How a former USAID staffer created a network of security experts

In early March, peace and security strategist Kevin Melton received notice that his division at the U.S. Agency for International Development was going to be cut — and with it, his job. He’d been working several stints at its Office of Transition Initiative, or OTI, since 2009, designing and managing stabilization strategies for conflict-affected states and serving in countries such as Afghanistan, Kuwait, and South Sudan. During the first Trump administration, Melton had been brought in to help start up USAID’s Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization. Given the bureau’s work was closely tied to national security and foreign policy, he had hoped his team would be safe from this year’s cuts. But it became clear that “USAID was going down completely [and] if they’re not going to save OTI, they weren’t going to save anything.” That weekend, during his kids’ naptime, Melton drafted the business plan for what would become Pax Strategies, the risk analysis consulting firm he later launched. He was sitting on two decades of lessons learned on how to engage with the military in development work. “We used to have USAID people sit next to four-star commanders. … That’s gone now [and] pretty much why Pax exists.” From idea to business The following Monday, Melton got a call from Rick Morgan, a former USAID conflict-analytics lead who had also been laid off. Morgan added some ideas to the business proposal, then they brought on board Ami Morgan, a former director at the Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization, and Angela Greenwald, a retired U.S. Army Civil Affairs officer and former USAID senior adviser. What they created is best described as a network — or bullpen, as Melton calls it — of experts on stand by to provide strategic advisory services to governments, commodity companies, private-sector clients, and international organizations in peacebuilding, conflict management, and investment more broadly. “We don’t want to be an implementer. We want to be strategic advisors,” Melton said. The team has extensive experience developing local networks, meaning they can access basically any country or community in an hour — “I tell people we’re only two phone calls away from any taxi driver, anywhere on Earth.” He believes their unique network of contacts in difficult-to-reach and conflict-affected areas, including Foreign Service Nationals on the ground, makes Pax’s services attractive to public- and private sector partners alike. Building a home for security talent One of the biggest drivers behind Pax was to create a network for the security experts who had lost their jobs, including Melton himself. The roster currently consists of over 80 experts covering some 125 countries and technical areas, such as security, finance, civil-military operations, and environmental, social, and governance, or ESG. The USAID shutdown was “an unprecedented moment happening with an unprecedented amount of talent that had just been told you don't matter to the U.S. government anymore,” but Melton saw the importance of preserving the security sector’s expertise. While most of the experts on the roster are still working on a voluntary basis as Pax Strategies secures more projects and funding, Melton is positive about its potential. “These are skill sets that are very demanded. … This isn’t about profit seeking. We want to get people jobs and make sure that our work still continues in one way, shape, or form,” he said. Melton’s current day-to-day consists of following up with the 50 leads that he’s cultivated since Pax Strategies officially launched in July, which includes unexpected opportunities in areas such as youth entrepreneurship and climate finance. He believes Pax Strategies can help donors such as the Green Climate Fund direct more investment to fragile contexts, noting that these areas often need it most yet receive very little climate funding. Pax Strategies is also building a data-driven platform that will be able to measure risk across 71 commodities, such as cobalt and cocoa. By analyzing export volatility, macroeconomic resilience, and supply chain vulnerabilities, the platform — which uses machine-learning, climate models, macroeconomic data, and satellite imagery — will provide everyone from donors to investors with a better understanding of fragility in conflict-affected states. Additionally, Pax Strategies draws on political economy and social analysis to understand specific risks. Working together in uncertain times Pax Strategies is not the only consultancy firm to emerge from the USAID closure — others, such as The Meridian Guild, The Solarium Group, and Veridicor, are also looking for a piece of the shrinking pie. But rather than competing, these firms come together monthly to find ways to leverage their niche expertise and collaborate. “What we’re seeing in Washington is a consolidation across our industry at the moment, and creating new things risks stealing from somebody else’s plate. … So why don’t we find ways where we can do it together?” Melton said. It hasn’t been as easy to work with people in the U.S government as they first thought, nor with some other governments, given that Pax Strategies is a U.S. company, but emerging donor countries are showing an interest, Melton explained. Many of these countries still lack the capabilities to do development work in very complex security environments — and that’s where he sees Pax Strategies stepping in. For anyone else considering the entrepreneurship route, Melton stressed the importance of having savings and a plan in place. First, write a business plan because if you can’t see where your market and your funding are coming from in the first year, then it’s really hard, Melton advised. Second, don’t underestimate the time and effort you’ll have to spend on strategic communications and just making yourself known, he added.