Assessment of progress in multifunctional and multinational operations: Swedish experiences from the operational and tactical level in Afghanistan

The assessment of progress is an essential element of contemporary crisis management since it helps to answer the question of whether operqtions are going in the right direction. This issue lies at the very core of the operation of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afganistan, with respect to the recognized need for progress. Following the revision of the Counter-Insurgency strategy (COIN) in 2009, a change in the strategic approach to the operation ocurred, which altered the focus from the kinetic fight against insurgents to protection of the population. One of the key challenges currently facing the mission is how to ensure that activities support the strategy and overall operational objectives, i.e. how does ISAF assess progress? By using NATO´s definition of assessment, stipulated in its current Assessment handbook, thisstudy setout to investigate the assessment process at the operational and tactical levels within Regional Command North (RC North). The study concludes that the following abstacles to the assessment process exist: conflicting time perspectives as between cicilian, national and military actors; diffeering objectives and working methods as between the Afghan Security Forces (ANSF), ISAF and civilian actors, which makes it hard to construct integrated Operation Plans; deficient integration between the assessment of progress and strategic and operational planning; flawed methodologies for data collection; and flawed communication and coordination of assessment results between the different military levels and between the civilian and military components. The NATO Assessment handbook could give some guidance to develop the assessment process within ISAF, given that it strengthens its comprehensive and multifunctional approach.