Victim of bureaucratic jealousy

Canada shows us a brilliant example of how bureaucratic turf wars on the homefront can negatively impact the war effort: Due to interdepartmental jealousies, the Department of National Defence has decided to disband the Strategic Advisory Team-Afghanistan. Since 2005 this unique Canadian Forces initiative — outside of the jurisdiction of ISAF or OEF — has garnered positive results and generally positive reviews from all except the (troubled) Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency.

The SAT-A was the brainchild of the former CDS General Rick Hillier and was a group of civilian-clothed military men (plus a few civvies and one CIDA rep) of long experience who advised the new Afghani government. They were put where civilian advisors could or would not go. The team could have came straight out of the pages of a Robert Kaplan book.

Now SAT-A will be replaced by a new CIDA-directed civilian team. True, Governance is one of CIDA’s mandates., but they are basically a development fund rather than an organization for nation-building.

This is a step back in getting Afghanistan on its feet, if simply for the loss of positive momentum already garnered by SAT-A. My first instinct was that this might have had something to do with General Natynczyk taking over as CDS last month. I am sure he was proud of SAT-A, but I don’t know how strong his powerbase in Ottawa is. However, according to The Torch this decision was made in April, during Hillier’s time. After nearly eight years of infighting Canada’s three big departments with responsibility in Afghanistan still have not learned to work together despite a plethora of flash-sounding initiatives (ie. Team Canada, 3D, Whole-of-Government, etc.). It is times like this I wish Canada had a president who could deliver an executive order to ensure that SAT-A could continue its work in the ‘Ghan.