ABSTRACT
In a class discussion about civil-military interaction at the Norwegian Naval Military Academy in Bergen, one student reflected upon the “Norwegian model” by stating that perhaps there was no need to change the model because the goal was never to actually support local populations in an operations area in the first place. Employing a realist reading of the situation, he suggested that the Norwegian government was only in Afghanistan to demonstrate its solidarity to its allies in NATO and nothing more, which would in turn result in a stonewalling (the culture of silence) in the policy corridors regarding any interest in developing or improving this model.
