Understanding the Taliban's Border Sanctuary and Finding the Key to Success

Abstract

While the war continues in Afghanistan, many arguments have been made as to the enemy's source of strength (center of gravity) against the United States and its Coalition Partners. While there are those that believe that the enemy's strength comes from a certain tribe or group of population (which maybe the case), in order to succeed in defeating this strategic center of gravity, however, the United States an<;l its regional partners must focus its efforts on the operational center of gravity first. Only after denying the enemy its sanctuary areas along the Afghanistan and Pakistan border (that it currently has) will the United States and its coalition partners enjoy the success that they seek in this region, In this case, if we do not apply a suitable approach that brings the United States and its allies to put a synergistic effort against the Taliban's sanctuary as well as apply Afghan governance teams to better support the Afghan people, the United States and its allies are going run out of time in a waiting game that the US cannot afford to play.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 04, 2010
Accession Number
ADA602897

Entities

People

  • Christopher P. O'connor

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Afghanistan
  • Agreements
  • Center Of Gravity
  • Central Asia
  • Civil War
  • Classification
  • Counterinsurgency
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Governments
  • Minority Groups
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • Security
  • Unconventional Warfare
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.
  • Research Science/Academic Research