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Home > Open Access Journals > JSS > Vol. 13 > No. 3 (2020)

 

Author Biography

With MA in Security and Politics from the OSCE Academy, Abdul Rahman Yasa is a Policy and Research Officer with Civil Society and Human Rights Network in Kabul, Afghanistan. His focus is on Human Rights, international interventions, state-building, peacebuilding, security sector reform, good governance, and anti-corruption.

Mr. Yasa, as a young expert, for the past several years has served with different national and international organizations in Afghanistan. He has worked as Development Trainer with Creative Associates International, Inc. His work as a researcher in Afghanistan Cultural House and as Civilian Consultant in Ministry of the Interior and Independent Directorate of Local Governance of Afghanistan between 2012 and 2018 has provided him the opportunity to look at governance practices and challenges of a broad range of institutional issues including corruption, sub-national governance policy, citizen-centered government, and security sector reform. E-mail: yasarahman2015@gmail.com / yasa@osce-academy.net

academy.net

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.13.3.1755

Subject Area Keywords

Corruption, Counterinsurgency

Abstract

Corruption and insecurity are reinforcing each other. It can hinder the democratic processes and jeopardize the security sector through creating corrupt administrative systems, manipulation of contracts and procurement. After the decomposition of the Taliban in 2001, the U.S.-led coalition carried out Security Sector Reform (SSR) to (re) construct the Afghan National Police (ANP) and Afghan National Army (ANA) together known as Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). Over critical literature, there are serious critiques concerning the U.S. and its allies’ scrimmage for their role in conducting the SSR in Afghanistan.

The research argues that the lack of a long-term strategic vision for conducting SSR as part of the state-building process by the international community was a critical challenge. This crux has further been exacerbated by the privatization of SSR and the contrast between the U.S. and its European allies on the role of the police. This dichotomy affected the anti-corruption and law enforcement potentials of police, which resulted in the present crisis. Additionally, this research figures out that insufficient oversight of contracts and procurement, training and advising processes of the ANDSF gave more room for misappropriation, theft, and fraud by both the local and international contractors. Finally, all these shortfalls together with constant turnover have undermined the counterinsurgency efforts of Afghan forces on the ground. Therefore, endless military operation without any tangible results has wearied the people, and further added fodder to the terrorist propaganda machine.

Disclaimer

I, therefore, take responsibility that this is my own research product and is not published elsewhere.

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to express my very great appreciation to several sophisticated experts and researchers, both in and out of Afghanistan, who dedicated their time and granted me interviews in regard to their corresponding areas of expertise and provided me a great deal of information.

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