NATO’s Struggle for Intelligence in Afghanistan

Abstract

What role did North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the coalition (International Security Assistance Force—ISAF) it led play in the failure of the West in Afghanistan? This essay argues that the ISAF intelligence community’s inability to come to grips with the complex operational environment in Afghanistan contributed to the problem. Using three concepts from the complexity literature, requisite variety, learning, and enactment, I analyze critical flaws in NATO’s approach. ISAF’s weak cross-cultural competence, its inconsistent relationships with international civilian organizations, and its absence of double- and triple-loop learning are identified as key drivers of NATO’s weak intelligence performance.

Perspectives on the Afghanistan War: Commentaries on a Misadventure

“…Sebastiaan Rietjens (2022) in “NATO’s Struggle for Intelligence in Afghanistan” shifts the focus to NATO and the intelligence community of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and its inability to effectively operate within this complex operational environment. He identifies three flaws in the NATO approach—weak cross-cultural competence, inconsistent relationships with international civilian organizations, and an absence of double- and triple-loop learning.…”