Afghan War News > Security > Village Stability Operations (VSO)

What is Village Stability Operations (VSO)?

The VSO initiative was a bottom-up program that facilitated local security and development at the village level, connecting the local population to district level governance.  VSO is grounded in the tradition of rural Afghan villages providing for their own security, and focuses on Afghan communities with the will but not the means to resist the insurgents through grass-roots initiatives, especially in areas that have limited ANSF and ISAF presence.  3.

History of Village Stability Operations (VSO).  Village Stability Operations or VSO is a comprehensive plan to provide security, governance and development to communities in Afghanistan at the village or district level utilizing a "bottom up" approach.  This VSO concept has evolved from lessons learned from earlier local defense and community watch programs that the coalition forces have stood up in Afghanistan. It began on a trial basis as Village Development Initiative.

Elders sit and listen to Shah Joy District Governor speak during
 a shura in Shah Joy district, Zabul province, Afghanistan.
Courtesy Photo CJSOTF-A Media Operations Center. 

Bottom Up vs. Top Down Solutions for Afghanistan.  The  Village Stability Operations program is an example of a "bottom up" approach to providing solutions to the Afghanistan insurgent problem.  Afghanistan has a history of weak central governments that provide little to nothing in terms of services to small, rural, and remote communities.  Many of the district and provincial governments are ineffective and and in many cases corrupt.  VSO attempts to tie the community and village to the local district centers where the government officials work and government are accessible.  If the local population feels that the government is legitimate and performs a service then perhaps the local population will support the Afghanistan government - and reduce its support to insurgents. 

For more on this see works by Dr. Seth Jones entitled In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan, Stabilization from the Bottom Up, and Afghanistan's Local War: Building Local Defense Forces. 

Also see "COIN in Practice: Bottom-Up Tactics to Develop the Districts of Afghanistan", DVIDS, April 30, 2010.

Selection of VSO Sites.  The potential VSO location must offer an operational or strategic value to ISAF and the Afghan government - this because of limited SOF resources and operational teams.  In addition, the site must be operationally feasible and logistically sustainable.  The Washington Post has a graphic or map that displays the disposition and locations of VSO sites in Afghanistan as of 2011 (accessed on March 18, 2012).

Shape, Hold, Build, Expand and transition.  The VSO methodology is comprised of four phases: shape, hold, build and expand/transition.  The goal of the shape phase is to gain a understanding of the VSO location, engage the local leaders and community, and gain local consent and an invitation for a SOF team to embed within the community.  During the hold phase the SOF team works with the local community and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) operating nearby to improve the security situation.  It is during this phase that the community may agree to form and support an Afghan Local Police unit.  During the build phase the Village Stability Platform (SOF team with augmentation from other functional teams) starts linking the village or community to the district government where governance and development activities are coordinated. This linkup provides for more interaction with the District Governor, coordination with representatives of the Afghan line ministries (MRRD, MAIL, etc.) who work at the district level, and working with other agencies such as USAID and NGOs.  Once a VSP is successful in fostering a connection between the village and the district center the expand and transition phase begins.  Ideally the VSO concept would spread to other villages in the district until the entire district has been stabilized - enjoying the benefits of increased development, governance and security.  4. and 5.

Village Stability Platforms.  The conduct of Village Stability Operations is done by a Village Stability Platform or VSP.  The VSP is a collection of coalition members (a small team) that works together to further the VSO mission.  Usually the VSP is built around a core element consisting of a SOF team (SF, SEAL, or MARSOF team).  Additional assistance is provided by tactical Psyop (now called MISO), civil affairs, military working dogs, interpreters, Cultural Support Teams (CSTs), Female Treatment Teams (FTTs), and other support (cooks, mechanics, intel, etc.) or "enablers".  6.

District Stability Operations vs Village Stability Operations. Some have argued 9. that VSO is actually being transformed into DSO or District Stability Operations. In fact as all conventional forces in Afghanistan decrease in size the Security Force Assistance Advisor Teams (SFAATs) are "thinning up". So too are the SOF teams conducting VSO. Many of these teams are actually working at the district level (not village) training ALP from a number of villages. In the future, as the SOF footprint gets smaller many of the SOF teams will likely vacate district centers and start working at provincial or regional locations.

ALP as a part of Village Stability Operations or VSO.  The Afghan Local Police (ALP) program is a major component of the security line of effort found within the VSO methodology.  The role that the ALP plays in VSO is explained in  "Taking a Stand: Village Stability Operations and the Afghan Local Police", Special Warfare Magazine, July-September 2011. Read news reports about the ALP.

Cultural Support Teams.  The CSTs or Cultural Support Teams help the VSP get access to the 50% of the Afghan population that males cannot interact with.  CSTs are specially selected and trained females who undergo a rigorous training program conducted by United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) at Fort Bragg, NC.  2.

Role of Civil Affairs in Village Stability Operations.  Civil Affairs teams are an integral part of the Village Stability Operations concept.  CA teams comprise a part of the Village Stability Platform (VSP).  CA is a finite resource and not all VSO locations have a CA team - so the CA teams stay quite busy.  Read more in "The Role of Civil Affairs in Village Stability Operations", by CPT Neiman C. Young, Special Warfare Magazine, Volume 24, Issue 3, September 2011.

Other VSO Supporters.  Military members of the VSP team are not the only personnel or organizations that provide assistance to the VSO mission.  USAID, NGOs, and other agencies also are strong contributors.  In addition, contracts for specialized technical assistance are funded. For instance, the USAID stabilization program is of immense assistance as well as the occasional contractor.  7.

VSO - A Complex Operation.  Conducting Village Stability Operations is not easy.  It takes a well-trained and mature small unit to accomplish the many and varied tasks within VSO.  Some of the complexities of VSO are presented in "The Nuts and Bolts of Village Stability Operations", by CW3 Stephen Rust, Special Warfare Magazine, Volume 24, Issue 3, September 2011.

Future of VSO (and ALP).  The SOF community has almost reached the full extent of its capacity to support the expansion of VSO (and ALP).  Careful thought needs to be put into how to expand beyond the current footprint.  An article in Special Warfare magazine provides some history and background on VSO and also points to how to maintain the VSO focus and momentum - see "Forecasting the Future of Afghanistan", by COL Don Bolduc, Special Warfare Magazine, Volume 24, Issue 4, October-December 2011. Also of interest is "Shaping Coalition Forces' Strategic Narrative in Support of Village Stability Operations", LTC Scott Mann, Small Wars Journal, March 31, 2011.  The direction that would probably ensure the greatest success of the VSO program is pairing U.S. SOF teams with Afghan National Army Special Forces (ANASF) teams when conducting the VSO mission.  8.

Conclusion. VSO saw its greatest success during the 2010 to 2012 period. However, the U.S. mission was on a timeline and the support to the program diminished. Had the U.S. stayed in Afghanistan for the long-term (decades) the program would have been a game-changer.

Videos about Village Stability Operations (VSO)

September 7, 2017. In the Warlord's Shadow: Village Stability Operations in Afghanistan, New America. In this 1 1/2 hour long video, Dan Green - a book author, talks about his experience working with a U.S. Navy SEAL Special Operations Task Force conducting VSO in southern Afghanistan.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jml53biWOHQ

Publications and Reports on
Village Stability Operations (VSO) and Related Topics
(listed in chronological order)

News Articles about Village Stability Operations (VSO)

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Endnotes

1.  Joe Quinn and Mario A. Fumerton, "Counterinsurgency from Below: The Afghan Local Police in Theoretical and Comparative Perspective", November 2010.  (Adobe Acrobat PDF file accessed on December 29, 211 at
https://ronna-afghan.harmonieweb.org/CAAT/Shared%20Documents/Counterinsurgency%20From%20Below.pdf ).

2.  Fritz Butac, "Women Receive Vocational Training in Khas Konar", DVIDS, August 23, 2011.  See also the Paula Broadwell article entitled "CST: Afghanistan", The Best Defense blog, Foreign Affairs, February 8, 2011.

3.  Definition of VSO taken from "United States Plan for Sustaining the Afghanistan National Security Forces", Department of Defense, April 2011.  Page 61.

4.  The Shape, Hold, Build, Expand and Transition methodology is explained in "Village Stability Operations: More than Village Defense" by COL Ty Connett and COL Bob Cassidy, Special Warfare Magazine, July-September 2011 edition.

5.  An example of VSO expansion is provided in the following article where the VSP (SOF team with augmentation) of one village (Owimast, Qeysar District, Faryab Province) turns its attention to a neighboring village (Khwaja Kinti) controlled by insurgents.  "Program builds trust in villages, weakens Taliban influence", ISAF, September 20, 2011.

6.  The activities of a VSP is explained in "Transforming the Conflict in Afghanistan", by Joseph A. L'Etoile, PRISM 2, no. 4, September 2011, NDU Press.

7.  Agricultural experts are provided to SOF teams conducting VSO through a contract mechanism.  See "Oak Grove and TigerSwan to Support Afghan Afgricuture", Oak Grove Technologies, June 14, 2011.

8.  The Afghan National Army Special Forces detachments, which are very similar to U.S. Special Forces (USSF), are ideally suited for Village Stability Operations or VSO.  See "ANA Special Forces team 'incredible'", Outside the Wire, ArmyTimes.com, October 27, 2010.  Accessed here Feb 2012.

9. In Small Wars Journal one can find an online article by Christopher Wilkerson who discusses the concept of DSO versus VSO (published March 19, 2013).