UK Report: Drivers Of Radicalisation In Afghanistan

By Steve Hynd

The UK's Dept. of International Development asked why do men join the Taliban and Hizb-i Islami and how much do local communities support them? The report's finding are summarized:

1. Events in Palestine, Iraq, etc, a perceived global attack on Islam give rise to widespread indignation and resentment which encourage support for extremist action

2. The perception of the current government as corrupt and partisan means people look elsewhere for a more moral form of governance

3. The failure of the state to provide security and justice, and people�s experience of predatory and oppressive security sector institutions (including the police), are influential drivers towards extremism

4. The behaviour of foreign forces (rather than their presence per se) encourages support for groups that use violence against them

5. Government failure to provide basic services allows extremist groups to meet these needs and build support as a result

6. Underemployed young men with frustrated aspirations and a limited stake in society are particularly susceptible to radicalisation

7. Madrassas provide a limited education which leaves their students particularly vulnerable to extremist narratives

8. Women generally play a moderating role against extremism, and if more empowered could do this more effectively

The occupation continues to present the perception of a global attack on Islam; the Afghan government has revealed itself as even more corrupt and partisan than previously thought; the Taliban continue to outperform the central government by a ratio of days to years on providing justice and security; foreign forces continue to conduct mis-aimed airstrikes and treat Afghanistan as their own personal Animal House; construction of basic services still runs behind military spending by a factor of ten, and most of that money ends up back in the hands of US corporations; unemployment still runs at 40% at the very least; madrassas are still the only education most Afghans can expect; women's empowerment is a joke under the Karzai government.

The executive summary contains even more worrying news:

The research team from CPAU interviewed 192 people either individually or in small groups in three insurgency areas: in Wardak (where both Hizb-i Islami and the Taliban are operating), in Kandahar (Taliban only) and in the wider Kabul area (Hizb-i Islami and the Taliban). They interviewed a diverse range of people, including government officers, tribal elders, religious leaders and scholars, youth groups, women's groups, traders and businessmen as well as Taliban combatants and Hizb-i Islami commanders.

Respondents could not understand why the Coalition forces were in Afghanistan. They reasoned that their objectives were clearly not to bring security to local populations, as their mere presence exacerbated violence and increased the numbers of civilians killed in air strikes. They also rejected the idea that Coalition forces were serious either about democracy or, separately, development. Democracy could not be an aim as the Afghan population had never been consulted about the occupation in the first place. And although western publics had been consulted about the recent surge ordered by President Obama the Afghan parliament and people had not (�So if this is western style democracy we don�t want it�). The development efforts of international agencies was seen as delivering only very small projects which didn�t have significant impact and employed few people (demand for projects that created local employment was huge). The lack of clarity on US and Coalition motivations led to speculations about �real� motives.

Young Afghan men will continue to radicalize at rates beyond the efforts of any conceivable "hearts and minds" efforts to play catch up. We've achieved all we can short of staying decades, but staying decades just feeds back into that number one source of radicalisation across the Muslim world.

Time to say "enough".