Drawing from the NATO Special Operations advisory mission in Afghanistan, the research highlights best practices across the full advisory lifecycle — from pre-deployment training through continuity of operations across rotations.

This RAND study, created at the best of the senior special operations officer in Afghanistan, applied lessons from the history of local defense forces to support U.S. Village Stability Operations in Afghanistan and the Afghan Local Police.

This RAND study draws on extensive documentary material and interviews with American, British, and Australian military and civilian personnel from Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom to identify tools that help militaries conduct urban combat and post-conflict restoration more effectively, on the premise that preserving innocent life and rebuilding what war destroys are now strategic obligations because cities are the keys to nations.

This RAND report finds that CERP in Afghanistan was effective when nested within operations—especially for "softer" outcomes like rapport and local governance—and recommends restricting it to small-dollar projects, building unit-to-unit transition processes, training all relevant personnel, and formalizing a USAID role.