Education is often only examined within a single domain before, during, and after armed conflicts, limiting the use and effectiveness of civil-affairs operations. In this episode, Jason Jabbari discusses a framework of the primary mechanisms across unique domains by which education can serve as a key area of resiliency or vulnerability and addresses the costs, benefits, and potential roles military civil affairs can play in a post-conflict scenario.

Keywords: education, armed conflict, human rights, civil affairs, vulnerabilities and resiliencies

Stephanie Crider (Host)

Welcome to Decisive Point. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and are not necessarily those of the Department of the Army, the US Army War College, or any other agency of the US government.

Jason Jabbari is joining me today. Jabbari is an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and serves as a public education officer at the 353rd Civil Affairs Command, US Army Reserve. He holds a PhD in education from Washington University and a master of education degree in school leadership from Harvard University. Jabbari is the founding director of the Center for Education Research, Practice, and Policy Partnership at Washington University and the faculty director of community engagement at the Clark-Fox Policy Institute.

Welcome to Decisive Point, Dr. Jabbari.

Jason Jabbari

Thanks for having me.

Host

Why should military planners look beyond human capital or economic growth when evaluating a conflict zone’s educational system?

Jabbari

Yeah, that’s a great question. So, we know from research that human capital isn’t enough. We know that educated societies can fall to extreme ideologies. Economic growth doesn’t guarantee [and] democracy doesn’t guarantee stability. We have some examples—especially in our recent past. We could think about the suicide bombers during 9/11, [and] elite institutions, you know, in Nazi Germany. And so, we know that just post-secondary education, years of schooling, and human capital really doesn’t lead to democracy or stability. So, I think we need to adopt a much wider lens to understand how education functions pretty broadly in a society.

Host

You also document how Russia has imposed its curriculum and national identity in occupied territories. How can local civil affairs operations actively counter this specific type of political weaponization of schools?

Jabbari

We have some recent evidence linking education in Ukraine to how Russia is using schools and using students to try to “Russify” different parts of Ukraine. We can think about imposed curriculum, using propaganda to kind of attempt to erase Ukrainian identity, [and] forcing students over 18 as draftees. We can view this as a weaponization of the political domain, right?

School [are] being [used as] an attempt to flip places where democratic socialization can occur into tools of extremism. And, I think that the goal here is to think about how this can be countered. How can democratic education [effect change]? Schools for democracy, youth for democracy, these are programs in Ukraine that have really adapted to wartime with online delivery. And, I think here, you know, for civil affairs, we’re thinking about commanders downrange. And, I think data like this can be used to pinpoint [the fact] that schools may be used for indoctrination or child-soldier recruitment, which might have implications for military engagements.

And so, here, it’s important to note that civil affairs is not just about post-conflict rebuilding. It’s about providing information that battlefield commanders can use, again, or not use. The point here is to provide a broad set of information, and I think the Ukraine example is a good one because it does demonstrate how education is being used, or attempted to be used, by Russia in the current war.

Host

Let’s talk about how Ukraine recently guaranteed free access to preschool education, despite the ongoing war. What makes universal preschool such a powerful tool for rebuilding long-term academic and social resilience in a war-torn country?

Jabbari

We know that preschool drives long-term economic gains, especially for low-income students. It’s a very strong return-on-investment mechanism, right? So, we have some evidence from [an] economist named Jim (James J.) Heckman that essentially shows that the earlier [adults] intervene, the broader and the longer and the stronger the gains are going to be. So here, we can think about early childhood education as investments that can accumulate over time. This is especially important during wars, as parents are often preoccupied.

You can imagine, you know, fathers are fighting in the war. Sometimes mothers are serving as nurses. Places for kids to learn, I think, is going to be really important. Here, quality is key. There’s a universality policy that is really important. We want to make sure that kids have a place to go and learn, which is especially important during wars. We want to make sure that that place to learn has high-quality [education and services]. And so, that was something that the Ukrainian government, you know, really tried to shore up to make sure that early childhood [education] was not only free, but [also] high quality.

Here, it can build intellectual, social-emotional, [and] psychological foundations at once. If you think about this in the long term, this could allow Ukraine to build back better. Investing early builds long-term capacity. It aligns with a strategy for building back better after a conflict.

Host

You mention that broad nation-building efforts are not synonymous with civil affairs engagements. What’s the distinct role of US Army civil affairs in restoring essential services like education?

Jabbari

We kind of think of this in a few different layers and aspects. And so, we have transitional governance. We have civil knowledge integration, network development, and civil-military integration. And so, we can think about civil knowledge integration as collecting and analyzing civil data for operational relevance. You can imagine in Ukraine right now, [civil affairs experts are] thinking about some of the data that helps us understand how that country is going to function, you know, both during the war and after.

For civil network development, you know, this is really trying to engage a broad array of stakeholders. Using the Ukraine example, [civil affairs leaders are] thinking about educators, employers, [and] vocational/educational training institutes, both for the current demands of Ukraine as well as what happens after. Civil-military integration is coordinating military and civilian actors towards unified action. Again, this could involve working with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and governments to shore up schools. And then, [there is] transitional governance. This is a period of advising civil administrations and institutions on key policies post-conflict.

Together, I think these [concepts] are really distinct. They’re targeted goals for civil affairs, which is different than broad nation-building efforts. And here, I would just say that education is really viewed as an essential service. It feeds civil security. It helps establish and maintain rule of law. It can improve cultural relations and economic growth at the same time. And so, we view this as an essential service.

Host

You also talk about how the rentier effect and foreign aid centralization hampered long-term education goals in Afghanistan. How can Ukraine and NATO avoid these same structural failures during post-conflict reconstruction?

Jabbari

From the lessons over the past 20 years, I feel that self-determination is a key lesson to take away. When we looked at some of the things that Ukraine [is] doing currently in their education system—some of their policies, some of their programs, some of their broader efforts—we see a lot of self-determination here, and I think that is going to be key. It both allows the local citizens to trust the leaders that are making these choices and these policies, and it allows them to have a say in how these things unfold over time.

And so, again, I think there’s this balance of self-determination. Also, if they’re able to get advisement, these are things that can be really helpful for a country in the rebuilding phase. But, I think it’s important that self-determination, that lesson we learned over the past 20 years, is carried forward. And so, [when] we think about what Ukraine is doing currently, I think there’s a lot of promise in being able to move that forward in a post-conflict setting.

Host

You are clearly passionate about education and education policy. What inspired you to write this article?

Jabbari

I have spent most of my life in education. So, I was a teacher, I was a school leader. I joined the Army Reserves because they opened up some specialty places. One of those was in education—as part of civil affairs—in their 38-Golf (38G) program. And, I think what inspired me was this idea to really think about education in a much broader way.

You know, I’m a researcher by training, especially over the past 10 years. So, I went from practice now to research. And so, I’m able to step back, look at things, and try to paint a bigger picture. What is …