Petraeus Mounts Strategy Review

Another expert slated to join the team is Clare Lockhart, co-founder of the New York-based Institute for State Effectiveness, who spent five years working in Afghanistan as an adviser to the United Nations, the Afghan government and the NATO-led military command. "This team will essentially provide a policy bridge from one administration to the next," Lockhart said.

Reconciliation of moderate Taliban insurgents who are willing to ally with the Afghan government is emerging as one main thrust of Petraeus's approach, according to officials and experts who have discussed it with him recently.

"In Afghanistan, or in any country where society is dominated by tribes, reconciliation really needs to be a focus," said a senior Central Command official.

Petraeus agreed but stressed that any outreach needs to be done in conjunction with the Afghan government. "I do think you have to talk to enemies," he said at the Heritage Foundation. "Clearly you want to try to reconcile with as many as possible. . . . The key there is making sure all of that is done in complete coordination and with the complete support of the Afghan government and President [Hamid] Karzai."

Another priority is to take a regional approach to the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including more robust diplomacy with neighbors and a regional economic development effort, experts said.

"All the regional countries are interfering in Afghanistan and backing proxies because they see the U.S. effort failing, and they are all hedging their bets," Rashid said. He added that Petraeus "does understand the regional approach" and was assertive in advancing that in Iraq.

"When you look at a lot of these problems, you see considerable regional connections," Petraeus said yesterday. The effort would embrace all of Afghanistan's neighbors and possibly extend to India, which has had a long-standing rivalry with Pakistan. "There may be opportunities with respect to India," he said.

An overview of the review team's mission obtained by The Post says that including other government agencies and other nations in the planning will "mitigate the risk of over-militarization of efforts and the development of short-term solutions to long-term problems."

Nevertheless, some experts questioned whether Petraeus will have the authority to carry out such a sweeping strategy.

"General Petraeus is not in charge of our diplomacy. He can't decide whether we try to form an international contacts group on Pakistan," said Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University.

Moreover, in dealing with Afghanistan at Central Command, Petraeus will face limitations that he did not encounter as the top commander in Iraq, such as the lack of a unified military command and serious resource shortages.

"We don't own it. It's been a NATO effort since 2006. He won't have the same sway with Karzai and the ambassadors and a bunch of other people that he had in Iraq," said a former senior military official with experience in Afghanistan.

Staff writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.