Another Voice for Bottom Up Strategy in Afghanistan
Dr. Seth Jones of RAND.
Going Local: The Key to Afghanistan
It is striking that most Americans who try to learn lessons from Afghanistan’s recent history turn to the failed military exploits of the British or Soviet Union. Just look at the list of books that many newly deployed soldiers are urged to read, such as Lester Grau’s “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” and Mohammed Yousaf and Mark Adkin’s “The Bear Trap,” which document some of the searing battlefield lessons that contributed to the Soviet defeat. Yet, outside of some anthropologists, few people have bothered to examine Afghanistan’s stable periods. The lessons are revealing.
The Musahiban dynasty, which included Zahir Shah, Nadir Shah, and Daoud Khan ruled Afghanistan from 1929 to 1978. It was one of the most stable periods in modern Afghan history, partly because the Musahibans understood the importance of local power. Many U.S. policy makers have not grasped this reality, still clinging to the fantasy that stabilizing Afghanistan requires expanding the central government’s writ to rural areas.
Read the rest here.
Hat tip SWJ Blog.
August 15th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Another calm voice that explains in more detail, what blog friend Steve Pressman coined in the title of his blog It’s The Tribes Stupid!
August 15th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Uh, Zen? Chris Bleuer tore a strip off this one at Ghosts of Alexander. Chris normally plays well with others, so I perked up. Worth noting.
Christian Bleuer, "The Mystery of the Wall Street Journal and the Absentee Afghanists."
August 15th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
[…] Seth G. Jones on How to Win the War in Afghanistan – WSJ.com. Hat tip Zen and the Ghosts of […]
August 16th, 2009 at 4:08 am
Hi Michael,
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Christian is a gent and a go-to guy an Afghanistan so I’ll give that link it’s own post as equal time on Sunday.
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That said, Jones has a point in the sense that the US embarking upon a Holbrooke-driven, top-down, centralized, state-building project in Afghanistan is for the birds. Foust and Hamm were here in the comments section just a few weeks ago hammering the overriding importance of the local in Afghanistan. Well, if that’s the case, build COIN/development programs from the local upwards, not the reverse.