Afghanistan - A Comprehensive Approach to Local Engagement - By Eric Furey

A retired Special Forces officer, Eric Furey, has produced a paper entitled "A Comprehensive Approach to Local Engagement in Afghanistan".  The author has experience in Afghanistan where he worked on tribal engagement and local security defense initiatives.  The next two paragraphs are from the paper's executive summary and provides a description of the paper.

This paper intends to provoke thought on the connection between Stability Operations and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) reduction. Stability Operations emphasizes the need for a simultaneous bottom-up, top-down, and whole of government approach in order to “…outsmart the insurgents and wrest away the initiative.” Ultimately, the end state is to link the informal (traditional) local sub-national consensus governance structures with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Afghan Central Government) at the district level. Therefore, one may reasonably ask whether an engagement program with local villagers might also diminish the IED threat.

Experience demonstrates it can. Interviews with US Army Special Forces Operational Detachment Alphas (Special Forces Team{s}) conducting the Local Defense Initiative program from July 2009 until January 2010 provide evidence that a population-centric, bottom-up local engagement program within the rural areas of Afghanistan can reduce the number of IED incidents. What was further revealed was that indigenous reporting of IEDs and related information increased proportionately to the degree of trust, respect, and credibility developed between local village elders and United States Army Special Forces (Green Berets).

Good reading for someone who is headed that way.  The paper is posted on the Small Wars Journal website.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2010/10/a-comprehensive-approach-to-lo/