Sarah Chayes (born March 5, 1962) is a former senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former reporter for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from othe ...

, she also served as special advisor to the

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the presiding officer of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The chairman is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces Chairman: a ...

Background

Sarah Chayes is the daughter of the late law professor and

Kennedy administration John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States, began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 pr ...

member

Abram Chayes Abram Chayes (July 18, 1922 – April 16, 2000) was an American scholar of international law closely associated with the administration of John F. Kennedy. He is best known for his "legal process" approach to international law, which attempted ...

and lawyer and former

Undersecretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is ...

of the U.S. Air Force Antonia Handler Chayes. She is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent. She graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover (1980) and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1984) with a degree in History, magna cum laude. She was awarded the

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

History Prize. She then served in the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...

in Morocco, returning to Harvard to earn a master's degree in History, specializing in the Medieval Islamic period. Besides English, she speaks

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...

, French, and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

Career

Chayes began her reporting career freelancing from Paris for ''The Christian Science Monitor Radio'' and other outlets. From 1996 to 2002, she served as Paris reporter for

, covering France, the European Union, North Africa, and the Balkans. She earned 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards (together with other members of the NPR team) for her reporting on the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the w ...

. After covering the fall of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...

and the early weeks of post-Taliban Afghanistan, in 2002 Chayes decided to leave reporting and stay behind to try to contribute to the rebuilding of the war-torn country. Chayes lived in

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the ca ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

from 2002 to 2009. Having learned to speak

, she helped rebuild homes and set up a dairy cooperative. In May 2005, she established the ''Arghand Cooperative'', a venture that encourages local Afghan farmers to produce flowers, fruits, and herbs instead of opium poppies. The cooperative buys their almonds, pomegranate seeds, cumin and anise and artemisia and root dyes, extracts oils, essential oils, and tinctures from them, with which it produces soaps and other scented products for export. The cooperative is an associate member of the Natural Perfumers Guild. Chayes wrote an article detailing the story of the Arghand cooperative and her difficulties with the American aid establishment, which appeared in the December 2007 issue of ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. Since leaving full-time radio reporting, she has been a frequent contributor to the print media, contributing to ''

Foreign Policy Magazine A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through m ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', and the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', among other outlets. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace maintains an archive of her writings. Chayes has been a guest on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

's ''

Bill Moyers Journal ''Bill Moyers Journal'' was an American television current affairs program that covered an array of current affairs and human issues, including economics, history, literature, religion, philosophy, science, and most frequently politics. Bill Mo ...

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Terri Gross Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of ''Fresh Air'', an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NPR in ...

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's Leonard Lopate,

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politic ...

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (, ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special e ...

(as recently as October 20, 2017),

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co- ...

, and others have also interviewed her.

Advisor to Joint Chiefs of staff

In 2010, Chayes became a special adviser to the

chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the presiding officer of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The chairman is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces Chairman: a ...

, Admiral

Mike Mullen Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documenta ...

. In this capacity, she contributed to strategic US policy on

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, and the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Sarah Chayes is a senior fellow in Carnegie's Democracy and Rule of Law program. At Carnegie, Chayes has launched a corruption and security initiative, which analyzes the structure of kleptocratic governments around the world, the other risk factors with which public corruption is interacting in specific countries, the likelihood of a significant security event resulting, and potential approaches available to different local and international actors. She conducts significant field research on this topic, hosts speakers and workshops, both in the U.S. and in relevant countries, and speaks and writes frequently.

Books and other works

Chayes is the author of ''The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban'' (2006) and ''Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security'' (2014); as well as ''On Corruption in America: and What Is at Stake'' (2020). In January 2009, Chayes wrote ''Comprehensive Action Plan for Afghanistan'', an analysis of the dilemma in Afghanistan ca. 2009 and a plan for its resolution. In a 2011 op-ed published in the ''

'', Chayes decried the "rampant public corruption" in Afghanistan, asserting that the country "is controlled by a structured, mafiaesque system, in which money flows upward via purchase of office, kickbacks or 'sweets' in return for permission to extract resources ... and protection". In a 2012 op-ed piece published in the ''

'', Chayes argued that the controversial '' Innocence of Muslims'' video may not be protected under the U.S. Constitution's

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

free speech guarantees. Her op-ed argued that speech deliberately tailored in content and manner to provoke a violent reaction differs from speech that is merely offensive. In the 06 Oct 2021 edition of BBC-radio's "Thinking Allowed" (on post-occupation Afghanistan) Chayes was damning of the corrupt example of 'democracy' set by the U.S.A. for Afghans and others to follow. (From 25m.00s) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00108bj

References

External links

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Listening

Sarah Chayes interview
by ''Bill Moyers on PBS'', February 22, 2008

on ''Bill Moyers' Journal,'' December 19, 2008
Sarah Chayes interview
by Terri Gross on ''Fresh Air'' /WHYY/NPR, February 4, 2009
Sarah Chayes interview
by Charlie Rose, May 8, 2009
Sarah Chayes interview
from ''Democracy Now!'', October 10, 2006
Sarah Chayes interview
by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, June 29, 2009
Sarah Chayes interview
by Jane Lindholm, Vermont Public Radio, November 16, 2009
Sarah Chayes interview
by Leonard Lopate on WNYC, April 12, 2010
Sarah Chayes interview
by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, October 20, 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chayes, Sarah American radio reporters and correspondents NPR personalities American emigrants to Afghanistan Peace Corps volunteers American cooperative organizers Harvard College alumni 1962 births Living people Phillips Academy alumni 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American expatriates in Morocco American women non-fiction writers American women radio journalists Jewish American journalists