Admiral Stavridis encouraged students to read, think, and write during their year at National Defense University during a convocation there. Given that “the quintessential skill of an officer is to bring order out of chaos,” he shared ways to “understand global politics and grand strategy, the importance of the ‘logistics nation,’ how the interagency community worked, what the levers of power and practice were in the world—in essence, how everything fits together in producing security for the United States and our partners.” Speed will be vital since opportunities are fleeting, and interested parties must share a vision of security built on trust and partnering. Planners must always be thinking of the next step in this era of out-thinking opponents.

Counterinsurgency has always required a holistic or comprehensive approach of one form or another. At the global level, the comprehensive approach articulates the connections of the full spectrum of complexity of operations, from security through rule of law and governance to humanitarianism, and describes the most appropriate roles for soldiers and civilians. At the national level, it is an approach that conceptualizes the interaction among security forces, the rest of government, and civil society. Yet, the realization of the comprehensive approach internationally and in the host country remains problematic. In Afghanistan, the comprehensive approach has matured over the years; more actors are involved, bringing more capabilities to the effort. The comprehensive approach has resulted in improvements in Afghanistan's security, government legitimacy, combating corruption, and strengthening the economy and licit agricultural production.