Publication

This report identifies vital US interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan and outlines how the US can transition, between July 2011 and 2014, from a large-scale and resource-intensive counterinsurgency campaign to the more sustainable US and allied presence deemed necessary to protect those interests. This change aims to shift the balance of fighting the Taliban from US forces to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) by 2014 while focusing a smaller number of residual US forces on the long-term threat from al-Qaeda.