War in Afghanistan: What has NATO learned from 20 years of fighting? – The Christian Science Monitor
As the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan reaches the two-decade mark this year, NATO officials have made clear that they have bigger fish to fry. In the alliances new Strategy 2030 report, Afghanistan is mentioned just six times.
Yet as NATO positions itself for the next decade, the alliance has been transformed by its experience in Afghanistan and the lessons it learned there.
The cooperation of the 50-plus nations involved was a growth experience for the alliance, says Ian Lesser, executive director of the German Marshall Fund in Brussels. The bloc learned a lot ... in terms of habits of cooperation and interoperability that were tested everyday. Member forces also made use of some high-tech systems that many nations wouldnt have been exposed to in peacetime.
The alliance's lessons in Afghanistan may be in recognizing the corrosive effects of corruption and the ways in which the U.S. and its NATO allies inadvertently encouraged it, says retired Col. John Agoglia.
The billions of dollars that flooded into Afghanistan after the invasion made graft commonplace. We need to understand how we put money into an environment who were giving it to, what are the oversight mechanisms?
Brussels
As Americas longest war reaches the two-decade mark this year, one of President-elect Joe Bidens first orders of business will be figuring out a way forward in Afghanistan and, by extension, a roadmap for NATOs mission in the country.
Neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda is at the top of Americas national security threat list anymore, and NATO officials, too, have been clear about their belief that they have bigger fish to fry. In the alliances new Strategy 2030 report, Afghanistan is mentioned just six times in 40 densely-packed pages.
The war in Afghanistan is a mission on which the success or failure of NATO was once thought to hinge. In its early days, the war was billed as not only a post-Cold War rebirth of the alliance, but also its 21st-century evolution.
No longer. The new security agenda, according to the report, will be dominated by competing great powers, in which assertive authoritarian states with revisionist foreign policy agendas in other words, China and Russia seek to expand their power and influence.
Yet as NATO prepares for the next decade, its challenges will be tackled by an alliance transformed, for better or worse, by its experience in Afghanistan and the lessons it has learned there. The question, analysts say, will be whether it chooses to heed them.
Afghanistan became NATOs marquee mission with the U.S. invasion in 2001, the first time in history that the alliance invoked Article V, which declares that an attack on one is an attack on all. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was ultimately composed of allies from 50-plus countries, including non-NATO partners.
In the early years of the war, the running joke among U.S. forces, however, was that ISAF stood for I saw Americans fight, or I sunbathed at FOBs (forward operating bases, which are heavily fortified and largely safe). The underlying critique was that some allied governments used restrictions called caveats to prevent their troops from carrying out night missions, for example, or from deploying to certain more violent parts of the country and, as a result, U.S. and other fighting forces carried a heavier load.
Still, the cooperation was a growth experience for the alliance, says Ian Lesser, executive director of the German Marshall Fund in Brussels. These caveats did in some ways hinder the ISAFs ability to operate, but it operated nonetheless, and learned a lot by that in terms of habits of cooperation and interoperability that were tested everyday.
At the same time, the experience transformed the militaries of many NATO member nations. In Germany, some 90,000 troops have deployed to Afghanistan over the years. Theres no German general today who doesnt have military or even fighting experience there, says Markus Kaim, senior fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. The same goes, too, for a generation of soldiers in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Canada.
Member forces grew accustomed to collaborating on intelligence sharing and mission planning that made use of some high-tech systems that many nations wouldnt have been exposed to in peacetime, says Anthony Cordesman, defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This in turn, led to a much better appreciation for allied capabilities.
And it led to an even greater appreciation for allies themselves including non-NATO partners, many of whom, like Australia and South Korea, took part in the Afghanistan war.
If we think about any military engagement of NATO going forward, well conceptualize it not as 30 member countries of NATO, but as a loose platform that includes other organizations and non-NATO partners as well, Dr. Kaim says. NATO needs partners, he says, because NATO is aware that it cant shy away from deep political changes were seeing.
The NATO 2030 report emphasizes making the bloc a more political alliance, which means making it a place where core security concerns of all sorts are discussed, Dr. Lesser says. The Asia-Pacific region, especially China, is a case in point. Its a recognition that the definition of what bears on Euro-Atlantic security has expanded tremendously.
This focus on great power competition, coupled with the varying levels of disenchantment with missions that dont end cleanly, means that the appetite for launching military operations again anytime soon will differ across the alliance.
It starts with the question of whether NATO members consider Afghanistan a success. Was it worth all the effort, the blood? Most people would likely answer not really, Dr. Kaim says. Militarily, an alliance with impressive weapons uprooted Al Qaeda but did not defeat the Taliban, which, though an effective guerrilla force, was never a highly sophisticated threat. On the nation-building front, You spent an incredible amount of money to achieve remarkably little, Dr. Cordesman says.
Yet the definition of success itself reflects the different strategic cultures within NATO. While America is deeply uncomfortable with the notion of not winning, for many NATO allies, analysts say, it was enough to show solidarity, to be present, and to make a contribution.
More broadly, Afghanistan was seen as the price to pay, and the right thing to do for NATO in return for the reassurance those countries get from the alliance on the bigger existential threats they face, Dr. Lesser says. The fact that theyve been present in Afghanistan is simply part of the insurance policy, and you have to pay these premiums over time.
And even as most members came out of their Afghan experience more cautious about exporting democracy, the 2030 report acknowledges, it also argues that its nonetheless vital that NATO doesnt allow democratic erosion.
For this to happen, NATO must take some key lessons of Afghanistan, including the corrosive effects of corruption and the ways in which the U.S. and its NATO allies may inadvertently encourage it, says retired Col. John Agoglia, former director of both the U.S. Armys Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute and the Counterinsurgency Training Center-Afghanistan, both in Kabul.
The billions of free-flowing Western dollars that flooded into Afghanistan after the invasion made graft and fraud easy and commonplace. We need to understand how we put money into an environment who were giving it to, what are the oversight mechanisms? What could be the second and third order impacts?
Corruption "undermined the legitimacy of the Afghan government, reduced its effectiveness, and created a source of resentment for its own population," which in turn drove Taliban recruitment and made it "much more difficult" for NATO to achieve its key mission goals, "from security to effective governance," Karolina MacLachlan, policy officer at Transparency International in London, wrote in NATO Review.
Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox.
At the same time, in bolstering some former Soviet republics to help resist Russian democratic undercutting and influence, as in Afghanistan, we may have to deal with some people who have blood on their hands, some who are corrupt, some who are trying to reform, Colonel Agoglia says. Weve learned a lot about understanding the limits of power, how to shape it as best you can, and how to take what you can get and its not always going to look pretty.
I get the great power competition, but its won and lost in the trenches doing these things so that if you actually do have to go into combat, he adds, you own the day.
Continue reading here:
War in Afghanistan: What has NATO learned from 20 years of fighting? - The Christian Science Monitor
- The latest lapse over Afghanistan? Liz Trusss memory - The Times - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- The United States Must Reclaim Afghanistan to Protect Its Interests - Fair Observer - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- We were lucky to escape Afghanistan alive nine months later, were still waiting to be brought to safety - The Independent - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Kazakhstan in Afghanistan: From Rhetoric to Infrastructure - The Times Of Central Asia - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Afghanistan: Paktika teacher sentenced to death over alleged blasphemy, sources say - Amu TV - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- ImpACT International | Talibans Kill List Exposes Brutal Repression and Impunity in Afghanistan - impactpolicies.org - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Hizb-ut-Tahrir Afghanistan Criticizes Russia's Recognition Of Afghan Taliban: 'Historically ... Russia Remains One Of The Most Determined Enemies Of... - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Data incident affecting applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy Scheme and Afghanistan Locally Employed Staff Ex-Gratia Scheme -... - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- A future without women: Consequences of gender apartheid in Afghanistan - Global Voices - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Women This Week: Multilateral Organizations Increase Pressure on Taliban Over Oppression of Women and Girls in Afghanistan - Council on Foreign... - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Retreat from Afghanistan began as a farce, then it was a scandal, now it's a cover-up - news.sky.com - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- The Islamic State in Afghanistan: A Jihadist Threat in Retreat? - International Crisis Group - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Afghan nationals: have you arrived in the UK under the Afghanistan Response Route? - The Guardian - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Teen From Afghanistan Reported Missing in Tehran Amid Surge in Migrant Hostility - KabulNow - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Afghanistan: Young woman driven to opium fields by Taliban restrictions - Amu TV - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Afghanistan: An Open Wound Still Alive, in Need of Becoming a Nation Again - 8am.media - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Remittance Disruption from Iran Deepens Economic Crisis for the People of Afghanistan - 8am.media - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Retreat from Afghanistan began as a farce, then it was a scandal, now it's a cover-up - Yahoo - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Over 178,000 People in Northern Afghanistan Benefit from Special Trust Fund Support - 8am.media - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Russia becomes the first country to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan - MSN - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Afghanistan-Pakistan trade grows to nearly 1 bln USD in H1 - Xinhua - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Afghanistan 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan: End-year Response Gap Analysis of Financing, Achievements and Response Challenges (January -... - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Afghanistan Taxi Drivers Resort To DIY Car Coolers To Beat The Heat: Works Better Than AC - MSN - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Afghanistan: Taxi drivers use handmade air coolers to beat the heat - BBC - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- 6-year-old girl sold into marriage with 45-year-old in Afghanistan; Taliban intervenes: Wait until shes - Times of India - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Barbie Battles Diabeetus, Angel Reese Is A Cover Athlete, And Afghanistan Is Open For Business - OutKick - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- In Cinema Jazireh, a Woman Dresses up as a Man in Taliban Afghanistan in Search of Her Son, Hope - The Hollywood Reporter - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Russia Recognizes Talibans Apartheid Regime in Afghanistan - Foreign Policy in Focus - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Shafiqa Jalali says she has a hard time sleeping, eating or going out knowing her son is incarcerated in the U.S. and is scheduled to be deported to... - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Russia Just Legitimized the TalibanWhat Comes Next for Afghanistan and the World? - Security Clearance Jobs - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Afghanistan Taxi Drivers Resort To DIY Car Coolers To Beat The Heat: Works Better Than AC - Times Now - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- 'Welcome to Afghanistan': Shocking tourism promo urging Americans to visit the country goes viral - Hindustan Times - Hindustan Times - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Trump dishes on Milley clash over leaving military equipment in Afghanistan: 'I knew he was an idiot' - Fox News - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Russia becomes the first country to recognize Taliban's rule in Afghanistan - NBC News - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Statement of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on the issuance of arrest warrants in the Situation in Afghanistan - | International Criminal Court - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Following decades in Iran, 'there's nothing left' for millions of Afghan migrants in Afghanistan - France 24 - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 45-year-old man in Afghanistan married a 6-year-old child: the Taliban's reaction was swift - - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Welcome to Afghanistan': This could be the most bizarre tourism video ever - Stuff - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- The Hairdressers Story: Exile, Loss, and a Forced Return to Afghanistan - 8am.media - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- ICC expresses sadness at the passing of Afghanistan umpire Bismillah Jan Shinwari - ICC - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- UN adopts resolution on Afghanistan's Taliban rule over US objections - ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Will Pakistan Be Next to Recognise Taliban Rule in Afghanistan After Russia? - Times Now - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Russia becomes first nation to recognize Taliban government of Afghanistan since 2021 takeover - CNN - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- India abstains from UNGA resolution on Afghanistan, calls for coordinated global efforts against terrorism - News On AIR - - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Experts: Russia Recognizing Taliban Rule in Afghanistan Largely a Symbolic Move - The Moscow Times - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Pakistan warns UN of escalating terror threat from Afghanistan - Dawn - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Tourists are trickling into Afghanistan. The Taliban are eager to welcome them - The Seattle Times - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Troops kill 30 militants trying to get into Pakistan from Afghanistan - Euronews - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Trump News | 'Afghanistan Maybe The Most Embarrassing Moment In The History Of US': Donald Trump - NDTV - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Tourists are trickling into Afghanistan and the Taliban government is eager to welcome them - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Afghanistan Emerges as a New Frontier for Adventure Tourism: A Blend of Promise and Challenges - Travel And Tour World - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Afghanistan: A Hidden Gem That Deserves to Be Seen Up Close - Vocal - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Russia Becomes First Nation To Recognize Taliban-Led Afghanistan - The Media Line - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Russia is the first country to recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan - Commonspace.eu - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Russia Becomes First State to Recognise Taliban Government of Afghanistan - UNITED24 Media - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Russia becomes first country to officially recognise Taliban in Afghanistan - bne IntelliNews - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- The Unexpected Consequences of War Between Iran and Israel on Afghanistan - The Diplomat Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Russia is the first country in the world to recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan - - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Sanctioned Businessman With Kremlin Ties Returns To Afghanistan - - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Pak security forces kill 30 terrorists trying to infiltrate from Afghanistan - Deccan Herald - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia Becomes First Country to Recognize Afghanistans Taliban Government - The New York Times - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia Is First Country to Recognize Taliban Rule in Afghanistan - The Daily Beast - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Troops kill 30 militants attempting to sneak into Pakistan from Afghanistan - AP News - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Taliban praise Russias brave decision to recognise their rule in Afghanistan - The Guardian - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia becomes first country to recognise Afghanistan's Taliban government - France 24 - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- News - Pace Thanks Troops in Afghanistan, Notes Signs of Progress - DVIDS - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia becomes the first country to formally recognize Talibans latest rule in Afghanistan - AP News - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Troops kill 30 militants attempting to sneak into Pakistan from Afghanistan - WRAL.com - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- News - Army Reservist to Receive Silver Star for Heroism in Afghanistan - DVIDS - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia becomes first nation to formally recognize Taliban-led government in Afghanistan - LiveNOW from FOX - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Hillsdale veteran Greg Whalen reflects on Afghanistan withdrawal through his music - Hillsdale Daily News - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia Becomes 1st Country To Recognise Taliban Government Of Afghanistan - NDTV - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- China Hails Russias Decision To Recognize Taliban Rule In Afghanistan; Will Beijing Follow Suit? - EurAsian Times - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia Becomes First Nation to Recognise Taliban Rule in Afghanistan - The Wire India - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia becomes first country to recognize Taliban government in Afghanistan - Trkiye Today - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia the first to recognise Taliban government in Afghanistan - BBC - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia becomes first country to recognise Taliban government of Afghanistan - The Indian Express - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia officially recognises the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan - 5Pillars - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia First to Officially Recognize Taliban Government in Afghanistan - - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Russia becomes first nation to formally recognize Taliban rule in Afghanistan - all details here - Mint - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]