Today I should be reachable for much of the afternoon. (How to contact me)

I’ll be in meetings for part of today—what promises to be a long weekly staff meeting, followed by an event on Venezuela here at WOLA–and then some time to focus on writing.

I’ll be redrafting an upcoming commentary explaining the current rise in coca cultivation in Colombia. The piece strongly recommends against turning back to the past and ratcheting up the drug war, perhaps with a return to aerial herbicide fumigation. The Colombian government has a plan to deal with the problem–it’s a big section of the FARC peace accord. We should give that plan a chance, but take a “trust but verify” attitude because Colombia’s government has a spotty record at implementing big plans. (I’m being charitable here with “spotty.”)

Along with my staff, I’ll also be editing the 109 program descriptions that make up a new guide to U.S. military aid programs. It’s nearly done: everything but the introduction is written. You can see the unedited text of this guide as a searchable, sortable resource: it’s a new section of my Defense Oversight database, at a URL we haven’t publicized. Edits, an introduction, moving the entire database to a permanent home at WOLA’s web domain, and we’re done.

Then, during the evening sometime, it’s supposed to start snowing. Current forecast is 6-10 inches, which is enough to guarantee everything will be closed here in Washington on Tuesday. Maybe Wednesday too.