Skip to main content
  • Sections
  • Search

Center for Strategic & International Studies

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • Sign In

Topics

  • Climate Change
  • Cybersecurity and Technology
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Governance
    • Intellectual Property
    • Intelligence, Surveillance, and Privacy
    • Military Technology
    • Space
    • Technology and Innovation
  • Defense and Security
    • Counterterrorism and Homeland Security
    • Defense Budget
    • Defense Industry, Acquisition, and Innovation
    • Defense Strategy and Capabilities
    • Geopolitics and International Security
    • Long-Term Futures
    • Missile Defense
    • Space
    • Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation
  • Economics
    • Asian Economics
    • Global Economic Governance
    • Trade and International Business
  • Energy and Sustainability
    • Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Impacts
    • Energy and Geopolitics
    • Energy Innovation
    • Energy Markets, Trends, and Outlooks
  • Global Health
    • Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, and Immunizations
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • Health and Security
    • Infectious Disease
  • Human Rights
    • Building Sustainable and Inclusive Democracy
    • Business and Human Rights
    • Responding to Egregious Human Rights Abuses
    • Civil Society
    • Transitional Justice
    • Human Security
  • International Development
    • Food and Agriculture
    • Governance and Rule of Law
    • Humanitarian Assistance
    • Human Mobility
    • Private Sector Development
    • U.S. Development Policy

Regions

  • Africa
    • North Africa
    • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Americas
    • Caribbean
    • North America
    • South America
  • Arctic
  • Asia
    • Afghanistan
    • Australia, New Zealand & Pacific
    • China
    • India
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Pakistan
    • Southeast Asia
  • Europe
    • European Union
    • NATO
    • Post-Soviet Europe
    • Turkey
  • Middle East
    • The Gulf
    • Egypt and the Levant
    • North Africa
  • Russia and Eurasia
    • The South Caucasus
    • Central Asia
    • Post-Soviet Europe
    • Russia

Sections menu

  • Programs
  • Experts
  • Events
  • Analysis
    • Blogs
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Congressional Testimony
    • Critical Questions
    • Interactive Reports
    • Journals
    • Newsletter
    • Reports
    • Transcript
  • Podcasts
  • iDeas Lab
  • Transcripts
  • Web Projects

Main menu

  • About Us
  • Support CSIS
    • Securing Our Future
Photo by soldiersmediacenter licensed under CC by 2.0
Report
Share
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Printfriendly.com

The Obama Strategy in Afghanistan: Finding a Way to Win

July 7, 2016

When President Obama issued yet another statement on Afghanistan on July 6th, and once again delayed his plans to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, he took actions that had already become almost inevitable. Even though he had announced his plan to cut U.S. troop levels to 5,500 by the end of 2016 less than a month earlier, a level of only 5,500 troops risked critically weakening Afghan forces and possibly losing the war. Keeping the level at 8,400, however, was at best a half measure in meeting Afghanistan’s real needs and probably not even that.

The United States needs a far more serious review of its strategy in Afghanistan. It needs one that stops focusing on deadlines and total troop levels, and one that focuses on what it takes to deal with the facts on the ground in Afghanistan and actually win. It needs a strategy that can build sustained public and Congressional support, and provide a proper legacy for the next president. It needs a strategy that can at least try to avoid making Afghanistan an unnecessary pawn in the bitter presidential campaign to come and to give the Afghans a clear incentive to make critical reforms.

The Burke Chair at CSIS has issued a new report that examines these issues in detail. It is called The Obama Strategy in Afghanistan: Finding a Way to Win, and is available of the CSIS web site at https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/160707_Obama_Strategy_Afghanistan_Final.pdf.

The report draws several key conclusions:

  • The United States should abandon deadlines and artificial caps on its troop levels and focus on providing the forces Afghanistan actually needs to win.
  • The United States needs to provide more trainers, assisters, and enablers, and do so at the level of Afghan combat forces—in spite of the potential risk of combat losses.
  • The United States needs to provide enough combat airpower to provide rapid reinforcements and firepower when Afghan forces face emergencies or major offensives until Afghan ground and air forces are capable of dealing with the terrorist and insurgent.
  • The United States will need to provide major financial aid to Afghan forces for years to come.
  • As serious as the military threat is, the civil side of the war faces an equal crisis. Afghan politics, governance, economics, and corruption pose as much of a threat as the Taliban, ISIS, and Al Qaida.
  • There is no prospect that the United States and its allies can deal with these issues by providing additional financial aid or an effective nation building effort.
  • The recommendations of the World Bank and IMF for Afghan reform—and existing aid commitments and options—can, however, allow the Afghan government to survive its present civil crises.
  • This will require U.S. and allied cooperation in tying aid to clear conditions for Afghan progress in making actual reforms at both the security and civil levels. Without such conditionality, Afghanistan may still lose even with substantial increases in U.S. and allied military support.

The Table of Contents of the report are shown below:

Downloads
Download PDF file of "The Obama Strategy in Afghanistan: Finding a Way to Win"
Written By
Anthony H. Cordesman
Emeritus Chair in Strategy
Media Queries
Contact H. Andrew Schwartz
Chief Communications Officer
Tel: 202.775.3242

Contact Paige Montfort
Media Relations Coordinator, External Relations
Tel: 202.775.3173
Related
Afghanistan, Americas, Asia, Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, Defense Strategy and Capabilities, Defense and Security, Emeritus Chair in Strategy, Geopolitics and International Security, North America

Most Recent From Anthony H. Cordesman

In the News
China's military drills around Taiwan show how it is closing the gap with the U.S.
npr | Scott Neuman
August 5, 2022
In the News
Terrorist’s Afghan Hideout Chills US Bid to Free $3.5 Billion
Bloomberg | Daniel Flatley, Courtney McBride
August 5, 2022
Report
Looking beyond the Biden Visit to the Middle East and the “Fist Bump”
By Anthony H. Cordesman
August 4, 2022
Commentary
Appendix A: The Changing Defense Industrial Base: Some Indicators
By Anthony H. Cordesman
July 19, 2022
Commentary
NATO Force Planning: Rethinking the Defense Industrial Base
By Anthony H. Cordesman
July 19, 2022
Report
The Need for a New NATO Force Planning Exercise
By Anthony H. Cordesman
July 14, 2022
Report
The Lessons of the Afghan War That No One Will Want to Learn
By Anthony H. Cordesman
June 15, 2022
Commentary
The Longer-Term Impact of the Ukraine Conflict and the Growing Importance of the Civil Side of War
By Anthony H. Cordesman
June 6, 2022
View all content by this expert
Footer menu
  • Topics
  • Regions
  • Programs
  • Experts
  • Events
  • Analysis
  • Web Projects
  • Podcasts
  • iDeas Lab
  • Transcripts
  • About Us
  • Support Us
Contact CSIS
Email CSIS
Tel: 202.887.0200
Fax: 202.775.3199
Visit CSIS Headquarters
1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Media Queries
Contact H. Andrew Schwartz
Chief Communications Officer
Tel: 202.775.3242

Contact Paige Montfort
Media Relations Coordinator, External Relations
Tel: 202.775.3173

Daily Updates

Sign up to receive The Evening, a daily brief on the news, events, and people shaping the world of international affairs.

Subscribe to CSIS Newsletters

Follow CSIS
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

All content © 2022. All rights reserved.

Legal menu
  • Credits
  • Privacy Policy
  • Reprint Permissions