Background of the Task Force

The TFBSO mission in Afghanistan, as stated in the fiscal year (FY) 2011 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), was to “reduce violence, enhance stability, and support economic normalcy in Afghanistan through strategic business and economic activities.”¹ This chapter begins by describing how this unique mission requirement emerged, providing a brief history of TFBSO’s origins in Iraq and expansion into Afghanistan.² We then provide a detailed description of the Task Force’s three major lines of effort. The focus of the first line of effort, extractive industries, was to “put the right data together so that internationally respected and environmentally and socially