Managing collateral damage in PSOs, example of ISAF
Lucie Vernerová


Outline
• ISAF
oEngagement of NATO
o
•Collateral damage
oDefinition
o
•Case: Afghanistan
oMission´s progress
oCollateral damage in Afghanistan
o
o
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ISAF
•The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is an operation led by the NATO whose primary
mission is the support of the elected (post-Taliban) Afghan government
•constructed to assist
•August 11, 2003 – NATO the official lead organization
•NATO was meant to be a solution to the complicated situation in Afghanistan
•Become a big part of security problem
•ISAF finished 2014
•Afghanistan is not stable
•Counterinsurgency was not eliminated
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Collateral damage
•Collateral damage during a war is the unintentional deaths and injuries of people who are not
soldiers, and damage that is caused to their homes, hospitals, schools, etc.
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•In every mission you should try to keep it low
•There are never perfect data of the collateral damage
•What is considered as collateral damage differ
•Collateral damage
o1) insurgents
o2) government force
o3) tool of intimidation e.g. genocide, mass killing
o4) resulting from war – death disease, starvation
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•

Obsah obrázku snímek obrazovky Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
Resource: UNAMA report, 2019:
https://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/unama_protection_of_civilians_in_armed_conflict_-_
3rd_quarter_update_2019.pdf

Obsah obrázku snímek obrazovky Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
Resource: UNAMA report, 2019:
https://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/unama_protection_of_civilians_in_armed_conflict_-_
3rd_quarter_update_2019.pdf

Obsah obrázku snímek obrazovky, mapa Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
Resource: UNAMA report, 2019:
https://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/unama_protection_of_civilians_in_armed_conflict_-_
3rd_quarter_update_2019.pdf

Obsah obrázku mapa, text Popis byl vytvořen automaticky
Resource: UNAMA report, 2019:
https://unama.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/unama_protection_of_civilians_in_armed_conflict_-_
3rd_quarter_update_2019.pdf

Case: Afghanistan
•The goal of PSO in Afghanistan was to protect civilians during the military offence
• The key to successful mission was winning hearts and minds of Afghanistan population
•NATO had suffered from great dilemma
•Around 2008 – change of the strategy of this mission
•the conflict will be won by persuading the population, NOT destroying the enemy
•Why is it so important to keep the number low?
•the revenge way of thinking

Managing the collateral damage
•Building relations with the local people
•helping them to reconstruct their own state
•let the Afghanistan people to solve the Afghan problem
•To get people involve as active participants in their communities
•creating new viable local alternatives to insurgencies
•be a positive force
•to employ young men
•Provincial reconstruction teams (PRT)
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Recent development
•2010 – troops started to leave Afghanistan
•BUT 2015 – TALIBAN started to regain its lost position
oOnly 70% of the state was under control of the government
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•The number of the death civilians in 2019 is one of the highest (2,563)
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•2019 Peace agreement ? (USA and Taliban)
•Time for American soldiers to withdraw?
•Would Taliban use this opportunity for the reincarnation of its power?
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Conclusion
•keep the number of collateral damage low
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•without support of local people and their trust the mission has hardly any chance to be successful
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•Due to the high number of collateral damage, it does not seem that the situation in Afghanistan
would get better

Thank you for your attention
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