Flash Points : Lessons Learned and Not Learned in Malawi, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan

A compelling, intimate account of how US foreign assistance in war zones and developing countries does not achieve its intended goals.

From the hot savannah of Malawi to the cold, damp gray of Kosovo and into the volatile war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States and other donors have invested enormous financial and human resources in major peacekeeping and development efforts. Why then is the world no closer to being a “better and safer” place? Both a salient critique of US foreign assistance and a thought-provoking memoir, Flash Points describes the issues with personnel, language, and gender dynamics, as well as the cross-cultural challenges that often undermine and betray the best intentions of policy makers comfortably situated in Washington. Revealed in illuminating flashbacks, Jade Wu recalls her experiences in each of these four countries highlighting how, all too often, Americans in the field and the US government were unable to learn the lessons that ought to have been learned when dealing with host countries and their people. The final results were efforts poorly conceived and executed and, ultimately, detrimental to American national interests.

Jade Wu has worked on US foreign assistance projects in Malawi, Kosovo, Germany, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. Her foreign affairs analyses have appeared in a number of publications, including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Hill, Washington Diplomat, and Foreign Policy Journal. She currently lives and practices law in the Washington, DC area.