“Security is a main demand of our people, and we are tired of this war,” Ashraf Ghani declared in his first speech as President of Afghanistan following the country’s first democratic transition of power. Inauguration day was a relief for Afghans and foreign observers alike as it brought an end to several months of political 
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Tag | NATO
The Danger of Unfinished Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan
By: Mark Sedra | Tuesday, September 30th, 2014The 2014 NATO Summit: President Putin’s Take
By: David Law | Friday, September 12th, 2014I have just reread the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit Declaration issued in Cardiff, Wales. I have been trying to put myself in President Putin’s place as I have proceeded. How would he, directly or through his advisors, react to this Declaration? I am just guessing but here we go.
Re-assessing Post-Cold War Assumptions after Russia’s Gambit in Ukraine
By: David Meadows | Friday, August 29th, 2014Since April 2014, Russia had been waging a proxy war in eastern Ukraine. Although no war was officially declared, Russia’s covert and overt support was crucial in financing, equipping, providing personnel, and supplying intelligence to the pro-Russian separatists. Still, even with such support, pro-Russian separatist rebels proved unable to counter Ukraine’s military advances. As a
Understanding Russia’s Proxy War in Eastern Ukraine
By: David Meadows | Tuesday, August 12th, 2014Since April 2014, Russia has been waging a proxy war in eastern Ukraine, through its increasingly escalating support of pro-Russian separatists in the ersatz Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic. Although Moscow has repeatedly denied supporting the pro-Russian separatists, it is clear that these rebel militias are not some rag-tag grassroots self-defence organizations, simply
NATO and Security Governance: A Return to Collective Defence?
By: Matthew Morgan | Thursday, August 7th, 2014The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) overall approach to security governance shifted twice during the course of the War on Terror. In response to new geopolitical pressures, NATO adopted a strategic stance that prioritized two different forms of out-of-area operations. A third shift, provoked by the crisis in Ukraine and an increasingly hostile Russia, is
Planning for “What’s Next”: The Annexation Shock and its Impact on SSR in Ukraine
By: Joe Derdzinski | Friday, May 16th, 2014Among the pressing security concerns of the day (Nigeria, Syria, Afghanistan, and the South China Sea stand out most prominently), Ukraine continues to dominate discussions across the North Atlantic. This attention is due in large part to concerns over a resurgent Russia and the unease over what Russia’s latest actions might spell for other East
First we take Crimea, then we take Brighton Beach (and retake Alaska)?*
By: David Law | Thursday, May 1st, 2014Vladimir Putin’s ideology has three basic tenets. The first is that Russia has a right and a responsibility to protect Russian speakers outside the country, no matter what. The second is that Russia’s natural borders have been reduced by questionable diplomatic and political deals that must be reversed. The third is that Russia, like the
Libya’s Governance Crisis
By: Isaac Caverhill-Godkewitsch | Friday, May 31st, 2013Libya is facing an ongoing governance crisis. The transitional government put in place after the NATO-assisted uprising against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi succeeded in conducting elections and putting together an electoral process for the constitution drafting committee. However, violence continues despite the free elections of July 2012. There have been numerous bombings and attacks against the
Examining the Afghanistan exit strategy
By: Geoff Burt | Wednesday, December 7th, 2011The three pillars of the international community’s exit strategy from Afghanistan-training the Afghan security forces, forging a regional strategy and coming to a political settlement with insurgent groups-are teetering, according to an editorial by the SSR Resource Centre’s Mark Sedra, Geoff Burt and Michael Lawrence. Despite massive investments in training, only one army unit is
Three part series outlines the legacy of the Afghan mission
By: Geoff Burt | Friday, October 14th, 2011CIGI Senior Fellow Mark Sedra has written a series of articles examining the legacy of the Afghan conflict, which unfortunately for Afghans appears likely to be continuing violence and instability. In the first installment, “Afghanistan Will Pay for NATO’s Failures,” Sedra argues that a closer examination of the numbers of Afghan security forces trained by
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