The importance of governance and state-building for stability in post-conflict situations has been recognized widely among the multi and bilateral aid policy-set. This belief is now being shared by the US military strategists according to an article in the NYT . A new US military operations manual reportedly acknowledges that “winning battles and engagements is important but alone not sufficient,” and elevates the stabilization of war-torn nations, making it equally important to defeating enemies on the battlefield.  Apparently the military challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq led to much soul-searching on how to prepare for future conflicts and their aftermaths.