Begin with soldier brought up in home country (9)
I believe the answer is:
instigate
'begin' is the definition.
'soldier brought up in home country' is the wordplay.
'soldier' becomes 'gi' (government issue or general issue).
'brought up' says the letters should be written in reverse (down clues only).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'country' becomes 'state' ('state' can be a synonym of 'country'**).
'gi' backwards is 'ig'.
'in'+'state'='instate'
'ig' inserted within 'instate' is 'INSTIGATE'.
'with' is the link.
(Other definitions for instigate that I've seen before include "Urge on - teasing it (anag)" , "I get saint to urge or incite" , "Start" , "Incite - set in motion" , "Provoke" .)