The Foreign Service Journal, January 2011

lieve they have government.” All too often, coalition efforts have been spread too thin for local communities to be comfortable sup- porting our efforts, given the risks they run by doing so. So the most important aspect of the coalition’s efforts in northern Tagab is that we have sought to consolidate assorted lines of effort — development, se- curity and governance — in a man- ner ensuring a critical mass of engagement that leads entire com- munities to stop sitting on the fence and start actively supporting their government. Undertaking consistent, focused microdiplo- macy is essential to this outcome. The recent successes in northern Tagab are tentative, but the methodology is being expanded to other commu- nities in Kapisa province. (Other PRTs elsewhere in the country may be pursuing similar strategies, but we are not in a position to comment on that.) The challenges of effectively working with and through the peo- ple of Afghanistan are profoundly difficult, but microdiplomacy of- fers great potential. As the Tagab chief of police says, “Security has improved a lot in the last year. People are looking to the govern- ment with good eyes for the first time. This comes from the coali- tion projects like the road and pomegranates, and the road teams. The enemy still attacks but the people turn away from them, so they are not earning anything with their at- tacks.” J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 25 C OVER S TORY As these relationships grew, the coalition became able to respond more nimbly to events on the ground and further cement the ties it had painstakingly built with local leaders.