Post-Conflict Potter

Sadly, most Americans don't give a whit about what happens beyond our shores. Foreign policy? B-O-R-I-N-G. And most would choose a five-hour root canal session (without anesthesia if need be) than learn about US policy options in "post-conflict reconstruction."

But taking a page from the J.K. Rowling playbook, the gang at Foreign Policy magazine devised an ingenius way to discuss this weighty topic. They begin with the tagline: "Voldemort's dead, but the struggle's not over."

It begins: "At last, the long war against Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters has been brought to a responsible end. A short time ago, just a small band of brave witches and wizards at Hogwarts School stood between the dark forces and their ascension to power. Now their evil leader is dead, his armies are scattered, and the wizarding world can begin to recover from the terror they inflicted. ... But if history teaches us anything (consider the bitter legacy still lingering from the 17th-century Goblin Wars or the recent experience of American Muggles in Iraq and Afghanistan), it is that the defeat of Voldemort by Harry Potter may have been the easy part. Indeed, one might even say it was child's play. The hard work of postwar stabilization still lies ahead."

Amazingly, FP writing team stays in character throughout the entire piece. ("Members of Voldemort's inner circle and others guilty of the worst crimes -- the unforgivable curses of killing ('Avada Kedavra'), torture ('Crucio'), and mind control ('Imperio') -- should be prosecuted before a court of law. We should reject calls by Order of the Phoenix hard-liners like Joe Lieberbottom, John 'Mad Eye' McCain, and Lindsey Gramger to instead detain them without charge as 'unlawful enemy spell-casters'.) Riffing off an actual treatise ("Toward Postconflict Reconstruction") by former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre and retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, they delve into security, governance and participation, urgent social and economic needs, and justice and reconciliation. It's a tour de force of wit. Nearly reading like a Potter book, it's a great way to bone up on the issues we face in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Bravo.