraged key insights from organizational or multi-stakeholder negotiation theory regarding how coordination is achieved in the absence of an overarching coordinator. This, in turn, has constrained both research and policy innovation.
The project develops a theoretical model with concrete policy recommendations regarding how peacebuilding coordination can be achieved. The theoretical work – deeply informed by policy and operational experience – is largely complete. The model is now being tested empirically, with a focus on US civil-military coordination in Afghanistan 2002 - 2009. The empirical research involves confidential interviews with senior US diplomats, commanding generals, and policy makers, Afghan officials, multi-national partners, the UN, and NGOs.
Unlike prior coordination research, the project analyzes coordination at and among the policy, strategic, operational, and tactical levels. The project also is unique in its integration of frameworks from organizational and multi-stakeholder negotiation theory, and its use of four results-based indicators to identify and explain coordination. While grounded empirically in civil-military coordination, the dissertation presents an approach that is relevant to broader questions of global governance in which coordination is essential, but nobody is in charge.
Dissertation Committee
Professor Peter Uvin, Academic Dean [website]
Professor Eileen Babbitt [website]
Professor Antonia Chayes [website]
Professional Experience
Consultant and Lead Researcher, US Department of Defense-sponsored projects on stabilization and reconstruction operations, civil-military coordination, strategic planning, education and training, and impact evaluation (2007 – Present); Commissioner, International and Dispute Resolution Services, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (1996 - 2007); Chair, Board of Directors, Alliance for Peacebuilding (2006-2008) and Member, Board of Directors (2002-2006); Adjunct Professor, Clark University, Department of International Development, Community and Environment (2007); Visiting Professor of Political Studies, Rand Afrikaans University, South Africa (as Fulbright Senior Scholar, 2001); Guest lecturer at US Institute of Peace, US Military Academy at West Point, US Foreign Service Institute, US Northern Command, US National Defense University, US Marine Corps University, Harvard University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, Clark University.
Publications
- Strimling, A. (2009). “Negotiation as Meaning Making: A Third Paradigm.” Presented at the International Studies Association Annual Convention.
- Strimling, A. and Allen Nan, S. (Ed.s) (2006). Coordination in Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding: Perspectives from Scholars and Practitioners Involved with the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Special Issue of International Negotiation 11(1).
- Strimling, A. (2006). “Stepping out of the Tracks: Coordination between Official Diplomats and Private Facilitators.” International Negotiation 11(1).
- Allen Nan, S. and Strimling, A. (2006). “Coordination in Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding.” International Negotiation 11(1).
- Allen Nan, S. and Strimling, A. (2003). “Track One – Track Two Cooperation.” Intractable Conflicts Knowledge Base Project (www.beyondintractability.org.)
- Strimling, A. (2002). “Building Capacity for JustPeace: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Training Programs.” Second Track/Citizens’ Diplomacy: Concepts and Techniques for Conflict Transformation. Davies, J. and Kaufman, E. (Eds). Lanham, MD. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
- Strimling, A. (2002). “The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service: A Partner in International Conflict Prevention.” Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal. Malibu, CA. 2(3).
- Austin, J. and Strimling, A. (1996). “Leadership in Action: The Cleveland Turnaround.” Harvard Business School Publishing. Boston, MA.