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Organisations, Innovation and Security in the Twenty-First Century.

Grant reference: RES-071-27-0069

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Journal article details

Campaign disconnect : operational progress and strategic obstacles in Afghanistan, 2009-2011
Success in war depends on alignment between operations and strategy. Commonly, such alignment takes time as civilian and military leaders assess the effectiveness of operations and adjust them to ensure that strategic objectives are achieved. This article assesses prospects for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan. Drawing on extensive field research, the authors find that significant progress has been made at the operational level in four key areas: the approach to counterinsurgency operations, development of Afghan security forces, growth of Afghan sub-national governance and military momentum on the ground. However, the situation is bleak at the strategic level. The article identifies three strategic obstacles to campaign success: corruption in Afghan national government, war-weariness in NATO countries and insurgent safe havens in Pakistan. These strategic problems require political developments that are beyond the capabilities of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). In other words, further progress at the operational level will not bring ‘victory’. It concludes, therefore, that there is an operational-strategic disconnect at the heart of the ISAF campaign.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2011.00973.x
10.1111/j.1468-2346.2011.00973.x
English

Primary contributor

Author Rudra Chaudhuri

Additional contributors

Co-author Theo Farrell

Additional details

87
2
Yes
0020-5850
Blackwell Publishing
01 March 2011
Paperback
271-296
Oxford
Post-print
International affairs

Cite this outcome

Harvard

Chaudhuri, Rudra and Farrell, Theo (2011) Campaign disconnect : operational progress and strategic obstacles in Afghanistan, 2009-2011. International affairs. 87 (2), pp. 271-296 Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Vancouver

Chaudhuri Rudra and Farrell Theo. Campaign disconnect : operational progress and strategic obstacles in Afghanistan, 2009-2011. International affairs 2011; 87 (2): 271-296.