The 'training and equipping trusted local forces’, also known as Security Force Assistance (SFA), became a central component in many global conflict in the modern era all around the world. The...Show moreThe 'training and equipping trusted local forces’, also known as Security Force Assistance (SFA), became a central component in many global conflict in the modern era all around the world. The indirect way of engaging in conflict is, according to policy makers, today’s panacea to ‘achieve a more sustainable victory’ while ‘it won’t require us sending a new generation (...) overseas to fight and die for another decade on foreign soil’. The unfortunate reality is, however, that little is known about the sustainability of this military strategy. Available studies on SFA predominantly assess the effectiveness on the battlefield, but there is surprisingly little academic research – let alone public debate – on its long-term effects and the kind of security it creates. As a first attempt to rectify this relative inattention in the literature, this study investigates the Mosul Offensive to understand how and with what effect the U.S.-led Global Coalition against Daesh tried to govern security outcomes in Iraq through the SFA programs that were central to Operation Inherent Resolve between 2014 and 2018.Show less
