While veteran Pashtun warrior Hamid Karzai prepares to take over the new interim Afghan government on December 22, the United Nations Security Council is hurrying to police that transition. Staff and diplomats are racing to confer final approval on a multinational peacekeeping force that the UN hopes will be in Kabul, at least partially, by the time the new administration takes office.

The Security Council on December 20 passed a resolution authorizing an undefined six-month International Security Assistance Force to be deployed in and around Kabul. British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said after the unanimous vote that further deployment would only come after discussion with Karzai's government. "The business of providing security in and around Kabul will be a shared one with the Afghans," Greenstock said. "If they wish for help in other areas of Afghanistan, they need to ask for it and to follow that up themselves."

The force's mission has been hard to rally around. While ample public debate broached the multinational force's size and composition, diplomats say internal progress foundered on issues of time frame and mandate. The initial term will be six months, but British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sent a letter to Secretary General Kofi Annan on December 19 limiting the United Kingdom's lead nation status to three months. Straw asked Annan to "support efforts to identify a successor lead nation by asking member states to consider urgently the possibility of taking over as next lead nation." No country has emerged, but diplomats and UN officials have suggested Turkey as a contender. The resolution sets out the British and the American desire for a mandate that would be authorized under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which explicitly allows troops to use force to impose peace. This is a more controversial matter than one might suspect.

Russia, channeling the priorities of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, initially pushed the Security Council to avoid any reference to military action in the force's authorizing resolution. Such a resolution would leave the Northern Alliance leeway to jockey within the coalition government as it sees fit. Russia also wanted the force to work for three months, half as long a tour as the United States had sought. The resolution calls for a six-month assignment, granting ultimate authority to the United States. But disputes about the force's methods may return.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the Northern Alliance foreign minister who will serve in the same post in the interim government, sent a letter to the Security Council arguing for the application of Chapter VI, which does not explicitly allow the use of force. Diplomats say Dr. Abdullah's letter has raised objections from some countries that might donate troops. These countries want their men and women free to do whatever they consider necessary to suppress violence. On December 19, reportedly under pressure from Karzai, the Pashtun leader who will head the interim Afghan government, Dr. Abdullah sent a second letter endorsing a resolution based on Chapter VII.

This flurry of maneuvers shadows a larger question about the size and proportional representation of the UN force. Britain, which will lead the charge, will probably contribute 1,000 to 1,500 troops. France and Germany have said they will contribute troops, and several countries recently sent delegates to a London meeting planning the force. Attendees represented the European Union along with Canada, Australia, Argentina, Jordan, New Zealand, Turkey and the United States.

But the Northern Alliance initially said it does not want the total number of troops to exceed 1,000. Later on December 19, Interim Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim told Agence France-Presse that the interim government had agreed to a force of 3,000 soldiers.

This has been a fairly easy matter to reconcile. For the six months until Afghans install a two-year government via a Loya Jirga, or grand tribal council, the United States will be the land's highest authority. The letter from Straw said that the United States will have authority over the UN's International Security Assistance Force to "deconflict" the activities of the two military operations and to ensure that UN missions "do not interfere with the successful completion of Operation Enduring Freedom."

But this provisional harmony masks dissonance within the antiterrorist coalition. German diplomats strongly opposed the idea that Americans would effectively govern the UN operation, according to the Financial Times. The paper's December 20 edition reported that Germany might withdraw its offer of troops if the United States maintains its veto power over the UN deployment.

Seasoned Afghanistan experts seem confident that these issues will resolve themselves. UN Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi, who told reporters in New York that he expects to stay a few weeks to guide the transition at the request of the Afghan leaders, has expressed optimism. "I think everybody has something to complain about, including ourselves. But I think everybody is on board inside Afghanistan, and the Council is extremely supportive and this is something we appreciate very much," he said. "I am sure you are well aware there are some objective problems [organizing the multinational force,] not any delaying tactics by anybody. This is going to happen I am sure. We are confident this will not disrupt the process."

Whatever force takes shape will have to stabilize within six months. The UN has separately announced the establishment of an Afghan Interim Authority Fund to boost the interim government's civil service sector. The fund, which the UN Development Program will administer, carries a budget of about $20 million. Julia Taft, the fund's coordinator, expects it will only last six months until more substantial donors appear. Taft described the fund as unusual in that it provides funding for key staff salaries while the interim government gets settled.

Once the UN hammers out the makeup and mission of its multinational force, then, it will still be operating in a desperately poor country that needs to rebuild all its institutions. Taft said the fund should allow each of the 29 ministries of the interim government to employ a staff of up to 10 people for about $150 per month, plus initial bonuses. UNDP has also allocated about $3 million of the proposed budget to pay for teachers once the school year starts in March. The fund will also cover the costs of convening the Loya Jirga next spring.