The Village Engagement Center
The Village Engagement Center:
Stabilizing One Village at a Time
by M. Shands Pickett
Download the Full Article: The Village Engagement Center
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) understands the need to develop “local knowledge, cultural understanding, and local contacts” in order to implement a successful counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. And it has developed a handful of brigade-level tools like Agriculture Development Teams (ADTs), Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), Operational Liaison Teams (OMLTs), and Police Operational Liaison Mentor Teams (POMLTs) to work directly with the local population and build connections between Afghans and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA). Each ISAF forward operating base (FOB) typically has most, if not all, of these teams on-base.
However, ISAF’s brigade-level assets are hamstrung by a forward operating base-centric footprint. To partner effectively with Afghans, the various teams (or “functional enablers” in ISAF parlance) must establish a presence in the villages they hope to assist—a whole-of-place concept called the Village Engagement Center (VECs). Only full-time interaction outside the base gates with both local Afghans and GIRoA counterparts will give ISAF’s functional enablers the village-level contextual knowledge necessary to create meaningful change. This is an idea with precedence from the Marines’ Combined Action Program (CAP) in Vietnam to a program, the Village Stability Platform (VSP), currently operated by Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan. The Village Engagement Center is not another new capability but is instead an organizing principle for existing assets. It pushes those functional enablers off of ISAF bases, thereby helping Afghan communities to resist insurgent pressures while increasing their stake in GIRoA’s success.
Download the Full Article: The Village Engagement Center
M. Shands Pickett is an analyst with the Human Terrain Team attached to TF White Eagle in Ghazni Province. He holds an MA in U.S. Foreign Policy from The George Washington University. The views of the author do not necessarily reflect the official policies and positions of the Human Terrain System, U.S. Army, ISAF or the U.S. Government.
Editor’s Note: This essay builds off of the previous work discussed in SWJ’s Tribal Engagement Workshop.
