NATO and the Impact of the Long War in Afghanistan: Avoiding a Wrong Memory About ISAF

NATO’s engagement in Afghanistan has been the most demanding mission in the alliance history. While NATO confirmed its reliability as a multilateral organization with extraordinary capabilities to project military power even in distant and far-reaching theatres of war, Afghanistan represents a unique case in which the alliance faced new challenges not comparable with other post-Cold War missions. The chapter delves into the peculiarities which distinguish NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan from the interventions in the Balkans and then in Libya: the lately engagement after the US-led mission; the concurrent presence of peace-keeping and counterterrorist operations; the unprecedented transformation during the mission from peace-keeping to counter-insurgency. Grasping such uniqueness is the starting point to better appreciate the impact that the long war in Afghanistan may have for the alliance’s future.