Anti-zivil-militärisch? Politik von deutschen entwicklungspolitischen Nichtregierungsorganisationen in und zu Afghanistan

Abstract

Abstract Against civil-military cooperation? The policies of German NGOs in and about Afghanistan. Over the last few years, German non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have opposed the intents of the German government to place conditions on public project funding that aim to strengthen the cooperation between NGOs and the German armed forces operating in Afghanistan. Analysing NGOs’ critiques of civil-military cooperation, the author shows the ambiguities of NGOs’ declarations, which tend to oscillate between political abstinence and a critique of the military intervention. The author argues that while NGOs and their networks oppose direct civil-military cooperation at the local level, they avoid clear political position-making with regards to the broader project of international military intervention and state-building. The specific and contradictory political roles of foreign NGOs within the international project of regime change in Afghanistan are analysed and issues that NGOs should debate in order to clarify their political position, despite the probable cost of a common position within „the NGO community“, are introduced.