The Best They Could Do? Assessing U.S. Military Effectiveness in the Afghanistan War

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X221116876
• Author: Risa Brooks
• Date: 01 October 2023
• Subject Matter: Commentaries

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X221116876

Armed Forces & Society

2023, Vol. 49(4) 913 –922

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X221116876

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Commentary

The Best They Could Do?

Assessing U.S. Military

Effectiveness in the

Afghanistan War

Risa Brooks1

Abstract

This article explores shortcomings in military effectiveness in the war in Afghanistan.

It focuses on three sets of problems: the failure to resolve internal contradictions

in the training effort, the failure to integrate political considerations with military

activity, and poor strategic and operational/tactical integration.

Keywords

Afghanistan war, counterinsurgency (COIN), military effectiveness, strategic

assessment, civil–military relations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

At first consideration, the failure of the U.S. and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO) allies to prevail in the Afghanistan war might seem inevitable, the product

of multiple factors mitigating against success. At the top of the list of those factors

are the war’s ambitious goals, which variously encompassed defeating or minimiz-

ing the Taliban insurgency, preventing transnational terrorists from operating on

Afghan territory, and building a viable Afghan state capable of protecting its citizens’

human rights and civil liberties. Further stacking the cards against success was the

failure of politicians to clearly articulate a strategy to achieve these goals and the

challenges of coordinating aims and means among NATO members. For the United

1Department of Political Science, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA

Corresponding Author:

Risa Brooks, Department of Political Science, Marquette University, #407 Wehr Physics Building,

Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA.

Email: Risa.Brooks@marquette.edu

1116876AFSXXX10.1177/0095327X221116876Armed Forces & SocietyBrooks

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