Though advisers to host governments have become an integral part of foreign-assistance efforts in the realms of both development and peace processes, there has been scant information on how they can best achieve their goals. What skills, tools, and attributes do successful advisers need? How can they best share their expertise with their foreign counterparts in ways that build local capacities and contribute to sustainable solutions?

Filling the lacunae, Nadia Gerspacher's welcome handbook offers practical, step-by-step guidance for any adviser joining an assistance mission tasked with effective and long-lasting local capacity building.

Nadia Gerspacher is director of security sector education at the United States Institute of Peace, where she manages a wide range of capacity-building projects as well as programs that prepare advisers to deploy on capacity-building missions.