Sarah Chayes

“In the end, none of our election recommendations was implemented. Afterward I asked ISAF’s intelligence chief, General Michael Flynn—among the most sympathetic…

— Sarah Chayes

Corruption is a fact of life in America as in Afganistan, but as American citizens, if we are white, we tend to…

— Sarah Chayes

“In other words, development resources passed through a corrupt system not only reinforced that system by helping to fund it but also…

— Sarah Chayes

“The U.S. civilian leadership was shirking its responsibility to develop a high-level strategic approach to the most significant political and diplomatic challenge…

— Sarah Chayes

“Criticizing the “corrupt, questionable, and unqualified leaders [placed] into key positions,” the argument rested on the principle of command responsibility: “The international…

— Sarah Chayes

“The analysis in this book does not just apply to the extreme cases it has examined, where the whole of government has…

— Sarah Chayes

“Our questioning—again echoing Ghazali—of the likely impact of development efforts (“prosperity,” in his formula) also flew in the face of received wisdom.…

— Sarah Chayes

“Corruption, it made plain, was not solely a humanitarian affair, an issue touching on principles or values alone. It was a matter…

— Sarah Chayes

I know it sounds old-fashioned to say we're too materialistic in the West, but happiness does not derive exclusively from things, and…

— Sarah Chayes

“His brother Najib owned an auto-parts store at bustling Shikarpur Gate, the mouth of the narrow road linking their village to the…

— Sarah Chayes

“In light of their views on the organization of society and political economy, Westerners, especially Americans, can be separated into two basic…

— Sarah Chayes

“Corruption is usually classified as a humanitarian aid problem, to be handled by donor agencies, not mainstreamed into overall foreign and defense…

— Sarah Chayes

In countries like Afghanistan, the corruption is in your face. In Nigeria, I heard of judges making sex the bargaining chip rather…

— Sarah Chayes