The Challenge of Nation-Building

Rebecca Patterson is an assistant professor at the National Defense University and an active duty lieutenant colonel in the United States Army whose specialty is Strategic Plans and Policy. She was a Strategic Advisor in the Commander¿s Initiatives Group, Headquarters, International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan. She also served as Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, where she worked at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and at the World Bank. Her previous military assignments include: Deputy, Director's Initiatives Group, Department of the Army Office of Business Transformation; Staff Officer, Department of the Army Office of Institutional Adaptation; economic advisor to the 1st Armored Division (MND-N) while deployed to Iraq; command of an Army mechanized engineer unit in South Korea; platoon leader and executive officer at Fort Lewis, Washington where she supervised construction projects in Thailand. Patterson also served as an assistant professor of economics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY (2006-2009) and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.