When I was Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, I spent an enormous amount of time on the road. Each year, I would visit each of the Alliance’s capitals a couple of times a year. I’d also go to the nations that were not NATO allies but strong partners in Afghanistan. I did it because I wanted to have a human interaction and to build personal trust with the leaders of those nations and their militaries. In the U.S. military we have a saying, “You can’t surge trust.” In times of crisis, you can surge forces, but you must build trust one interaction at a time.
