Showing posts with label ministries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ministries. Show all posts

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Building Partner Capacity within the Afghan Security Ministries

MG Richard Kaiser, cdr CSTC-A, meets with Acting Minister of MoD
Photo credit: RS HQs, May 2017
The U.S. and NATO have embraced the concept of training up indigenous forces to achieve objectives and goals in line with their strategic, national, or organizational interests. Essentially this means conducting "Train, Advise, and Assist" (TAA) missions in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere so that host nations (using local or indigenous forces) can defeat ISIS, al Qaeda, the Taliban, or other adversaries on the battlefield. The United States refers to this mission set as Building Partner Capacity or BPC.

For the past 16 years the United States, NATO, and other partner nations have been slowly developing, training, equipping, and fielding the Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) and the Afghan Security Institutions (ASI). Although this effort has made some progress, it has not been a resounding success. While the quantity is there (the end strength according to personnel rosters) the quality is lacking - except in the Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF).

Currently the Resolute Support HQs based in Kabul is conducting the Train, Advise, and Assist mission on three levels. A major advisory effort is taking place at the security ministries - the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Ministry of Interior (MoI). There are advisors conducting TAA at the regional ANA Corps level. The Afghan Air Force and Afghan SOF are receiving TAA at the tactical level.

A recently published paper in Joint Force Quarterly examines one critical component of the Building Partner Capacity mission set. It takes a close look at the building of institutional capacity in host-nation ministries (Afghanistan is presented as an example). The authors then offer a scientifically and historically sound methodology for military advisors working at the ministerial level. The aim of the paper is to show the way military leaders and staff can improve how they plan and execute the Train, Advise, and Sssist missions - and, in addition, how we can rethink the role of the military advisor.

You can read or download the 8-page paper below:

"Learning to Fish in Murky Waters: The Missing Link in Capacity-Building", Joint Force Quarterly 86, 3rd Quarter, July 2017.
http://ndupress.ndu.edu/JFQ/Joint-Force-Quarterly-86/Article/1223974/learning-to-fish-in-murky-waters-the-missing-link-in-capacity-building/


Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Paper - Advisor Influence across NSMs and ANSF

An extremely well-researched and detailed paper is available that presents valuable information about advisor influence upon the Afghan national security ministries (NSMs) and the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The paper, a dissertation for a graduate student at Syracuse University with extensive military experience, ". . . is an in-depth case study of NATO advisors and their perceived influence in Afghanistan . . . " in the period of 2009-2012. The author reviews Security Sector Reform (SSR) literature, presents different theories on SSR, provides an analysis of security assistance partnering, and examines advisor influence across the Afghan security spectrum.  The paper, 370 pages long, explores a two-part question:
". . . how do foreign security actors (ministerial advisors and security force trainers, advisors, and commanders) attempt to influence their host-nation partners and what are their perceptions of these approaches on changes in local capacity, values, and security governance norms?"
The paper is entitled The Prospects of Institutional Transfer: A Within-Case Study of NATO Advisor Influence Across the Afghan Security Ministries and National Security Forces, 2009-2012, by Nicholas J. Armstrong, May 2014.
http://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=etd

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Critique of the National Solidarity Program (NSP) of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD)

The president of the Afghan Youth Initiative, Inc., Matiullah Amin, has wrote a critical piece about the National Solidarity Program (NSP) of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Rural Development (MRRD).  The NSP has set up over 28,000 Community Development Councils (CDCs) that help establish a list of development priorities at the local level.

He states that program lacks focus on long-term development and relies on rural citizens lacking skills to carry out development projects - causing inefficiency in the program. Amin is also concerned about the vulnerability of these locally-run programs to embezzlement by program officials.  Amin says that time has come to overhaul NSP and he offers some specific recommendations in his article.

See "Leaving Afghan Development in the Wrong Hands", Foreign Affairs, February 13, 2012.

Read more news about development in Afghanistan.

Thursday, February 9, 2012