Why Security Force Assistance Only Sometimes Works

Modern War Institute

John Amble

Government, News

4.7 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After twenty years of America’s post-9/11 wars and the US military’s struggle to build capable and effective security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is an important discussion taking place about what role security force assistance should play for the United States in the very different strategic environment that is taking shape. Will it be a mission that we'll be required to do in order to compete with Russia and China? Or will it become tangential to our preparations for large-scale combat operations? And given the challenges we faced over the past two decades, what needs to happen to achieve better outcomes in the future? Will Reno, a professor of political science at Northwestern University, and Franky Matisek, a military professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College, have researched the topic deeply, including conducting hundreds of interviews in the field. They join this episode to discuss their findings. The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, building the security forces of another country, I mean, what you're doing in essence is you're helping them make a state.
0:16.0	When we look at like Afghanistan, it was, it was obvious in 2018.
0:20.0	That's what we had essentially
0:21.5	built another Baburjeet-A army. We have a lot of problems with SFA, but it's something that we're
0:28.4	probably going to do more of because in terms of pursuit of our national interests, we're
0:33.9	going to see it as necessary.
0:42.4	Hey, welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast. I'm John Ambo, editorial director at MWI, and I'm joined in this episode by Will Reno and Frankie Matasek. Will is a professor
0:48.1	at Northwestern University and chair of its political science department. And Frankie is an active
0:53.0	duty Air Force Lieutenant Colonel
0:54.6	and an associate professor in the Air Force Academy's Military and Strategic Studies Department.
1:00.2	They have each conducted a ton of research on the topic of security force assistance,
1:04.4	and together they are currently working on a DOD-funded project to study what makes security
1:09.1	force assistance work, and when it doesn't work,
1:12.3	what contributes to its failure? After 20 years of America's post-9-11 wars and the U.S. military
1:17.7	struggle, frankly, to achieve its security force assistance objectives, there is an open and
1:23.2	important discussion taking place about what role this mission should play for the United
1:27.0	States in a very different strategic environment going forward.
1:30.6	The conversation you'll hear in this episode is part of that discussion.
1:34.0	Before we get to it, just a couple quick notes.
1:36.4	First, if you're not yet subscribed to the MWI podcast, please do so.
1:40.1	You can find it on your favorite podcast app.
1:42.8	And second, what you hear in this episode are the views of the participants and don't represent those of West Point, the Army, or any other agency of the U.S. government.
	...

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