Defining Success in Afghanistan - American Enterprise Institute (Kagan)

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Institute for the Study of War has published a paper (almost 40 pages) on how to define success in Afghanistan. The paper, wrote by Frederick and Kimberly Kagan (with assistance from other contributors such as Carl Forsberg), provides a perspective on the conflict not always depicted in the mainstream media and helps to define what our goals and objectives in the Afghan War are (or should be).  It starts with a situation update, states the present strategy is working and that we should continue it.  There are several maps to aid the reader.  An excerpt from the paper introduction is below: 

"Success in Afghanistan is the establishment of a political order, security situation, and indigenous security force that is stable, viable, enduring, and able--with greatly reduced international support--to prevent Afghanistan from being a safe haven for international terrorists. The current American and Coalition strategy is making progress and should be continued. Since President Obama, NATO allies, and the Afghans have agreed that troops will be present in Afghanistan through 2014, the policy does not require substantial modifications at this point. This paper is thus primarily a report on the current situation in Afghanistan and a consideration of some of the prospects and challenges ahead. Our principal recommendation is that the U.S. and its allies should continue to resource and sustain the strategy now being executed, which is the only approach that can secure their vital national security interests in Afghanistan."

You can read more about the paper or navigate to a link to read or download the paper (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 40 pages, 13 MBs) at the AEI website by following the link below.  It is a big file - probably because of the maps.

http://www.aei.org/paper/100184