Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 26 March 2009

Pakistan must be involved in solving the problems of Afghanistan and Asia, while NGOs must be deployed in far greater numbers for reconstruction and other assistance in Afghanistan.

“No single organisation can manage the security challenges facing us today,” said Søren Gade, Denmark’s Minister of Defence, at a meeting held at the University of Copenhagen at the end of a two-day meeting with his British counterpart, Secretary of State for Defence John Hutton.

The theme of the meeting was ‘Understanding the Military Conflict in War Zone Afghanistan, and much of the discussion revolved around the British and Danish troops there, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), and securing peace in the region.

“We can win the war with military forces,” Gade continued, “but we cannot win the peace with military means.” Winning the peace implies a political solution in Afghanistan.

“2009 will be the year when Nato must reaffirm its commitment to the Afghan campaign,” Hutton said, while he stressed that the Afghan campaign is vital to security in Denmark, Britain and the whole of the Nato area.

“But Pakistan must be a part of the solution to the region’s problems,” he added.

Hutton noted that the Afghan campaign will be long-lasting, but that “progress is possible and achievable.” Afghanis want to be responsible for their own future.

“‘Evolution’ is the watchword,” the British Secretary of State for Defence said. “As the strategic environment there changes, so must the strategies, policies and military effort of the western countries adapt to these changes.”

The comments followed the release of the report of the Danish defence commission.

“The experiences from Iraq and Afghanistan have weakened the confidence that military-technological superiority can be turned into military campaigns that quickly lead to the desired political results,” the defence commission’s report stated. “There is a need for different dynamic understanding of the need for using both military and civilian instruments in a coherent strategy.”

Developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan will have great importance for regional stability and thus for the fight against international terrorism, the report said. The armed conflict in the eastern and southern parts of Afghanistan in particular revolve around religious and ethic differences, but they are also driven by regional differences and attempts by international terror networks to recapture terrain.

“Despite progress in security matters, including the building-up of Afghan security forces, the Afghan government will continue to depend on the support of Nato and the rest of the international community for a number of years,” the report said.

The majority of the rebel activities in Afghanistan is carried out by the Taliban, but trans-national networks of militant Sunni extremists also operate in the frontier area between Afghanistan and Pakistan from bases in Pakistan.

“Pakistan plays a key role in the fight against terrorism and for the stabilisation of Afghanistan,” the defence commission said in its report. But Pakistan’s short-range ballistic missiles, that can carry nuclear warheads and are aimed at India, its political instability and its 2,500-km border to Afghanistan – an area that is difficult to control and houses people and groups affiliated to terrorism – are areas of concern.

The defence commission expects Denmark to take part in the Afghan campaign for a number of years, while the balance of that engagement will gradually change from a military to a civilian effort.

“Towards the year 2025 the expectations are for international military efforts that include Danish contributions, and particularly in Africa and the Middle East,” the commission added. “The military initiatives will aim at supporting or creating conditions for stablisation in these areas, including a fight against international terror and a reduction in motivation for the spread of weapons of mass destruction. These initiatives will occur in weak or collapsed states, where the need is for broad-based civilian/military efforts.”

But NGOs should be involved to a far greater degree in Afghanistan than at the moment, one critic told the Copenhagen Voice. Sara Thornton, a Danish student of history and politics at Oxford University, pointed out that Danida, the development aid arm of the the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has just three staff in Helmand province, where the Danish troops in Afghanistan are based.

Many more are needed to help the civil society, but they still need some protection from the military if they are to do their reconstruction and other jobs properly.