Suchergebnisse

This report is based on the seminar: "Mutual Trust Building and Reconciliation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Beyond" organized by the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen, October 2016. The report includes perspectives by the speakers of the seminar and their attribution to understand the external and internal factors affecting the security situation, thereby attempting to explain the current low level of trust between Afghanistan and Pakistan. All these perspectives present an intriguing puzzle that seeks to identify present challenges and opportunities on the table for both states. By identifying areas of common ground or perceived common obstacles, the report addresses initiatives and processes that could be applied in igniting paths of reconciliation between Afghanistan and Pakistan. ; This report is based on the seminar: "Mutual Trust Building and Reconciliation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Beyond" organized by the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen, October 2016. The report includes perspectives by the speakers of the seminar and their attribution to understand the external and internal factors affecting the security situation, thereby attempting to explain the current low level of trust between Afghanistan and Pakistan. All these perspectives present an intriguing puzzle that seeks to identify present challenges and opportunities on the table for both states. By identifying areas of common ground or perceived common obstacles, the report addresses initiatives and processes that could be applied in igniting paths of reconciliation between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Efter mere end ti års krig har de afghanske sikkerhedstyrker overtaget de fleste sikkerhedsopgaver i Helmand. I kølvandet på den danske tilbagetrækning er evalueringen af det samlede danske bidrag i Afghanistan siden 2001 skudt i gang. I dette nu oversatte brief belyses opbygningen og uddannelsen af både den afghanske hær og det afghanske politi, som har været en af de udsendte danske soldaters primære arbejdsopgaver i den afsluttende del af ISAF-missionen. Afgørende for den fremtidige sikkerhedssituation vil være bæredygtighed, hvilket indebærer, at den afghanske hær og det afghanske politi ikke skal måles ud fra vestlige standarder, men derimod ud fra en målestok med udgangspunkt i den afghanske måde at gøre tingene på. Oversættelsen skal ses i lyset af briefets bidrag til den internationale forskning på området smat grundet forespørgsler om en sådan oversættelse fra dels forfatterens internationale forskernetværk, dels de anvendte kilder som blandt andet udgjordes af udstationerede amerikanske og britiske soldater i Helmand. ; After more than ten years of war, the Afghan security forces have taken over most of the security responsibilities in Helmand. In the wake of the Danish withdrawal the evaluation of the total Danish contribution in Afghanistan since 2001 has started. Crucial to the future security situation will be sustainability, which means that the Afghan army and the Afghan police are not to be measured by Western standards, but rather from a scale based on the Afghan way of doing things.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has faced many domestic and foreign policy challenges since its adevent four decades ago. It has managed not only to survive these challenges so far, but also to expand its regional influence. It has sought to ensure its national security by building its hard and soft power within an asymmetrical warfare strategy, designed so that its response to an external attack makes that assault very costly for its perpetrator. This article seeks to elucidate and analyse the Islamic Republic's capability in this respect.

This policy brief analyses the politics and priorities of actors in and around Afghanistan. First, it examines the breakdown in the Doha talks, initial progress made in the so-called intra-Afghan talks, and the near future paths of action of both the Afghan government and the Taliban movement. The second half revolves around the strategic considerations and political redlines of Afghanistan's most important neighbours, Pakistan and Iran. Understanding vital security interests – the so-called redlines – of Iran and Pakistan is necessary in order to recognise both the developments in Afghanistan and the limitations of a future peace deal in Afghanistan. This brief attempts to contribute to this understanding. It is based on current reporting from sources and media in Afghanistan and insights gathered from numerous meetings in Kabul between 8 and 10 July 2019. The brief is written for officials, scholars and journalists working on Afghanistan, and it concludes that a breakthrough has not and will likely not occur for the time being – understanding the reasons why provides valuable lessons for future peace initiatives.

Recent developments in Afghanistan have provided a newfound optimism as for the possibility of constructive dialog and attaining further progress towards an Afghan peace process. In light of this, the Royal Danish Defence College and Pakistan's Regional Peace Institute organized a seminar on reconciliation, trust-building and peace talks in Afghanistan; and in particular how to make further progress on this important endeavor. The brief sums up the background and insights from the seminar held in Islamabad June 28-29, where delegates from the two countries and international experts met to discuss the prospects of peace talks in Afghanistan. This brief provides specific policy recommendations for Afghanistan, Pakistan and the international community for near future use. It is the organizers' intention and ambition that the recommendations at hand will be applied by the higher political levels to support and promote initial approaches to peace talks.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) shocked the world when it entered the world stage in 2014. By seizing large territories in Syria and Iraq, its expansion within the Middle East seemed unrestrainable as the Iraqi Army fell apart and in Syria, various actors were caught up in a bloody civil war in the wake of the Arab spring. With US support, the Syrian and Iraqi Kurds became the main stand against ISIS acting as boots on the ground. The Kurdish success against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq quickly won them acclaim from the West and rendered them the key ally in the continued US-led effort against ISIS. In Western media and among Western decision makers, the Kurds as an entity are highly praised for their role in this fight. In addition, their fight for human rights, gender equality, secular rule, and democracy has also been highlighted as key features in assessing Kurds as a homogeneous entity that almost naturally shares strategic interest with the West. This book, as it sets out to paint a more comprehensive picture of the different Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq, concludes that these groups indeed have very different policy objectives and diverging regional partners of alliance thereby questioning the underlying assumption of a uniformed Kurdish entity. The book makes a significant contribution to a better understanding of the political goals, affiliations and rivalries of these important actors and Western allies in the Middle East.

Whether the deployment of international forces in Afghanistan has been a successful venture or an unsuccessful one is of course a matter of perception. This brief sets out to present a comparative overview of Soviet experiences from the intervention in 1979-1989 and the following stabilization efforts in order to highlight coinciding elements, pitfalls, opportunities, and lessons that the present RSM operation could learn from and implement in order to improve the current situation.

Efter afslutningen på NATO's ISAF-mission, og i takt med tilbagetrækningen af internationale styrker vil et langt større ansvar for regional fredsopbygning tilføres de regionale stater selv. Sikkerhedssituationen i Afghanistan afhænger af regionalt samarbejde, hvilket forudsætter forudgående dialog samt fremadrettede innovative fredsopbygningsløsninger i en regional ramme. Voldelig ekstremisme, skrøbelige økonomier og konfliktfyldte bilaterale forhold er nogle af de problemer, der skal tackles såfremt bæredygtige løsninger skal opnås. Konferencen Regional Stability & Lessons Learned in Regional Peace Building, søgte netop at adressere ovennævnte problemstillinger ved at samle en række internationale og ikke mindst regionale forskere i Islamabad i oktober 2014. Selve konferencen var kulminationen på næsten et års samarbejde mellem Pakistans National Defence University og Forsvarsakademiet, og trods en række mere eller mindre forudsigelige bump på vejen, blev konferencen efterfølgende udråbt som særdeles vellykket. De sikkerhedspolitiske udfordringer i regionen tårner sig op i horisonten, og en del af disse blev behandlet på konferencen: Tilbagetrækningen af internationale militære styrker, Taliban, relationerne mellem Indien og Pakistan, behovet for øget regionalisme, Kinas rolle, EU og ASEAN som modeller for inspiration og regionale perspektiver fra Iran og Afghanistan var alle en del af det akademiske program i Islamabad sidst i oktober 2014. Denne rapport beskriver og analyserer præsentationerne på konferencen og endvidere præsenteres en række politiske anbefalinger, der fremadrettet kan bidrage til en konstruktiv og bæredygtig fredsopbygning i Centralasien. ; The NATO-led intervention in Afghanistan is coming to an end, and the necessity of regional peace building solutions for the region's security issues seems more exigent than ever before. Regional states have to come to terms with each other in some ways if violent extremists are to be countered, as none of the countries is able to deal with the intrastate and interstate conflicts on its own. The conference Regional Stability & Lessons Learned in Regional Peace Building was the result of comprehensive cooperation between Pakistan's National Defence University and the Royal Danish Defence College over the course of almost a year. This report should be viewed as the conference's outcome document. It is based on excerpts of the presentations as well as reflections on and analysis of the key arguments made at the conference. The region suffers no lack of security issues in need to be dealt with, and many of them were addressed at the conference: The withdrawal of international military forces, the Taliban, India/Pakistan relations, the need for regionalism, China's role, EU and ASEAN as models for inspiration and regional perspectives from Iran and Afghanistan were all part of the talks in Islamabad, with insightful contributions from a varied panel of scholars. The following will take you through the timely and important discussions presented in late October 2014.

The report contains ideas on enhanced cooperation on both security and economy. It is a particular relevant read for regional political decision makers, institutions, private companies, and researchers that wish to gain insight into the present and future political and economic developments of Afghan-Pakistani relations and to the region in general. Military institutions, officers and officials facing deployment in the region as well as universities and scholars with ongoing research and programmes in the region will also benefit from output of the stabilization project that this report represents.