Contemporary Security Issues in Afghanistan: Security VS Peace

Zawia Media Publications

Author: Zarlasht Sarmast (Noorzay)

June 22^th/2021

Both Security and Peace are very important topics in International Relations and Security. To understand how these topics impact each other and what their relations are, it is important to understand the definition of each one. This essay provides a definition for each of these topics or terms as well as provides an analysis and understanding of the correlation between the two. The concept of peace mostly focuses on the actual state of International Relations and the concept of security focuses and is concerned with the condition of the actors and political leaders in the International Politics. Peace mainly is defined as freedom from war and violence and agreement while security is defined as a state of being free from danger or threats. For a country to be able to function in a good way peace and security are both equally important. Without security there is no peace. Coming from a country like Afghanistan that is among the world’s most insecure countries, I can understand the importance of security in bringing peace. Security can directly impact peace and peace can directly impact security in a country.

When it comes to bringing peace or having a sustainable and long lasting peace in a country, it is important to take into account what are the issues that are considered as obstacles on the way of bringing peace in the country. Let us take the case of Afghanistan as an example to better clarify this point. Without maintaining security in Afghanistan, it is impossible to have a long lasting and sustainable peace. Afghanistan is a country that has been dealing with ongoing war and conflict for more than 40 years now. The case of Afghanistan explains very clearly why without security peace is not possible. Analyzing the case study and the security situation in Afghanistan is a very complicated topic but, some issues that stand out among others are the lack of education or a very low level of education, violence against women, existing and creation of different terrorist groups in the country, corruption, warlordism, the interferences of other counties in the internal politics of Afghanistan and the production of drugs. There are money other issues that are in the list but the ones mentioned are the most important ones.

The main obstacle for both the Afghan government and the international community working for peace in Afghanistan is at this point probably prioritizing which issues to begin with and how to build a proper strategy that can be helpful for bringing a long lasting peace into the country. That being said, majority of the main international organizations and countries that came into Afghanistan for war against terrorism and brining peace into the country in some ways have failed to do so and now are planning and making decisions that leaving the country is the right option. This has created an extreme level of stress and worry among the people of Afghanistan. The point here is that almost none of the actors that came to Afghanistan for peace building had a proper plan or a good strategy. The United States is a good example for this point. The United States government announced a war against terrorism and came to Afghanistan to bring security and fight against the terrorism. However, unfortunately, ever since the United States came to Afghanistan, not only that they couldn’t bring security and give an end to terrorism in Afghanistan, the conflict in the country has been intensifying. Now, without achieving that goal, the Biden administration decided to withdraw all the US security forces from Afghanistan by 9/11/2021.

As the US moves to withdraw its military from Afghanistan over the next five months, deep concerns are growing about the possible conflict after the movement of the international forces. This action would affect vastly in each and every Afghan’s life regarding the security, economic and most importantly women and education. Taliban having power in the government of Afghanistan will lead to a close down of all schools universities and jobs, especially for girls and women. If the U.s withdraws its entire military forces from Afghanistan, then all the other investments like the U.S embassy scholarships that are provided for the Afghan students will be wasted. After this decision was made by the US government, many other countries started to follow the path. That is a big concern for Afghanistan and its future. A lesson learned from this case would be not leave a mission for peace building and security unfinished. Or at least have a proper strategy for an issue you are trying to tackle and solve in a warzone.

Furthermore if the US military forces leave Afghanistan, the security situation will get worse that what it is right now. With the US military forces existence in the country, the security situation is currently very bad, so one can imagine that it might even get worse than this and if it gets worse than right now then bringing a sustainable and long lasting peace to the country will be completely out of the question and there might even be possibility for Taliban to take over the government in Afghanistan. In that case Afghanistan will just travel backward to where and how it was back in the 1990s during the Mujahidin and Taliban period and that is something that no one wants in Afghanistan. Because if that happens then threat of security, war and conflict from Afghanistan will increase and might even move to the neighboring countries and even Central Asia. This decision might change like all the previous time when the United States Government announced the withdrawal of their military forces from Afghanistan, yet still it has for now created a tremendous amount of tension and stress among the Afghanistan people. This decision in some ways also shows the failure of the United States not only when it comes to bringing security to Afghanistan but the bigger topic of war against terrorism in the country.

All that said it might still be possible for the Afghan Government and the Taliban group to come to an agreement for peace in Afghanistan. If the Taliban are smart they will not increase the attacks in the country, at least before the withdrawal of the US military forces from Afghanistan. That is because if they do increase the number of attacks, that might change the decision of the Biden Administration for keeping the US military forces in Afghanistan longer than 9/11 this year. However if the attacks by the Taliban do decrease that might give an opportunity for the government to discuss about a long lasting peace with this group and come to an agreement. In 2018 there was a ceasefire between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban. According to some sources, the ceasefire between the two parties made it clear that there might be the possibilities of bringing an end to this ongoing war in the country, an article published on the Reconciliation Resources states that: “. Statements by Taliban factions in our new Accord publication further show some common interest in achieving more permanent peaceful political status, but without surrendering or rejecting their identity as Taliban.” This source also suggests that perhaps a new agreement can be made and talked about between the government and the Taliban in order to bring a sustainable and long lasting peace in the country. However, there are still some issues that stops the two parties from taking the very first steps for peace building in the country and those are issues such as ethnic division among people, measures to decrease the level of violence and attacks on civilians and many more. That is why it is necessary for the government and the Taliban to probably figure new measures or new strategies for peace talks that will include different groups of the society and of course the Afghan women.

Some of the core principles and strategies that should be considered for the future for having both security and peace in Afghanistan are to start with trying to analyze what didn’t work properly, which strategy was wrong and how to re-create that for the next coming years in order to be able to reduce violence as an essential foundation to address the underlying political issues in Afghanistan. In addition to that it is important to come to an agreement on a joint commitment by the Afghan national security forces leaderships, NATO command to act in support of the credible Taliban ceasefire or decreasing the conflict at least.

In addition to that, there are many peace building initiatives that are organized and implemented by the local community not only in the capital of Afghanistan but also in several districts and provinces, supporting those local initiatives for the establishment and expansion of peace in which Taliban also decide to renew their ceasefire like they did once in June 2018. Some of the online sources that focus on writing about peace also suggest that maybe supporting those Taliban that works together in rejecting violence and the killings of civilians could be helpful and to encourage them to spread their idea among other Taliban Members

There are some Taliban groups that are pro peace building and peacemaking in the country. It might also be helpful to create some implementable options and projects for peace building in the country. To encourage that group of the Taliban who are working for peace making, online sources suggest that it might be helpful to increase those’ groups’ access to health care, education and other basic needs.

While leaving Afghanistan in the current situation might not be a good decision, what might help is to establish or create and neutral group that includes the international communities contacts to work alongside Afghanistan at this difficult time considering the withdrawal of all US military forces from the country. The previous Peace Deal between the Taliban and the United States obviously failed to bring peace and security to the country, thus with the new administration of the United States under the leadership of President Biden it can also be helpful to renew that deal and make sure that this time one of the conditions for the United States for the withdrawal of all of its military forces from Afghanistan is for the Taliban not to only have ceasefire with the United States Military forces but also the Afghan Government and the Citizens of Afghanistan until the Afghan Government and the Taliban also come to an agreement for a long lasting and sustainable peace. That would really help and might make the security situation better than what it is right now.
In conclusion, it is needless to say that without security, a long lasting peace and a sustainable peace is not achievable and Afghanistan is a very vivid and clear example for this point. Peace and security are two of the main and fundamental concepts that the states and governments should work on in order to be a good government. It is also important to mention that for bringing peace to a country and for the betterment of the security issues, it is necessary for the international community and all countries to have better and clear strategies when they first start their works, otherwise all of their work, investment of money and time will just be wasted. The Mission of United States to fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and make the security situation better is a great example for this point. Peace and security will always be correlated to each other and have impact on each other. That means that one is not possible without the other.

Given the experience of Afghanistan with other involvements we can say that one last thing that might help is to have a deal between the Afghan Government and the Taliban before 9/11 withdrawals.