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In the remote regions of Afghanistan, the use of community defence forces to supplement the stabilisation effort has had mixed results. Effective local governance is a key pre- requisite for successful community defence, but the weakness or absence of local institutions, and the lack of support from central government, has often meant training teams must spend time and resources building the appropriate framework from scratch. It is this link between security and governance, however, that makes community defence a possible model for the future.
Notes
1. ‘Community’ in southern Afghanistan is identified by qawm: ties of shared kinship and residence. The basic community unit in rural areas is the village or kishlak.
2. Deborah Haynes, ‘They went into Helmand with eyes shut and fingers crossed’, The Times, 9 June 2010.
3. Graeme Lamb and Richard Williams, ‘Upgrading Our Armed Forces’, Policy Exchange, 30 September 2010, p. 31.
4. Antonio Giustozzi, Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan (London: Hurst and Co, 2007), pp. 16673.
5. Government of Afghanistan, United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan and United Nations Development Programme, isbandment of Illegal Armed Groups’, 31 July 2005.<http://www.undp.org/cpr/documents/ ddr/pro_docs/Project_Doc_PRODOC_ DIAG_Jan._2005_-_June_2006.pdf>, accessed 12 May 2011.
6. Susanne Schmeidl and Masood Karokhail, ‘The Role of Non-State Actors in “Community-Based Policing” An Exploration of the Arbakai (Tribal Police) in South-Eastern Afghanistan’, Contemporary Security Policy (Vol. 30, No. 2, 2009), pp. 318–42.
7. House of Commons Debate, 12 December 2007, Hansard, Vol 469, Col. 304.
8. Mohammed Osman Tariq, ‘Tribal Security System (Arbakai) in Southeast Afghanistan’, Occasional Paper No. 7, Crisis States Research Centre, December 2008.
9. Will Clegg, ‘Irregular Forces in Counterinsurgency Warfare’, Security Challenges (Vol. 5, No. 3, Spring 2009), pp. 125.
10. It is worth noting from the outset that the sources of conflict in Afghanistan comprise a shifting interplay of many factors including narcotics, tribal loyalty and economic opportunism. For the purposes of this article, the terms ‘Taliban’ and ‘insurgency’ are used so as not to paralyse discussion.
11. The Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) became later known as the Afghan Public Protection Programme (AP3); the Local Defence Initiative (LDI) was renamed the Village Stability Engagement Programme (VSEP) but is now widely known as Village Stability Operations (VSO). The VSO programme is now often conflated with the Afghan Local Police (ALP).
12. Giustozzi, op. cit., p. 173.
13. C J Radin, ‘The Afghan Public Protection Programme pilot program is underway’, Long War Journal, 25 March 2009.
14. Jason Motlagh, ‘Afghan Militias: The Perils of Trying to Duplicate Iraq’, TIME, 27 October 2010.
15. Robert Thompson, Defeating Communist Insurgency: Experiences from Malaya and Vietnam (London: Chatto & Windus, 1966), p. 108.
16. Austin Long, ‘Going old school; US Army Special Forces return to the villages’, Foreign Policy, 21 July 2010,<http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/ posts/2010/07/21/going_old_school_ us_army_special_forces_return_to_ the_villages>, accessed 27 November 2010.
17. Greg Jaffe and Rajiv Chandrasekaran, ‘U.S. ambassador puts breaks on plan to utilize Afghan militias against Taliban’, Washington Post, 22 January 2010.
18. Whether central control of licensing would prevent powerbrokers taking ownership, or merely exclude certain powerbrokers in favour of others, is questionable, particularly in southern Afghanistan where narcotics money subverts government processes.
19. Case Study conducted by the author in Nagahan, Arghandab, 18–30 May 2010.
20. Long, op. cit.
21. Maria Abi-Habib, ‘Afghan Bombing Targets US-Allied Militia’, Wall Street Journal, 10 June 2010.
22. Afghan National Army Special Forces team 1111 deployed to the Khakrez Village Stability Platform in mid-2010; Sean Naylor ‘Afghan Special Forces team “incredible”, counterpart says’, Defense News, 27 October 2010, <http://defensenews.com logs/ ausa/2010/10/27/afghan-special-forces- team-incredible-u-s-counterpart-says/>, accessed 30 November 2010.
23. HM Government, Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The Strategic Defence and Security Review (London: The Stationery Office, October 2010), pp. 11–12.
24. HM Government, A Strong Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The National Security Strategy (London: The Stationery Office, October 2010), p. 13.