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562. Constitutional Interpretation and the Continuing Crisis in Afghanistan
- Author:
- Scott Worden and Sylvana Q. Sinha
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- The recent controversy in Afghanistan over the outcome of the 2010 parliamentary elections ultimately resolved the question of who sits in Parliament, but left a more fundamental question unanswered: "Who has the power to interpret the Afghan Constitution?" Ambiguities in the language of the Constitution make it difficult to determine who has the legal authority to interpret it. The Supreme Court maintains that the Constitution gives it the power of judicial review, but the Constitution also calls for the Independent Commission on the Supervision of Implementation of the Constitution (ICSIC), which the Parliament has mandated to decide constitutional issues instead. Without political and legal consensus over who has final authority to decide different types of constitutional claims, Afghanistan cannot achieve a rule of law where government activities are subject to consistent and transparent rules. Afghanistan must establish clear and unambiguous rules for constitutional interpretation to avoid damaging crises about political leadership and the separation of powers as the security transition and Presidential election approach in 2014.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Democratization, Islam, War, and Insurgency
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan
563. Police Corruption: What Past Scandals Teach about Current Challenges
- Author:
- Robert Perito and David Bayley
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Police corruption is an international problem. Historically, police misconduct has been a factor in the development of police institutions worldwide, but it is a particular problem in counterinsurgency and peacekeeping operations, such as the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization police training program in Afghanistan. There, police abuse and corruption appear endemic and have caused some Afghans to seek the assistance of the Taliban against their own government. The most reliable and extensive knowledge about police corruption in the world's Englishspeaking countries is found in the reports of specially appointed blue-ribbon commissions, independent of government, created for the sole purpose of conducting investigations of police corruption. To reduce police corruption, the commissions recommend creating external oversight over the police with a special focus on integrity, improving recruitment and training, leadership from supervisors of all ranks about integrity, holding all commanders responsible for the misbehavior of subordinates, and changing the organization's culture to tolerate misbehavior less. The remedies proposed by the commissions, however, rely on a set of contextual conditions not commonly found in countries emerging from conflict or facing serious threats to their security. This report suggests triage and bootstraps as strategies for reducing police corruption in countries with security threats. Triage involves targeting assistance in countries where there are solid prospects for tipping police practice in the desired direction. Bootstraps involves using reform within the police itself as a lever to encourage systemic social and political reform in countries in crisis or emerging from conflict.
- Topic:
- Security, Corruption, Crime, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and United States
564. Al-Qa'ida's Center of Gravity in a Post-Bin Ladin World
- Author:
- Mitchell D. Silber
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- CTC Sentinel
- Institution:
- The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
- Abstract:
- A group of men spend their formative and early adult years in Western urban settings such as London, Hamburg, Copenhagen, New York or Sydney. They take the initiative to travel overseas and then return to the West to launch terrorist attacks in the name of al-Qa`ida. Can this be considered an al-Qa`ida plot? What criteria determine that designation? What is the nature of the relationship between radicalized men in the West and the core al-Qa`ida organization in the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan? For it to be identified as an al-Qa`ida plot, does one of the plotters have to attend an al-Qa`ida training camp or meet with an al-Qa`ida trainer, or can they simply be inspired by al-Qa`ida's ideology? These are critical questions. To truly understand the nature of the threat posed by the transnational jihad, led in the vanguard by al-Qa`ida, it is essential to have a greater and more nuanced understanding of the genesis and attempted execution of plots directed against the West. Al-Qa`ida core's role should not be overestimated or underestimated, as important resource allocation questions for Western governments derive from the answers to these questions. It affects military, intelligence, and policing activities that are dedicated to preventing the next attack. In a sense, determining “where the action is for the conspiracy” before a plot is launched should drive Western counterterrorism efforts. In military terms, this would be akin to identifying what Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz called the “center of gravity,” or critical element of strength of al-Qa`ida plots, to provide insights on how to thwart them.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, New York, and London
565. The Wisdom of Retrenchment: America Must Cut Back to Move Forward
- Author:
- Paul K. MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Foreign Affairs
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- The United States can no longer afford a world-spanning foreign policy. Retrenchment -- cutting military spending, redefining foreign priorities, and shifting more of the defense burden to allies -- is the only sensible course. Luckily, that does not have to spell instability abroad. History shows that pausing to recharge national batteries can renew a dominant power's international legitimacy.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, NATO, and Cold War
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and Washington
566. Humanitarian Intervention Comes of Age
- Author:
- Jon Western and Joshua S. Goldstein
- Publication Date:
- 11-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Foreign Affairs
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- No sooner had NATO launched its first air strike in Libya than the mission was thrown into controversy -- and with it, the more general notion of humanitarian intervention. Days after the UN Security Council authorized international forces to protect civilians and establish a no-fly zone, NATO seemed to go beyond its mandate as several of its members explicitly demanded that Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi step down. It soon became clear that the fighting would last longer than expected. Foreign policy realists and other critics likened the Libyan operation to the disastrous engagements of the early 1990s in Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia, arguing that humanitarian intervention is the wrong way to respond to intrastate violence and civil war, especially following the debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq. To some extent, widespread skepticism is understandable: past failures have been more newsworthy than successes, and foreign interventions inevitably face steep challenges. Yet such skepticism is unwarranted. Despite the early setbacks in Libya, NATO's success in protecting civilians and helping rebel forces remove a corrupt leader there has become more the rule of humanitarian intervention than the exception. As Libya and the international community prepare for the post-Qaddafi transition, it is important to examine the big picture of humanitarian intervention -- and the big picture is decidedly positive. Over the last 20 years, the international community has grown increasingly adept at using military force to stop or prevent mass atrocities. Humanitarian intervention has also benefited from the evolution of international norms about violence, especially the emergence of “the responsibility to protect,” which holds that the international community has a special set of responsibilities to protect civilians -- by force, if necessary -- from war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide when national governments fail to do so. The doctrine has become integrated into a growing tool kit of conflict management strategies that includes today's more robust peacekeeping operations and increasingly effective international criminal justice mechanisms. Collectively, these strategies have helped foster an era of declining armed conflict, with wars occurring less frequently and producing far fewer civilian casualties than in previous periods.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, NATO, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Libya, Rwanda, and Somalia
567. Detained and Denied in Afghanistan
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights First
- Abstract:
- In August 2010, General David Petraeus, Commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, announced a shift in U.S. strategy. The United States “cannot kill or capture our way to victory,” he warned. Rather, we must earn the trust of the Afghan people.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, War, and Prisons/Penal Systems
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Asia
568. Drone Attacks Inside Pakistan- Wayang or Willing Suspension of Disbelief?
- Author:
- Shuja Nawaz
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
- Institution:
- Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The United States' unannounced and unacknowledged war against Pakistan in the form of drone attacks launched from sites in Afghanistan and Pakistan continues to be a source of political unrest in the region. It has fortified opposition to the United States among the people of Pakistan, especially in the hinterland, where it has become a symbol of what many consider an unequal partnership between the United States and the government of Pakistan. Compounding the confusion about the legality of such attacks and the anger directed against them is the behavior of the Pakistani authorities, who publicly condemn these attacks and privately condone them. It is widely believed, though hard to corroborate with concrete evidence, that the Pakistani military and civil authorities abet these attacks or have abetted them in the past.
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, and United States
569. Pakistan 2020: A Vision for Building a Better Future
- Author:
- Hassan Abbas
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Asia Society
- Abstract:
- In recent years, Pakistan has stumbled from one crisis to another. A number of political and socioeconomic challenges threaten to further destabilize a country that already is reeling from insurgencies along its northwestern border. Pakistan's newest democratic government is struggling to maintain control over parts of its territory where militant religious groups are intent on challenging its authority and legitimacy. The country's conflict with India over Kashmir, now in its seventh decade, appears as intractable as ever, and the war in neighboring Afghanistan has deepened instability throughout Pakistan. The transition from a near-decade-long rule under a military dictatorship is slow and complicated, as rampant corruption and politicization of the bureaucracy present huge obstacles to the state-building process.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, Democratization, Development, Economics, Education, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, and South Asia
570. Afghanistan Ten Years After...
- Author:
- Slavomír HORÁK
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Obrana a strategie (Defence & Strategy)
- Institution:
- University of Defence
- Abstract:
- The article focuses on the analysis of the internal politics of Afghanistan after 2001 and evaluates the results of state- and nation-building. The emphasis on internal politics is the only possible way to understand the processes in the country and work out the strategy for the country after the planned withdrawal (or limitation) of foreign troops from the country. In this context, the fragmentation and deepening cleavages among various social strata in the country (ethnic, sub-ethnic) is considered to be a crucial determinant of the development in the country. Several power groups define diverse attitudes towards the character of the future Afghan state. These circumstances could lead to the new round of the military conflict after the removal of foreign troops which are considered as a negative factor by a large part of the Afghan elite, albeit they serve as one of the stabilization factors in the country. However, the international community has (and will have) limited tools and influence to prevent any prospective conflict in the country.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Taliban