Security Governance in Afghanistan and the US Role
A critical analysis
Security Governance in Afghanistan
I. Summary:
Afghan security forces have lead security responsibility throughout the country, and the United
States and its allies are reducing military involvement in Afghanistan. The current International security mission finishes at end of 2014 and is expected to transition to a smaller mission consisting mostly of training the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF). The number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, about 100,000 in 2011, was reduced to a “pre-surge” level of about 66,000 by 2012, and to about 34,000 as of 2014 (Ellwood 2014). According to a US report the U.S. force will minimize to about 22,000 by the end of October. A “residual force” that will remain in Afghanistan after 2014 is likely to consist of about 12,000 U.S. and NATO trainers and mentors, of which about two-thirds would be U.S. forces, plus about 3,000 mostly U.S. counterterrorism forces. No decisions on the residual force have been announced, in part because President Hamid Karzai refuses to sign a required Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) before he leaves office in mid-2014 (Krishnamurthy 2014). However, all the candidates in presidential election which just took place with apparent high turnout and minimal violence publicly support the agreement. But a successor will likely not take office until July 2014 at the earliest, constraining the U.S. and NATO force planning process. Fearing instability after 2014, some ethnic and political faction leaders are reviving their militia forces should the international drawdown lead to a major Taliban push to retake power. U.S and Afghan armed force could not totally eliminate The Taliban, Al Q...
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...e the conditional inclusion into a new, more regionally focused structure where it has a real opportunity to participate and win elections in regions such as the greater Kandahar area. This, however, is only possible through governance and the party political reform outlined in the previous chapter.
Works Cited
Ellwood, Tobias. "Stabilizing Afghanistan: Proposals for Improving Security, Governance, and Aid/Economic Development." Atlantic Council , 2014: 3-28.
Fluri, Dr. Phillip. Afghanistan’s Security sector governance Challenges . Geneva: Dr. Antonio Giustozzi, 2013.
Katzman, Kenneth. Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy. CSR Report , New York: Congressional Research Service, 2014.
Krishnamurthy, Rajeshwari. "Afghanistan 2014 BSA, Internal Security, Taliban & Indian Strategy." Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies , 2014: 4-16.
Smith, Gordon. “Canada in Afghanistan: Is it working?” Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute, 2007.
The author detailed the many of the difficulties faced by the special operations forces in Afghanistan. They made significant gains with the Village Stability Operations and a major concern for them was losing ground. However, certain factors threatened those gains. In particular, the wars unpopularity at home and President Obama 2014 timetable to withdraw were major hurdles. The author explained that this complicated the efforts of the special operations forces because; a counterinsurgency strategy takes time to cultivate. Many military leaders fear that their efforts will not hold up in their absence. They believe the assistance of the United States is crucial to continued success in the war. The biggest obstacle to this effort was the relationship between American and Afghani Leadership. President Karzai insisted Afghan Special Forces accompany U.S. Special Forces on night raids. Military leaders were hesitant at first nevertheless, president Karzai insisted. In addition, he wanted Afghan approval for every mission launched. The author concludes that the real intention for accompanying the U....
"Who Are the Taliban?" BBC. BBC News South Asia, 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. .
Interestingly enough, many different ethnic groups can be found in Afghanistan. Some are from other countries and others have only Afghan routes. Discoveries show that Hazaras are one of the lowest and Pashtuns one of the highest powers in Afghan society. People would automatically assume that there were only one or two different ethnic groups, which live in Afghanistan. However, there appears to be a great variety of different peoples living in Afghan society. All together, fourteen different ethnicities can be discovered in Afghanistan. I have found the following: Arab, Hindu-Sikh, Farsiwans, Wakhis, Sunni Brahui, Qizilbash, Aimaqs, Baluchs, Nuristanis, Turkmens, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Tajik, and Pashtun people.
...s vote for a party instead for an individual, and when the votes are tallied for the region the regional representative seats for that region are divided among the parties in proportion to the share of the vote that each party received.
The United States Military though has problems in the country and has been having these problems since the invasion. Training Afghan forces and fighting the Taliban has not been working and is not efficient. We are trying to win the hearts and minds of the people but when the Taliban are blowing up schools and hospitals, winning those hearts and minds is a challenge. “Americans are used to be successful and these wars are not” announces Mark Lytle (Hampson). Americans are being worn down and soon will be on the verge of giving up, something Al Qaeda wants, and we are letting our enemy win this war. Afghanistan though also has ethnic problems. There are several divisions in Afghanistan, different tribes different ethnic background. The concept of majority rule has not been sitting well. The Afghan Government is corrupt and is not efficient enough to rule effectively. “The sooner we accept that Afghanistan ...
The United States is a developed country that people are lucky to be able to live in. In the past however, not everyone was given the same rights. Through legislation and even war, people have fought for change so that we could live in the world that we live in today. Similarly, in Afghanistan people are fighting for their rights everyday. They have been through war and oppression to reach their goals of the freedoms that every person deserves. In this country, women and children are restricted from rights that every person deserves, though they have revolutionized into a country that is somewhat better than it was in the past, they can improve marginally.
Witte, Griff. "Afghanistan War (2001-present)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Heywood reminds us that parties are quite a recent innovation; indeed they first appeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the United-Sates of America with the creation of the Federalist and the Democratic-Republican parties (2007, p. 273). And yet it can be observed that parties are now omnipresent, even in dictatorships where they exist as single-parties state. Heywood points out that in 1950 political parties were used to administer 80% of states in the world but that number decreased with the rise of military regimes in the developing world in the 1960s. However they increased anew with the upgrade of democracy that marked the 1980s and 1990s in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as former communist states (Heywood, 2007, pp. 271-272). ...
The Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) in northwest Pakistan serves as a sanctuary for the Taliban (“Afghanistan And Pakistan” 10). Although within Pakistan’s borders, the federal government does not exert actual control of the region, rather local Pashtun leaders govern the area and the region is believed to be home to many radical Islamic training camps and hideouts (Kurtzman 308). Moreover, the Pakistani ISI (think CIA of Pakistan), provides “logistics assistance” to the Taliban (“Afghanistan And Pakistan” 10) and the CIA even believes that the ISI provided support to the Taliban in a 2008 bombing of an Indian embassy in Kabul (Feisal 172). Multiple agencies, such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies and U.S. General Accountability Office, have concluded that the ISI provides significant support for the Taliban (Feisel 172). With all this mind, the Pakistan government chooses to support the Taliban (although they will not directly admit it) because of their strained relationship with Kabul, self interest to spread radical Islam rather than Pashtun nationalism, and their rival, India, supports an anti-Pakistan government in control of Afghanistan (Feisal 173). By Pakistan empowering the Taliban, this creates the opportunity to have a pro-Pakistan government in Afghanistan if the Taliban were able to control the country once again (“Afghanistan And Pakistan” 9). By spreading radical Islam, Pakistan is diverting Pashtuns attention from their ethnic culture to the religion of Islam; they do this because empowered Pashtuns might want to form a “Pashtunistan” which would require Pakistan to give up some of its land to a new nation (“Afghanistan And Pakistan” 9). Furthermore, Pakistan is rivals with India which wants an anti-Pakistani government in Kabul and Pakistan has tried to empower the Taliban in order to prevent
On September 11, 2001, the most disastrous terrorist attack in U.S. history left a countless number of innocent Americans both dead and missing. The Taliban’s assault on the Pentagon and annihilation of New York’s World Trade Center caused the entire country to wonder what was going on in the rest of the world to cause so much animosity toward our great nation. Little did many American citizens know that this shocking catastrophe was the result of years of unrest and chaos in the Middle East. The tragic events of September 11th occurred as a result of the recent, political history of Afghanistan, the development of the radical Islamic group, the Taliban, and the monetary and military support that the Taliban has received.
Along with the financial costs, there is human cost with the loss of life of civilians, Canadian soldiers. The invasion of Afghanistan is only a short term solution to a bigger problem. When Canada and other nations leave the country, the Taliban and the warlord tribes will continue to insight fear on the Afghan citizens (Endersby, 2011). Conclusion Canada’s involvement has brought about a continuous debate on whether or not they should be in Afghanistan fighting a war that is half a world away. The events of September 11, 2001 in the United States reinforced the need to fight terrorism on a global scale.
Afghanistan since its beginning has been a place of conflict, despair, and at times lost hope. It has been taken advantage of and lost its sense of identity, which has had a direct effect on its people, and there own sense of what justice truly is.
Recently Afghanistan has grown significantly in terms of its ability to care for itself. A national army and a developing police force are becomi...
Council, H. P. (2012). Afghanistan's vision by 2015 . Kabul: High Peace Council law committee .