Introduction

One of the main questions dominating the international community’s security agenda over the past decade has been what to do in Afghanistan. Billions of dollars and euros have been spent, and many lives have been sacrificed, to keep the wartorn country from again turning into a safe haven for international terrorists and to enable Afghanistan to be responsible for its own security. After 9/11, the United States sent its troops to Afghanistan with the objective, we were told, of defeating the Taliban regime and ousting Al Qaeda. Over time, however, the terrorist hunt turned into an ambitious nation-building endeavor with an uncertain outcome. There are dozens of books, studies, analyses, reports, and newspaper articles which speculate on the future of Afghanistan, the effectiveness of her security forces, or the fate of her fragile democratic elements.