Kalev Sepp
Kalev Sepp is a U.S. specialist in insurgency and counterinsurgency, currently Senior Lecturer in Defense Analysis, Center on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare, Naval Postgraduate School. Between 2007 and 2009, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Capabilities (2007-2009) and a member of the Expert Panel of the Iraq Study Group. He is a retired United States Army Special Forces officer with the Combat Infantryman Badge for service in El Salvador.
With respect to the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), he considers it a more realistic objective not for the U.S. to try to defeat the Taliban, but to enable the Afghan people and government to do so. Comparibg the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said "The principal difference is the enemy. In Iraq, the Sunni, who had been Saddam's favorite group, they had lost the civil war against the Shia and they knew that they were in a box. And also, they had soured on the al-Qaeda foreign fighters. So it was a very positive moment to support the surge. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are not back on their heels. They have the initiative. In the last five years, they've gone from being dominant in about 30 districts to being dominant in about 150 or 160. They know they are winning. They know they don't need to negotiate right now. "[1]
Published in Military Review, his paper, "Best Practices in Counterinsurgency", is frequently cited, especially with respect to the requirement that for a counterinsurgency to succeed, the sine qua non is to see the government as legitimate. This is especially complex in Afghanistan, where [2]
Education
- PhD, Harvard University, 2002
- Master of Military Arts and Sciences, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1992
References
- ↑ Obama's Afghanistan Plan Marks Strategy Shift, National Public Radio, 5 December 2009
- ↑ "Best Practices in Counterinsurgency", Military Review, May-June 2005