Carlos Pascual

Carlos Pascual, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, now heads the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, a group organizing reconstruction operations around the world. Naomi Klein's explanation for this group:
 * Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction. Gone are the days of waiting for wars to break out and then drawing up ad hoc plans to pick up the pieces. In close cooperation with the National Intelligence Council, Pascual's office keeps "high risk" countries on a "watch list" and assembles rapid-response teams ready to engage in prewar planning and to "mobilize and deploy quickly" after a conflict has gone down. The teams are made up of private companies, nongovernmental organizations and members of think tanks--some, Pascual told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October, will have "pre-completed" contracts to rebuild countries that are not yet broken. Doing this paperwork in advance could "cut off three to six months in your response time." The plans Pascual's teams have been drawing up in his little-known office in the State Department are about changing "the very social fabric of a nation," he told CSIS. The office's mandate is not to rebuild any old states, you see, but to create "democratic and market-oriented" ones. So, for instance (and he was just pulling this example out of his hat, no doubt), his fast-acting reconstructors might help sell off "state-owned enterprises that created a nonviable economy." Sometimes rebuilding, he explained, means "tearing apart the old."

"Mr. Carlos Pascual (USA) is the Vice-President and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. Before joining the Brookings Institution, Mr. Pascual served as Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilisation at the U.S. Department of State where he led and coordinated U.S. government planning to help stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict or civil strife."


 * Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Group, UN Peace Building Fund

Professional History

 * US Ambassador to Ukraine (2000 to 2003)
 * Department of State – Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia