Influencing Helmand: United States Marine Corps Operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2008

摘要

In 2008, two Marine Corps infantry battalions (Battalion Landing Team 1/6 and Task Force 2/7) operated in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Each battalion operated in a different sized battlespace in rural areas and each battalion met with a different degree of success. Both battalions found that in rural counterinsurgency operations a unit's Area of' Influence ebbs and flows over time and is driven by physical and moral factors that must be taken into consideration when designing a unit's campaign plan and formulating a realistic desired endstate. The analysis concludes that a unit's area of influence needs to be studied, evaluated, and constantly reevaluated during operations to enable commanders to nimbly adapt to the ever evolving situation in a counterinsurgency campaign. Incorporating the discourse on a unit's Area of Influence into Problem Framing provides a compatible venue for detailed analysis.