2 September 2024

THE NEW WAY OF LIMITED WARFARE: The Value of the Afghan Model of Warfare After the Fight Against ISIS

Captain Tijs Althuizen, MA, and Professor Martijn Kitzen, PhD

INTRODUCTION

Today’s international security environment confronts the United States and its partners with unprecedented challenges. Escalating competition with China and Russia, growing assertiveness of regional powers like Iran and North Korea, the persevering threat of violent non-state actors, and even a major war on European soil present multiple dilemmas that can only be faced with the help of a versatile strategic toolkit. Current military operations rely heavily on traditional deterrence strategy. China’s military buildup and the conventional nature of much of the fighting in Ukraine as of 2024 reinforces this posture. Yet this covers only one side of the multifaceted threats we are facing. This fact especially reverberates in the special operations community, which finds itself engaged in both countering gray zone activities and the enduring fight against violent extremist organizations. This monograph seeks to contribute to the development of a broader strategic palette by analyzing the importance and utility of the so-called Afghan model (AM) as a way for achieving political ends through the employment of limited means.


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