About the Report
Much international effort and funding have focused on building and bureaucratizing the means of violence in Afghanistan. At the same time, parallel government and NATO experiments have armed local defense forces, including local militias, under the Afghan Local Police (ALP) program to fight the insurgency and provide security at the local level. This report—which is based on a year’s research in Kabul and the provinces of Wardak, Baghlan, and Kunduz—seeks to understand the role and impact of the ALP on security and political dynamics in the context of ongoing counterinsurgency and stabilization operations and the projected drawdown of international troops in 2014 .
About the Authors
Jonathan Goodhand is a professor of conflict and development studies in the Development Studies department at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. His research interests include the political economy of aid, conflict, and postwar reconstruction, with a particular focus on Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Aziz Hakimi is a PhD candidate at SOAS. His dissertation focuses on the ALP in relation to Afghan statebuilding.
Cover photo: Afghan Local Police candidates,
Daykundi Province, by Petty Officer 2nd Class
David Brandenburg, supplied by DVIDS
The views expressed in this report are those of the authors alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Institute of Peace.
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Peaceworks No. 90. First published 2014.
IsBN: 978-1-60127-206-5
© 2014 by the United States Institute of Peace