The War on Terrorism and Nato’s Role in Afghanistan

Abstract

This article focuses on the war on terrorism and NATO’s role in Afghanistan. NATO was founded in 1949 to protect western Europe from Soviet aggression in the emerging cold war scenario. After the demise of communism in Europe and the disintegration of the USSR, NATO lost justification for its existence. NATO was rejuvenated with a new doctrine and it soon became involved in peace keeping missions, humanitarian and rescue operations in failed and failing states and the fight against global terrorism. Thus NATO found the raison d’etre for continuing existence. The incident of 9/11 is a watershed in world politics. Although NATO reacted quickly on 9/11, it was the US which played the lead role in the invasion of Afghanistan. NATO was thus sidelined and no role was given to it in the Bonn settlement, which authorized the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) to keep peace in Afghanistan. When in 2003, the ISAF forces faced a growing crisis, it was decide that NATO should be called in to take over the command of ISAF forces. This was NATO’s first “out of area operation”. NATO’s main objectives in Afghanistan were to combat insurgencies, strengthen Afghanistan’s incumbent government and its security institutions and restrain the opium trade. This article discusses at length NATO’s successes and failures in achieving its objectives in Afghanistan, where it is facing a real test of its survival as a security organization with a global role.