Atlantic Council

From Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service: With just 23 months until the end of the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, Afghan forces are poised to move into the lead operationally, and NATO and partner nations are discussing the scope and missions of the enduring presence force that will remain in the country.

The conversations within NATO are about this transition, a senior NATO officer, speaking on background, told reporters today. The alliance’s chiefs of defense, including Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are here for meetings. . . .

The post-2014 needs are a training-and-advising capability and a focused counterterrorism capability, the officer said. How to execute those missions at various troop levels are the conversations that are going on within NATO, in Afghanistan and in the capitals of partner nations, he told reporters, adding that ISAF has not been asked to provide advice with respect to a zero-troop option. . . .

About 220 bases in Afghanistan have to close over the next 23 months. “The strategic end state is to seek the final basing platform for our mission that converts naturally into the basing platform for the enduring presence force,” he explained.

Some of that force will be in and around the Afghan capital of Kabul, working with the various government ministries and with the training establishments that have grown up around the city. The officer said he anticipates a presence at Bagram Airfield. Other enduring-presence forces could be based regionally in corps or police-zone areas, or they could be mobile training teams that go from one regional headquarters to another. . . .

“That requires extraordinarily detailed planning, and 23 months is the blink of an eye,” he said. “We are seriously going to use every second to fight the campaign, clear the theater and set the enduring presence force.”  (photo: NATO)