ABSTRACT
During the 1990s and well into the 2000s, many European states transformed their forces into an expeditionary instrument. Designed for international operations, Western commanders and staff officers performed nation building, mentoring, and good governance within a highly politicized whole-of-government approach in Afghanistan. With Russia’s Crimea annexation in 2014 and the Ukraine War in 2022, the forces rebalanced back to territorial tasks. How can European municipals utilize the military experiences from Afghanistan? Two empirical and two theoretical findings are deduced: Civilian leaders should more proactively exploit military skills and expertise in their planning and decision processes; pragmatism should dominate contemporary civil-military relationships; there is no clear-cut relationship between civilian and military roles and responsibilities in a hybrid threat environment; integration of civilian and military organizations and governance may be encouraged at local levels.
