The Role of the British Political Officer on the North West Frontier

[Red Rat]

As ever a font of knowledge and good advice! Trench's 'Frontier Scouts', Allen's 'Soldier Sahibs' and 'God's Terrorists' are all in the library here - Ahmed's 'Resistance and Control in Afghanistan' is now on order. The first three titles are fonts of knowledge, but none seem to clarify the precise nature of the relationship between the Political Officer and the military in terms of formal C2 relationships. Perhaps it was more along the lines of supported (Political Officer) and supporting (Military).

Leo (Lyon?) made some very good points wrt naming ('hostiles' as opposed to the plethora of jargonistic and sometimes misleading terms we have now) and the concept of 'tactical reconciliation'. I am less convinced by the MSST (Military Stabilisation Support Teams) concept, partly because I know little about it. From the briefings I have had it comes across more as the deployable wing of the PRT designed to accomplish what the civilian component of the PRT (diplomats and development staff) cannot do because their rules and the local security situation will not allow them to deploy effectively; what they (the MSST) do not seem to possess is any political authority.

Of course what the big difference is now is that Coalition Forces are working with the Afghan Government, in whom the political authority is vested. Perhaps then we should have Afghan Poltical Officers attached to Coalition units instead?

Does anyone know what is happening in Pakistan with the current Pak Army offensive and the relationship between the political authorities and the military authorities there? The media gives the impression that all authority has been passed across to the military and report on it in purely military terms.