On Tuesday February 18 from 9:00 - 10:30am, the Centre for Security Governance is hosting a free eSeminar on the Afghan National Security Forces. With the international community set to withdraw the bulk of their troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, much will be expected of the developing Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). While the ANSF has made major strides in recent years thanks to the investment of tens of billions of dollars of international aid, questions remain about their capability to provide security and safeguard the Afghan state in the midst of an insurgency that shows no sign of slowing down. This seminar will seek to assess the current state of the ANSF and the impact of international assistance in developing it. Most importantly it will endeavor to answer the fundamental question, will the ANSF be ready to assume full responsibility for security in Afghanistan? To register for this free event, click here.
About the speakers:
Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow with the Center for 21 Century Security and Intelligence and director of research for the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force and American foreign policy. He is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Dr. Antonio Giustozzi is an independent researcher born in Ravenna, Italy, who took his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and is currently associated with the IDEAS (International Affairs, Diplomacy, Strategy), LSE. He is the author of several articles and papers on Afghanistan, as well as of four books, War, politics and society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (Georgetown University Press), Koran, Kalashnikov and laptop: the Neo-Taliban insurgency, 2002-7 (Columbia University Press), Empires of mud: war and warlords in Afghanistan (Columbia University Press) and Policing Afghanistan (with M. Ishaqzada, Columbia University Press, 2013), as well as a volume on the role of coercion and violence in state-building, The Art of Coercion (Columbia University Press, 2011). He also edited a volume on the Taliban, Decoding the New Taliban (Columbia University Press, 2009), featuring contributions by specialists from different backgrounds, and one on DDR processes, Post-conflict Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration: bringing state-building back in (Ashgate, 2012). In 2012 he managed the research for an ODI paper on humanitarian access in Afghanistan and co-authored the paper which derived from it (‘The other side: humanitarian engagement with the Taliban in Afghanistan’, HPG Working Paper, London : ODI, December 2012). He is currently researching the insurgency and issues of governance in Afghanistan, in particular trying to achieve a deeper understanding of the internal dynamics of the Taliban as an organization and as a movement. He has extensive experience of managing teams of Afghan researchers in the difficult Afghan environment. Over time he and his researchers have developed multiple contacts with the Taliban both inside Afghanistan and in Pakistan and he is constantly expanding such contacts from project to project.
Ambassador Omar Samad is Senior Central Asia Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. He is also founder and President of Silkroad Consulting L.L.C. He was Senior Afghan Expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace (2012-2013). He served as Ambassador of Afghanistan to France (2009-2011), and Ambassador to Canada (2004-2009). He was the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul (2001-2004). As founder of the Afghanistan Information Center, he launched Azadi Afghan Radio and its website based in Virginia (1996-2001). He has been a contributor to Afghan and international media for more than two decades.
He has a Master’s degree in International Relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Massachusetts in 2006. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and International Studies from the American University (Washington D.C. 1990). He attended primary and secondary schools in Kabul, Paris and London.
Dr. Cornelius Friesendorf is a lecturer at Goethe University Frankfurt and a researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF/HSFK). His work focuses on international intervention, the protection of civilians, police reform, and strategies against trafficking in human beings and drugs. Cornelius holds degrees from the University of Zurich, Free University Berlin, and London School of Economics and Political Science. Before assuming his current position in 2009, he was a fellow at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. He conducted fieldwork in South America, North Africa, the Balkans, Central Asia, South Asia, and Afghanistan.
Tags: Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghan National Security Forces, Afghanistan, security sector reform
Visit the Centre for