In October 2001, NATO started its mission “Enduring freedom” in Afghanistan. The NATO succeeded, Taliban were overturned – at least in the big cities - and Karzai became elected president of the Islamic Republic Afghanistan.

Until now, everything is based on a construct which could easily break down. Almost 100.000 foreign armed forces are supposed to maintain security – the country is far away from functioning on its own. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, facing problems like poverty, repression of women, corruption, drug smuggling and the lack of reliable and legitimized authorities. Besides, there is the problem of terrorism: Taliban are supposed to have connections to the terror-network al-Qaida, supposedly also granting some of them a hideout within the country.

According to estimates based on US intelligence, there are around 25.000 insurgents who must be fought. This is the task of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), having
sent circa 71.000 troops to Afghanistan, composed by 43 countries.

“We are talking and fighting about values, not about territories” Michel Duray, Head of Outreach Country Sections, stresses during his opening speech in the fourth Afghan Students Forum. The new strategic concept of NATO would envision an enlarging community of values. As values, Admiral Di Paola mentions „Freedom“, „Democracy“ and “Value of the Law“. Those would be the values the Afghan population wishes to live under, and those would make a better living standard possible in general.

ISAF’s main role is to assist the Afghan government in the establishment of a secure and stable environment. “In a long-term perspective the 140.000 local soldiers should have the ability to maintain security in their own country and to take over responsibility”, Michel Duray says. To this end, ISAF forces are conducting security and stability operations throughout the country together with the Afghan National Security Forces and are directly involved in the development of the Afghan National Army through mentoring, training and equipping.

Not an easy balancing act: nowadays, Afghanistan is even more instable than it was in 2002, Mihai Carp from the Crisis Management Policy Section admits. One reason in particular is the highly increased number of insurgents and attacks. And often it doesn’t seem to matter whether the targets are NATO forces or in fact fellow Afghans.

The fights between NATO and Taliban become more and more intense. Last week, US troops of NATO announced the biggest and hardest offensive in the Northern territory of Afghanistan. NATO must weaken these dangerous individuals, unreachable by political compromise, says Mihai Carp.

Generally, NATO would just do in Afghanistan what local authorities want it to do. It would help, but not implement its own security strategy. “The NATO mission is only a support to help the Afghan Government to take over some ownership”, Duray stresses. “It’s not NATO´s aim to become a gendarme of the world”.

SECURITY AND ITS VARIOUS MEANINGS

“Security is a too serious issue to be hostage of past myths and stereotypes”, Michael Duray says.

“It needs to be communicated properly.”

Easier said than done:

Not only do we have different words for one term in different languages - there is also a difference in the definition of the term!

This is what “security” means in various languages:

Chinese: My wife works calmly at home
Estonian: I am ready to die brave
Latin: To take care of oneself
Balkan: Absence of catastrophe

by Julia Balanowski