Shaping Coalition Forces’ Strategic Narrative in Support of Village Stability Operations
Shaping Coalition Forces’ Strategic Narrative in Support of Village Stability Operations
by Scott Mann
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This article is designed to provide strategists and tacticians with comprehensive recommendations for weaving a strategic narrative and supporting plans to achieve a tipping point in the Afghan Counterinsurgency Campaign by leveraging the power of information to amplify the bottom up effects of Village Stability Operations ( VSO) and Afghan Local Police (ALP).
(VSO and ALP are growing in scope and scale within the Afghanistan Civil Military Campaign. Village Stability Operations have the potential to reverse the Afghan insurgency’s political momentum, but VSO requires an accompanying strategic narrative to coalesce and coherently amplify the numerous localized victories Afghans have achieved, and continue to achieve against insurgents. While Coalition Forces (CF) and GIRoA strategy has evolved to support local Afghans through VSO and ALP, advancing the CF strategic narrative in line with VSO and ALP has not been given equal weight. As a result, VSO and ALP successes are difficult to reconcile with the current narrative of GIRoA being the sole entity responsible for providing security, development, and governance for Afghans. Indeed, VSO and ALP victories may even result in highlighting GIRoA’s governance gaps when local Afghans defeat insurgents on their own initiative.
CF and GIRoA can recapture the political momentum by building a strategic narrative that amplifies the cumulative effects of VSO and that better aligns GIRoA’s intent and capabilities with the successes of its citizens and villages. A VSO strategic narrative emphasizes three key points: (1) Afghans standing up for themselves, (2) against a criminal insurgency, and (3) with support from GIRoA and CF. Tangible evidence of Afghans standing up for themselves with GIRoA support can, when cumulatively captured and broadcast as part of a broader narrative, render the insurgency irrelevant to the people. The combined effect of this strategy is to reduce insurgent actions to the behavior of criminals and thieves, and ultimately irrelevant to the Afghan people. This formulation, then, has strategic impact on the three key audiences of Afghan citizens, the insurgency, and the key COIN stakeholders with the intent of generating momentum through a narrative that is linked to on-the-ground actions and deeds.
Despite the potentially momentum changing effects of a strategic bottom up narrative, current VSO activities are still largely unrecognized by many key audience segments. Indeed, most VSO successes remain localized in nature and are not amplified beyond the District Level. Although a strong case can be made for closely protecting VSO activities across the country, this article makes the argument that a positive shift in COIN momentum through the use of a Strategic Narrative is worth the risk to force and mission as long as responsible measures are employed to mitigate these risks.
Download The Full Article: Shaping Coalition Forces’ Strategic Narrative in Support of Village Stability Operations
Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann is a Special Forces Officer assigned to United States Special Operations Command. He has conducted three tours in Afghanistan. Most recently,in 2010,he served as the Program Manager for Village Stability Operations and Afghan Local Police in Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command – Afghanistan and as the Director of the first ever Village Stability Coordination Center in Regional Command South. Lieutenant Colonel Mann is currently the VSO Representative in USSOCOM.
