Counterinsurgency
in Eastern Afghanistan
2004–2008
PRAISE
"Robert Kemp's candid account of the joint efforts of American military officers and civilians to help local government officials and ordinary citizens in remote, often dangerous areas to reconstruct their war-torn country is a valuable contribution to our understanding of American achievements and failures in Afghanistan. It also usefully illustrates how 21st century challenges have greatly widened the range of activities our diplomats must pursue."
–– HOWARD B. SCHAFFER, U.S. Ambassador (ret.)
“Robert Kemp’s Counterinsurgency in Eastern Afghanistan 2004–2008: A Civilian Perspective is a must-read for all those following developments in Afghanistan since 2001. The book succeeds both as thoughtful analysis and as a practical guide for military and civilian personnel in the field. Perhaps its greatest value is that the approach taken is relevant not only for Afghanistan but also for other regions of the world where similar conditions exist.”
–– ARTURO MUÑOZ, RAND Corporation
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROBERT KEMP, a U.S. State Department Foreign Service officer, served in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and from 2007 to 2008, as well as for two shorter assignments. He was the Deputy Director of the Pakistan Desk in Washington and also completed several short-term assignments in Pakistan. Other posts included China, the Philippines, USNATO/Brussels, Bolivia, and Brazil. Kemp holds Master's degrees from the University of Kentucky and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and was a Dean Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University. He was awarded the Department of the Army Commander’s Award for Public Service for his work in Afghanistan.
In 2003, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST), a nonprofit organization founded in 1986, created the Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series to preserve firsthand accounts and other informed observations on foreign affairs for scholars, journalists, and the general public. Through its book series, its Foreign Affairs Oral History program, and its support for the training of foreign affairs personnel at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, ADST seeks to promote understanding of American diplomacy and those who conduct it. U.S. Foreign Service officer Robert Kemp’s account sheds light on both the civilian and military aspects of civil-military cooperation in counterinsurgency and on the resources in time, people, and money devoted to achieving allied goals in Afghanistan.
OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES
Claudia Anyaso, ed., Fifty Years of US Africa Policy
Diego and Nancy Asencio, The Joys and Perils of Serving Abroad: Memoirs of a US Foreign Service Family
Janet C. Ballantyne and Maureen Dugan, eds., Fifty Years in USAID: Stories from the Front Lines
John Gunther Dean, Danger Zones: A Diplomat’s Fight for America’s Interests
Robert E. Gribbin, In the Aftermath of Genocide: The US Role in Rwanda
Allen C. Hansen, Nine Lives: A Foreign Service Odyssey
Joanne Huskey, The Unofficial Diplomat
David T. Jones, ed., The Reagan-Gorbachev Arms Control Breakthrough: Eliminating Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Missiles
John G. Kormann, Echoes of a Distant Clarion: Recollections of a Diplomat and Soldier
Armin Meyer, Quiet Diplomacy: From Cairo to Tokyo in the Twilight of Imperialism
William Morgan and Charles Stuart Kennedy, eds., American Diplomats: The Foreign Service at Work
John David Tinny, From the Inside Out
Daniel Whitman, A Haiti Chronicle: The Undoing of a Latent Democracy, 1999–2001
Susan Wyatt, Arabian Nights and Daze: Living in Yemen with the Foreign Service
For a complete list of series titles, visit <adst.org/publications>
Counterinsurgency
in Eastern Afghanistan
2004–2008
A Civilian Perspective
Robert Kemp
MEMOIRS AND OCCASIONAL PAPERS SERIES
ASSOCIATION FOR DIPLOMATIC STUDIES AND TRAINING
Washington, DC
Copyright © 2014 by Robert Kemp
New Academia Publishing/Vellum Books 2014
The views and opinions in this book are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, DACOR, Inc., or the Government of the United States, including the Department of State.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.
Published in eBook format by New Academia Publishing/VELLUM Books
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ISBN-13: 978-0-9904-4715-3
PO Box 27420, Washington, DC 20038-7420
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All photographs in this book were taken by the author
For Kate and Kiara
Foreword
America was attacked from and went to war in Afghanistan in the first year of the twenty-first century. Nearly midway into the second decade Americans are winding down only their own participation; the war continues. With but a few exceptions, writings about the war have focused either at the policy level or on aspects of combat and the military. Americans are vaguely aware that civilians also served; particularly diplomats, aid workers, contractors, and civil servants from numerous cabinet departments, including Agriculture, Justice, Homeland Security, State, and others. But as to what these many civilians did, risked, and tried to accomplish few in the general public could say. When journalists or inspectors occasionally criticize, they often do so with no discussion of why decisions were made or with any understanding of either the challenges or reasons for action. This is not to argue against the view that many mistakes were made; they were. In general that is the story of all wars, particularly irregular wars fought in strange surroundings that need to be learned even as events demand decisions before learning can take root.
Against that background Robert Kemp’s work fills in many blank spots about the civilian side of civil-military cooperation in counterinsurgency. It is the personal account of a Foreign Service officer who was prepared to return several times to Afghanistan to serve his country. That in itself is a story of service that exemplifies many American diplomats and