John Agoglia, retired U.S. Army Colonel and former head of the U.S. Army Peacekeeping & Stability Operations Institute, joins us on Democracy That Delivers with CIPE Senior Program Officer for the Middle East and North Africa, Pamela Beecroft. Agoglia shares his experience working in Iraq setting up interim Iraqi governance conferences, as well as some of the top lessons learned. He discusses the issues of corruption vacuums appearing during sudden transition phases lacking stability, such as during privatization periods. He also discusses the importance of being patient when aiming to provide stable change in developing economies:
“We’re not going to have a solution tomorrow, we have to stay the course. It’s going to take a really long time to implement change and rebuild, but we can’t back out.”