The leaders of the U.S. earthquake response effort in Haiti say they expect it will be “several weeks” before the effort shifts from a first-response life- support mission to planning for recovery, but when it comes, that phase “will involve all the military and civilian subject-matter experts.”
But a week after the Jan. 12 quake, the answer to how the international reconstruction effort will be led—or even by what country or international body—was unclear. It wasn’t exactly a turf war developing among various interests, but it was the biggest unanswered question in the room, left for resolution after the initial search-and-rescue rush fades into the slow grind of reconstruction.