Military Review English Edition November-December 2013 | Page 107

BOOK REVIEWS
often-insular profession of arms. The book’s greatest contribution is that Army officers were the most
powerful force in our young nation and that the
remoteness of frontier combat shaped the profession
of arms in a manner isolated from other social and
cultural forces. Conflict on the borders “tempered and
confirmed” military bureaucratic changes “setting the
tone” ever since for the regular army officer corps.
Joseph Miller, Old Town, Maine

NATO in AFGHANISTAN
The Liberal Disconnect
Sten Rynning, Stanford University Press
Redwood City, CA, 2012, 288 pages, $25.95

O

THER NATO-MEMBER ARMED forces have
been in Afghanistan almost as long as the U.S.
armed forces have and NATO, as an organization,
has been in Afghanistan as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) lead since 11 August
2003. What has NATO done well, what has it done
poorly, and is regional NATO the best organization
to settle a conflict in an out-of-region remote locale?
Dr. Sten Rynning, who has written extensively about
NATO strategic issues, examines these issues and
produces a detailed political and diplomatic account
of NATO in Afghanistan that is also an examination
of NATO’s future.
NATO in Afghanistan: The Liberal Disconnect is
more a diplomatic and political history than it is a
military history. Fighting a war as an alliance is never
easy and, despite the dominant roles of the United
States and Great Britain, the conduct of the Afghanistan Conflict has been a thorny one for NATO.
NATO-liberal governments initially expected that
NATO would provide Afghanistan with a benevolent
transition to democracy and a thriving economy with
little fighting, whereas the ground truth has been a
long, hard campaign dominated by military actions,
not nationbuilding. Several NATO militaries arrived
in Afghanistan prepared to do anything but fight.
After initial entry, U.S. action and interest in Afghanistan waned as the bulk of its personnel and material
shifted into Iraq. Consequently, NATO’s initial
performance was not stellar and the enemy regained
MILITARY REVIEW ? November-December 2013

some of its strength, support, and territory. NATO’s
performance improved markedly over time and its
surge in support of the United States in 2009 proved
NATO’s best showing. NATO clearly demonstrated
that it was of more long-term value to Afghanistan
than the UN and other international organizations.
After the significant contributions by NATO
nations, will Afghanistan survive and flourish following NATO withdrawal? NATO will survive the
Afghanistan Conflict, but will it still be relevant?
NATO has now fought two conflicts—a regional one
in Kosovo and a nonregional one in Afghanistan. In
both, NATO had to first determine whether this was a
European or an Atlantic response and whether NATO
was still a relevant and responsive geopolitical force
or if the European Union could better deal with the
issue. Rynning argues that NATO must resume its
common purpose as a trans-Atlantic Western alliance
promoting Western ideals and interests to remain a
positive world actor.
There are few books written about NATO in
Afghanistan. This is the only one dealing with the
strategic level. It is recommended for higher-level
staffs and government professionals, but be aware,
English is not the author’s primary language and he
tends to over-stuff sentences with information. This,
coupled with his indirect English sentence structure,
means the reader may have to re-reread the same
paragraph two or three times to comprehend the
meaning. It will take some time to get through, but
is worth the effort.
Lt. Col. Lester W. Grau, Ph.D., USA,
Retired, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

TEACHING AMERICA TO THE WORLD
AND THE WORLD TO AMERICA
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