Military Review English Edition January-February 2014 | Page 74

higher authority. New Zealand forces supported
the overarching ISAF mission, goals of the
Afghan constitution and national development
strategy, and numerous intergovernmental and
nongovernmental stakeholders.7 Balancing the
needs, expectations, directions, constraints,
and efforts of all stakeholders was challenging
but immensely rewarding when often-disparate
planets aligned.
Lesson 8: Human factors are as important
as other variables. Similar to other coalition
partners, New Zealand forces’ intelligence
preparation of the battlefield tended to focus on
terrain and threat factors during its first years in
Afghanistan. While these factors were and are
important, equally important is the multitude of
human factors: military operations are inherently
human-centric. Adopting a focus on human factors can represent a challenging mindset shift
for soldiers trained over decades to identify

the enemy and seize terrain-related objectives.
New Zealand forces learned to focus efforts on
the Afghan population and the Afghan National
Security Force while concurrently neutralizing
the insurgency.
Lesson 9: Functions such as information
and intelligence are as important as movement and maneuver, fires, and combat service
support. Information operations and intelligence
functions warrant significant reflection and
increased investment for future commitments.8
Increasing the emphasis on these functions
will be a challenge, especially as the depth and
breadth of information and intelligence are not
widely understood by most. The New Zealand
Army is competent in and focused on how it
applies maneuver, lethal fires, and combat service support (or sustainment). Current effectiveness and future success depend on adjusting,
even revolutionizing, this emphasis.9

Lt. Jimmy Martin, Bamyan PRT, meets with Afghan locals at a Bamyan police station in March 2013. A focus on the host nation populace, their
perceptions, issues and visions, is an essential take-away for future operations. (Cpl. Sam Shepherd, RNZAF)

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January-February 2014 MILITARY REVIEW