CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION

Political Science - Conflict Reconstruction

Political Science - Conflict Reconstruction

Nation Building As A Consequence Of War-Fighting

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 resulted in the first war of the United States of America in the 21st century. Under the umbrella of the UN mandated2 Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), U.S. and coalition forces launched an attack against Afghanistan, starting October 73 The military operations were based on three decisions in September 2001. U.S. forces would not provide peacekeeping or security for the country at large. Second, other countries would be discouraged from conducting peacekeeping outside the capital. Third, U.S. forces were not to be engaged in any counter-narcotics activities. The subsequent American offensive operations, focused on the destruction of the Taliban armed forces, the disruption of the al-Qaeda network and the denial of Afghan territory for any future terrorist use.

Being strongly dependent on the military as its major source of power, a defeat of its force implied the breakdown of the Taliban administration. International law imposes a variety of responsibilities onto Occupying Powers” which include responsibilities of governance, maintenance of security, public hygiene and medical care for the population and further tasks in sustaining a country. Moreover, Afghanistan has been an instable state for decades and a weak central government could easily turn the country again into new safe heavens for terrorist activities.

Acting in light of Sept 11th, the U.S. focused primarily on a military response and managed to generate broad political and diplomatic support. Consequently, the concept for a U.S. military role in post conflict operations in Afghanistan remained initially vague. The Commander U.S. Central Command's mission for the final stage of OEF in Afghanistan was to “establish capabilities of coalition partners to prevent the reemergence of terrorism and to provide support for humanitarian assistance efforts.” This implied that measures to prevent the reemergence of terrorism would be planned together with the humanitarian assistance in a separate process. As war fighting has direct influence on the requirements and conditions for post conflict stability operations, both aspects should ideally be merged into one holistic approach. Combat operations and requirements for post conflict stability interact and influence each other. Thus, traditional military criteria of success like destruction, denial and seizure of terrain in war fighting need to be influenced by winning the peace. To exploit the opportunities of grand strategy, fighting and post conflict operation have to become part of a single integrated planning and execution process.

Military operations in Afghanistan ran ahead of post conflict planning. A UN led conference of the Afghanistan Support Group in December 2001, named after its meeting location in Germany, resulted in the so called Bonn Agreement.”9 This document created the basis for the post conflict reconstruction of Afghanistan and its current structure. It provided the framework for a gradual development of the country into a desirable and culturally accepted future.

Scope And Definitions

This paper examines the role of the military in Nation Building through the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) ...