Publication

This policy brief examines the US and its NATO allies' plan to reduce international combat forces in Afghanistan drastically by 2014 and to transfer lead responsibility for security to the Afghan National Army, police, and a patchwork of local militias. Because this involves military plans that encompass several dozen national governments, difficult logistic and supply challenges, and coordinated aid and external financing from around the world, the transition plan is necessarily bulky and difficult to move in new directions - it is the proverbial ocean liner, pointed at the distant horizon of 2014 and difficult to maneuver off its path.