EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - British Defense Secretary Reaffirms Transatlantic Solidarity in Afghanistan

EURASIA INSIGHT

BRITISH DEFENSE SECRETARY REAFFIRMS TRANSATLANTIC SOLIDARITY IN AFGHANISTAN
Richard Weitz 7/16/08

British Secretary of State for Defense Des Browne expressed guarded optimism about Afghanistan’s democratization process during a recent speech in Washington, DC. At the same time, Browne cautioned that the conflict-ravaged nation will take at least a generation to rebuild.

"The nature and complexity of the challenge there is greater even than the nature and complexity of the challenge in ... Iraq," Browne said during a July 10 address at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He was in the US capital to mark the 50th anniversary of UK-US Mutual Defense Agreement, as well as to hold consultations with senior American defense officials.

Browne voiced hope that a "virtuous circle" of increasing military security and economic-political improvements was taking shape in Afghanistan. In his view, the International Security Assurance Force (ISAF), of which Britain is the second-highest troop contributor after the United States, is establishing the basis for economic development and a strengthening of the Afghan government’s political authority. The economic and political progress, in turn, is helping consolidate the coalition’s military successes.

"It is vital for the international community to remain committed to Afghanistan, something of which I know no American audience will ever need persuading," he said.

Taliban operations have captured headlines of late, such as the July 13 assault on a combined US-Afghan military post in eastern Afghanistan that left nine American soldiers dead. Countering the impression that the Taliban had the initiative, Browne maintained that coalition forces had driven the radical Islamic militants out of many of their former strongholds. While he maintained that the Taliban could not win in Afghanistan, he cautioned that the international community could still lose the conflict "if we fail to maintain our cohesion as an alliance and rapidly � fill with reconstruction and development the security space that we are creating."

Alluding to the widespread perception that the Iraq conflict was a "war of choice," Browne insisted that the Afghan conflict "is not discretionary" because the world "cannot responsibly ignore the threat posed by an Afghanistan governed by a regime like the Taliban."

Browne also straightforwardly addressed the widespread perception in Washington that many coalition partners, particularly in Europe, were not equitably sharing the military burdens of the Afghan operation. "I want to see all NATO members contributing fairly and without caveats on the use of their troops," he observed. "That is why I want us to reform NATO’s decision-making processes to ensure that it works more effectively." [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In the area of civil reconstruction, Browne reaffirmed the conclusions of last month’s Paris conference on Afghan reconstruction as well as the arguments of Kai Eide, the new Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, that foreign assistance needs to focus more on building the capacity of the Afghan government. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"To fill the security space that NATO is delivering in Afghanistan, our common aim is to develop an Afghan government capable of providing for its people the infrastructure, industries, schools, hospitals, jobs, utilities and services that the Taliban never will provide." And, "if the structures of governance that we develop are to be sustainable for the long term and robust, then they must be delivered through Afghan structures and in line with Afghan culture."

Editor�s Note: Richard Weitz is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.

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