Military Review English Edition January-February 2014 | Page 72
Provincial chief of police for Bamyan addresses students from Afghan civil and military units attending a combined emergency close air support
course facilitated by the Bamyan PRT, February 2013. Healthy cooperation among the coalition, interagency, and intergovernmental stakeholders working within the host nation sets a best practice example for them to emulate. (Squadron Leader H ight, RNZAF).
would fail to grasp the importance of other
phases. However, activities such as foreign
internal defense, mentoring, and security force
assistance—which play an important role in a host
nation’s long-term success—must be conducted
in the shape, stabilize, and enable civil authority phases (phases 0, IV, and V). These activities
are becoming the purview not only of the special
operations community, but also of general purpose
forces. Increased training emphasis on activities
in phases 0, IV, and V will set up coalition forces
for greater success in future commitments.
Lesson 3: Persistence of commitment requires
continuity. Persistence of commitment has numerous implications—in knowledge management,
handovers, and enduring relationships, just to
name a few. Former Afghan finance minister Dr.
70
Ashraf Ghani, in a July 2012 interview with COIN
Common Sense, described deficiencies of the
International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF’s)
institutional memory over time.3 Twenty-one rotations of New Zealand forces to Bamyan caused
significant challenges in continuity. The greatest
was passing on critical information about past and
current operations, including who, what, where,
when, and why.
In eight years, Bamyan’s provincial governor
had endured at least 16 military commanders.
New Zealand forces’ ability to manage key relationships over time and maintain information and
intelligence data was difficult. Ways to improve
continuity include adopting effective database
tools and increasing the length of tours for selected
individuals.4
January-February 2014 MILITARY REVIEW