Afghanistan: Seven Years Down the Road to Reconstruction

The political reconstruction and pacification of Afghanistan have dragged on for seven years and while tangible improvements can be seen in some areas, a gradual deterioration is evident in others. Rodrigo Azaola points out that, in this context, the military approach to the reconstruction of the country has been erratic, and that the prestige and effectiveness of the us-nato coalition is losing ground, while Taliban rebels are recovering political and social terrain. According to the author, Afghanistan faces three main challenges in the medium term: the consolidation of a national army, the reorientation and coordination of the military tasks of foreign forces, and the drawing up of a strategy to prevent drug trafficking from eroding the country’s institutions and society in general. However, these challenges can only be addressed by entering into dialogue with less radical wings of the Taliban and cooperating more closely with regional actors. Although the rebels pose no real military threat, they have proven capable of keeping their cause alive and remain active, recruiting combatants from other latitudes and, in global terms, constitute an ideological focal point for armed Islamic militancy. Azaola concludes that the battle for Afghanistan, a country whose viability has been shaken to its foundations by almost 30 years of continuous war, has repercussions that transcend its borders and the region itself, putting the operational capacity of international military alliances to the test and calling their political and diplomatic credibility into question.