A long and winding road: Australia's role in building an Afghan National Army

  Right now the main focus of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) mission in Afghanistan is to raise the effectiveness of an Afghan National Army brigade so it can assume primary responsibility for security in Oruzgan Province, thereby creating the conditions for a withdrawal of Australian forces over the medium term. This effort is critical to the success of the coalition\u27s new strategic approach to stabilising the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan region and denying violent extremists a sanctuary along its borderlands.  This Strategic Insights, authored by Raspal Khosa, examines the challenges for the ADF in \u27operationalising\u27 the military dimension of the new strategy by conducting security sector reform while combating the Taliban-dominated insurgency in southern Afghanistan. Image: submarginals / Flick