Security, Drugs, and National Stability in Afghanistan Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of national security in Afghanistan, examining various factors that influence the country's stability and defense. It delves into the importance of national security, the impact of Afghanistan's geographical location, and the pervasive issue of drug trafficking. The report explores the concept of Security Sector Reform (SSR), its origins, and the local challenges it faces in Afghanistan, including the position of the police and the national army. It also highlights the need to link police reforms with justice system improvements. The report emphasizes the importance of human security, oversight, accountability, human rights, and justice in strengthening national security. It concludes with recommendations for improving the overall security situation in Afghanistan, addressing both internal and external threats. The report underscores the necessity of international cooperation and internal cohesion to combat terrorism and promote long-term stability. It also emphasizes the complex interplay between security, drugs, and governance in the context of Afghanistan's unique challenges.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
National security..............................................................................................................................2
Importance of national security in Afghanistan...............................................................................3
Geographical location of Afghanistan.............................................................................................4
Issues of drugs in Afghanistan.........................................................................................................4
SSR- the origin of the concept.........................................................................................................5
Local challenges for the security sector reform...............................................................................6
The position of the police of the Afghanistan.................................................................................7
The national army of the Afghan.....................................................................................................8
Linking the police as well as the reforms of the justice..................................................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
Human security..........................................................................................................................10
Oversight and accountability.....................................................................................................10
Human rights.............................................................................................................................11
Justice........................................................................................................................................11
Monitoring.................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Various steps and measures have been taken in order to reform and improve the police,
security and the justice system of Afghanistan because of the worsening conditions of the
country Afghanistan, the upcoming election of the president. It is to be noted that the
international community has been committed in the recreation of Afghanistan after the downfall
of the Taliban in the year 2001. It is on following the election of the government of Afghan, the
international, as well as the individual countries, have counterfeited a new form of partnership
which is known as the compact of Afghanistan. It was being made in the London Conference in
the year 2006 in order to follow on the Bonn process. The main purpose of the essay is to
understand national security. The main purpose of the essay is also to understand how the
geographical location influences the national security of Afghanistan and how can national
security can be strengthened in Afghanistan. The purpose of this assignment is to understand that
the corporation with the US as well as within the own nation in itself can strengthen the national
security of Afghanistan.
National security
The national security or the national defence is considered to be the protection or the
defence of the national state, citizens, finance and institutions. It is being regarded as the duty of
the government to take national security very seriously. Though it was meant as a protection
against the attack of the military, the national security presently incorporates the non-military
dimensions. It includes the protection from the terrorism, the lessening of the crime, the financial
protection, the security of the energy, the protection of the cyber, and even the protection of the

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food (Biddle, 2013). The governments rely on a huge range of measures which includes the
political, financial as well as the military power along with the diplomacy in order to protect the
security of the nation or the state.
Importance of national security in Afghanistan
The year 2014 is considered to be the end of the longest war of the United States in terms
of being a direct combatant. The interference of the military in the year 2001 continues as the
NAO mission which was sought to disturb, disassemble and even defeat the terrorist as well as
the rebellious groups in Afghanistan. It is to be noted that the international community was
successful in withdrawing majority of the troops, and it left only 13500 non-combatant soldiers
under the new NATO mission (Bilmes,2013). By having the name as the resolute support
mission, the aim of the mission was to train, advise and even assist the Afghan National Security
forces. However, it is to be noted that the number of troops as well, along with their non-
combatant function failed to pose difficulties in terms of the security of Afghanistan. It is to be
considered that progress in the total number of the troops, as well as a shift back into that of the
role of the combatant, might be required in the upcoming future (Wardak, & Braithwaite, 2013).
It is, however, to be noted that it will be very optimistic to note that the national security forces
of Afghanistan will be able to treat the terrorist on their own knowing that this was totally
impossible even with the presence of 50,000 troops of the nato across the country. As the forces
of the Afghan is considered to be responsible for the issues of protection, the year 2014 is
marked as the bloodiest year since the year 2001. It is during this time that the states of Islam
moved beyond the Middle East and became very much active and operational in the soil of the
afghan (Braithwaite & Wardak, 2013). It is during this time; they began to attack in the country

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which made the Islamic states and the Taliban to declare jihad one against one another. The
present security situation in the country Afghanistan has implications beyond the national border.
It tends to have the regional security threat affecting that of central Asia, South Asian as well as
of the Middle Eastern countries as well as across the globe. The situation in the country requires
a common strategy from that of the international coalitions established in order to counter the
Taliban as well as the Islamic state and to attack these groups in the greater region.
The geographical location of Afghanistan
Afghanistan, which is officially known as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is
considered to be the landlocked country which is situated in the convergence of the western,
central and southern Asia. In the border of Afghanistan it tends to have s to that of east and
south, in the west it tends to have Iran, it tends to have Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
to that of the north. China tends to lie in the northeast part of Afghanistan. Occupying of about
652,000 sq. mi, it is considered to be a country of the mountains with the plains in the north and
in the southwest (Waldman, 2013). Kabul is considered to be its capital and largest city. By the
year 1996, the majority of Afghanistan was being captured by the Islamic fundamentalist group,
which is known as the Taliban. They ruled as the totalitarian regime for five years (Clements,
2013) On the 9/11 attack, the US intervened and removed forcibly removed the Taliban from the
power, and a new government was being formed. However, the Taliban still have significant
control over the country. Afghanistan is a unitary constitutional Islamic republic. The country is
marked with a high level of terrorism, poverty, child malnutrition and that of the corruption.
Hence, the geographical location of the Afghanistan tend to have great impact upon the national
security.

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Issues of drugs in Afghanistan
The unlawful finance which is being captured in Afghanistan through the drugs is
unparalleled in its scale. It has been highly engrained within that of the country since the time of
the 1980’s. No country in the world had faced an illegal economy of the drug as strong as the one
in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is considered to be the illegal producer of the opium. The harvest
of the opium produces about 90 % of the illegal amount of heroin across the world, and 95 % of
it gets supplied. It is to be noted that more land is being utilized in Afghanistan for the harvest of
the opium in contrast to the cultivation of the cocoa in Latin America. The financial economy,
which is being raised by the drug exacerbates the uncertainty, strengthens the corruption,
establishes the macroeconomic distortions and leads to the utilization of the drugs. However, the
ban on the cultivation of the opium done by the very poor and the marginalized people have
largely generated political capital to the Taliban.
SSR- the origin of the concept
The significant challenges in building the structures of the state concerning the failed
state include the reestablishing the acceptability and even the control of the utilization of the
force to that of the public authorities as well establishing the rule of the law. It is to be noted that
the functional security as well as the justice sector is considered to be the significant measure for
the stability (Collins, 2015). Regarding this, the security sector reform has become a significant
concept for developing governance in the countries belonging to that of the post-conflict (Urban,
2016). Significantly, the security sector reform has an all-inclusive approach in which it aims
not just on the assimilating resistance, police, intelligence and the judicial reform but also on the
normative engagement to the consolidation of the democracy and to the safety of the human

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rights and even of the principles of the good governance which even includes the accountability
and transparency. Therefore, it can be aid that the significant activities of the SSR are the
reformation of the institutions of the security, strengthening the mechanisms of control,
reestablishing the institution of the security (Hilali,2017). However, the guidelines of the OECD
which the EU had implemented can be said that the security sector can be defined to include
various other factors like
The inner security factors like the armed forces, intelligence, police and the services of
protection and the guards giving their duty in the borders. It tends to include the management of
the security and even the oversight bodies which are the executive, ministries of the defence as
well as the internal as well as the foreign affairs (Hodes & Sedra, 2013). It also includes the
justice as well as the enforcement of the law which includes the judiciary, ministers of the
judiciary, prisons, investigation in the crime and the services of the prosecution, the justice
system of the customs as well as of the traditions.
Local challenges for the security sector reform
The national security is not at all an easy task; after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan
was considered as one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies. The civil war which
lasted for about a quarter-century has made 1 million of people dead, six millions of people were
being displaced and many became the refugees in Pakistan and Iran (Hoencamp et al., 2014). It
is to be noted that reaching out to the vast people was very much challenging as only the 20 per
cent of the people lived in the cities. Despite the GDP growth in the year 2007 to about 7 %,
Afghanistan remained extremely poor, and the majority of the population tend to suffer from the
shortage of clean amount of water, electricity and that of the medical care. Since Afghanistan

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was given with the five years of isolation internationally and the decades of the conflict preceded
the rule of the Taliban, the various number of tasks facing the international actors who are
committed in the reconstruction was to a huge extent discouraging (Khan, 2015). However, it is
to be noted that establishing the institutions of the formal state has been proficient, instilling the
institutions and the political leaders with the legitimacy was considered to be one of the
significant challenges of the reconstruction (Williamson, M. (2016).
The position of the police of the Afghanistan
Various researches that have been done in this field tend to indicate the fact that the
national police force did not exist in Afghanistan in preceding to the worldwide movement.
However, the police were managed as the quasi-military force and have been regarded as the
intimidating instrument of the state rather than that of the national civilian force of the police. It
is a result the police of the Afghan was and still presently remain distrustful of the organs of the
state security. At the start of the international reconstruction, about 50,000 men were working as
police and for the reform efforts (Kolenda, 2017). However, it is to be noted that most of them
were very much untrained, not educated, and they owed their allegiance to the local chieftains
and the chiefs of the militia rather on the central government. Apart from this, the low salary that
the police got along with the risks which are associated with it increased the rate of corruption.
However, a Bonn Agreement was being created for the establishment of an interior ministry
which was responsible for the police as well as for the corrections. It must be mentioned here
that the ministry of the interior tends to play a very significant role in applying reform in both the
political as well as in the technical aspects (Yetiv, 2013). However, it does face internal
problems. However, the dual challenge which faces the international community in the year

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2002, therefore was not only to create structure and procedures of training but also to train fast a
large number of the police in charge (Lansford, 2017). It is to be noted that the original function
of the Afghan police was to change the recruit’s with the volunteers and even to amend the
imbalance of the ethnic with that of the Mol and the law enforcement organizations. However, it
is to be noted that in the present situation, 82000 afghan police has been given sanctioned.
The national army of the Afghan
The security of the Afghan army is mainly dependent upon the army of Afghanistan. As
per the reports made on November 20 of the year 2014, the number of Ana personal, which even
includes the afghan air force is about 169,203. This report is in according to the special inspector
general for Afghanistan Reconstructions (SIGAR). This marks the minimum number of the Ana
force since August 2011. However, the report also states that as per the 31st December 2014, the
US has obliged of about $34.8 billion and distributed $33.7 billion of the security forces of
Afghanistan in order to establish, equip and even sustain the ANA. However as per the reports
that are being made by the US Department of the defence, despite making various developments
in the recent years, the ANA tend to face two major challenges that are the sustainment and the
development of the more multi-layered authorizing intricacies (Laub, 2014). However, it is to be
noted that the logistics and retention continue to become a significant problem. Majority of the
ANA taskforces are there to withstand themselves at the very premeditated standard for a very
shorter period of the time. However, the very absence of the trained maintenance technicians as
well as the logistics system tends to have a very bad impact upon its capacity. It is to be noted
that Ana is also guarded by the capabilities of the air. The air force of the Afghanis considered to
be a new institution which means that the ANSF is very much dependent upon the resolute

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support mission in the sectors of the close air support, logistics, ISR, CIED etc. apart from these
challenges which are being faced, the casualties of the military are considered to be another
significant problem for the ANA apart from the high rate of the attrition despite the efforts of the
ANA to convert new employees (Long, 2013). It is to be noted that the security forces of the
afghan suffered from some form of the casualties in the first fifteen weeks of the year 2015.
However, it is to be noted that since the time they have encountered with the Taliban without the
support of the UN and the troops of the NATO, the ANSF have faced the various type of
difficulties. The officials of the afghan have stated that the total number of the Afghan security
forces who are being killed or are being injured has enhanced by about 70 per cent. It has
therefore reached to an average of 330 a week in the first half of the year in comparison to the
same period in the year 2014. However, in following the international coalition’s aim shift at
the end of the year 2014, from the battle to that of the marketing and supporting the security
forces of the afghan have found themselves to be very much susceptible in order to attack the
Taliban. It is in this context that the continuation of the US Air support which lies under the
resolute support mission would meaningfully help the Afghan National Army in order to conduct
the effective operations against the Taliban as well as against the other insurgent groups.
Linking the police as well as the reforms of the justice
The commission subsidizes to the reform of the police as well as of justice by providing
the backbone of the economic influence. According to the reports, the EC has given about 135
million of the euro to the LOTFA since the year 2002. Apart from this, more than 10 million
euro has been given to the provincial reconstruction teams in order to support a range of
European projects in varying parts of the country. Since the year 22006, the commission has

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become very much engaged in the reforms of justice. It is to be noted that the EUPOL and the
Commission programs are institutionally connected (Sedra, 2013). Along with this, the
commission is in the process of its contributions to LOFTA and in changing the judiciary, and
even EUPOL is placing the mentors in the sector of justice.
Recommendations
The significant issues which must be taken into account in order to enhance the national
security are as follows:
Human security
This kind of security tends to incorporate the understanding of the protection of the
requirements of the citizens and not just of the governments. However, the options in order to
enhance the security of the human being to build the consensus across the conceptualization of
the country’s security it can also be done by involving the views collected through the salutations
and submissions of the public and the from the groups that are considered to be the
representative of the varying sector of the society. However, this can also be done by involving
the reference in the NSS/NSP to the significant importance to the protection of the people.
Lastly, this can be done by focusing on the root causes of the protection of the citizens as a part
of the strategies in order to achieve the NSS or the NSP goals.
Oversight and accountability
it is to be noted that the democratic oversight of the protection sector is considered as a
norm of the international level. It tends to include the creation of robust checks and balances. It
also includes the upholding the philosophies of answerability and transparency. It also ensures

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the providers of the security with the framework which is based on legal policies (Riedel, 2014).
The various options which can help in enhancing oversight and accountability. In order to
achieve the strategic goals. On the other hand, the specific roles must be outlined for the society
as well as for the mechanisms in order to permit them to donate effectively. Apart from this, it is
very important for incorporating and highlighting the roles of the parliament as well as of the
independent states.
Human rights
The rights of the common lie at the centre of the protection as well as the security at the
national, community as well as of the individual standard. Apart from this, it is to be noted that a
strong approach of the human rights gives a framework in order to establish partnerships with the
communities and even develop their flexibility in order to identify the issues of the protection. In
order to enhance focus on the rights of the human, few steps can be taken which are
unambiguous references in the NSS/NSP must be made to restructure the engagement of the
rights of the human in the documents which are overarching like that of the constitution (Mazhar,
Khan & Goraya, 2013). It must also maintain a correct focus throughout the application. Apart
from this, it is also important to highlight the mechanisms of the national level that will maintain
civil rights as well as the international norms of the human.
Justice
The system of justice is considered to be a significant connection in the chain of criminal
justice. It is therefore considered to strengthen the public order and the protection. It is to be
noted that the justice system underwrites to maintaining an internal environment of the peace
through its function as a mechanism for diffusing as well as handling the conflicts. It is very

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important to recognize the importance of justice to national security (Paris, 2013). It is also
necessary to highlight the relevance of the dispute between the state as well as of the non-state in
order to bring about a give consistency in how justice is being given to the citizens.
Monitoring
It is very important to set a vigorous system of monitoring as well as ensure that the
strategy and its plan of implementation tend to remain applicable in various evolving
circumstances. However, coordination must be maintained among the various agencies (Rafique
& Anwar, 2014). Bad coordination in order to consider the elements which contribute to the
national security leads to ineffectiveness, inefficiency as well as enhances the insecurity.
Conclusion
The EU has made significant progress in the general political and operational function
among the international actors who are functioning in Afghanistan. However, it is very important
for the US to coordinate with the new policies of the Afghan. However, it is to be noted that
when the reforms of the justice are seen by the commission, the connectivity between the two
different sectors like the police and the justice will be addressed more successfully The overall
improvement of the EU, as well as the coordination between the international actors and the
instruments of the EU, is considered to be the marking point in shaping a significant general
strategy towards the social security reform and the post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan
(Beath, Christia & Enikolopov, 2015). In conclusion, it thus can be noted that the unification of
the EU and the member states and through the establishment of the joint vision of the social
security in Afghanistan along with the other global actors and the authorities of the Afghan, the

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EU was able to complete the function of the co-ordination that it tend to claim for itself
(Raiphea, 2013) it therefore stands as an opportunity of significantly carrying out the police and
the justice reform in the Afghanistan.

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