Analysis of the Effectiveness of Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan—The Case of 2002 to 2014

Abstract

The term SSR was coined by Clare Short, the UK Secretary of State for International Development at the end of the 20th century and has since been adopted by various international organisations and development agencies, such as the UN, the EU, and the UNDP. The role of SSR is particularly important in the context of the global war on terror, which brings together decision-makers from different civil and military organisations. However, SSR has been repeatedly criticised in practice as a theory that is sound in theory but problematic in practice, as SSR processes tend to ignore the reform agenda of recipient countries, have overly optimistic estimates of reform structures, and mostly focus on technocratic settings rather than on the political context of recipient countries. This paper aims to analyse the security sector reform in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014 in terms of the dilemmas faced in reforming the military, police and justice systems and to analyse the effectiveness of this reform in terms of the criteria set by the OECD. It also verifies whether the security sector reform does have these problems. The results show that despite the billions of dollars invested in this reform, there has been limited success. The results are disappointing according to the OECD's criteria and the problems that have arisen.