Abstract
This chapter discusses the peacebuilding aspects of the counterinsurgency strategy implemented by Coalition Forces in Afghanistan. With a focus on the use of Religious Engagement Teams, the author shows how tactics of the counterinsurgency strategy resemble tactics which have been proposed by religiously motivated peacebuilders as to how to build peace in areas devastated by religiously motivated violence. Like religious peacebuilders, Coalition Forces in Afghanistan have attempted to engage in dialogue with religious leaders as a tool to bring about peace. This chapter focuses on an aspect of the war in Afghanistan often ignored and offers a way that religious peacebuilders and standing militaries can work together to achieve a common goal of peace.
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Notes
- 1.
Dorn (2011).
- 2.
Archer (2005–2006), p. 31.
- 3.
Heather S. Gregg, Beyond Population Engagement: Understanding Counterinsurgency, 2009. http://www.usaraf.army.mil/documents_pdf/READING_ROOM/2010%2012%20Beyond%20Population%20Engagement_Understanding%20COIN.PDF (October 9 2012), p. 19.
- 4.
Keith Pavlischek, “The Ethics of Counterinsurgency,” The New Atlantis, 2009, http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-ethics-of-counterinsurgency, p. 4; Archer, p. 23.
- 5.
Archer, p. 31.
- 6.
Maddow (2012), pp. 17–22.
- 7.
Maddow, pp. 17–22, 133, 210–211.
- 8.
Nathaniel C. Fick and John A. Nagl, “Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition,” Foreign Policy, January 5, 2009, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/01/05/counterinsurgency_field_manual_afghanistan_edition (September 29 2012).
- 9.
Josh Daniell, “David Petraeus and the COIN Strategy,” The Casual Truth, August 31, 2010, http://www.thecasualtruth.com/story/david-petraeus-and-coin-strategy (December 8, 2012): The effectiveness of General Petraeus’ tragedy is questioned. Though some contribute the reduction in violence to the new strategy, others contribute it to other developments in Iraq. This study does not engage this debate, not because it is not a useful and necessary debate, but merely because it would deviate from the main focus of this study.
- 10.
Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube, “10,000+ Troops to Afghanistan,” NBC News, February 17, 2009,http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2009/02/17/4427648-10000-troops-to-afghanistan?lite (December 11, 2012).
- 11.
“Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan” WhiteHouse.gov http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-address-nation-way-forward-afghanistan-and-pakistan (December 11 2012).
- 12.
Fick.
- 13.
Fick.
- 14.
Gregg, p. 18.
- 15.
Greg Grant, “Petraeus Issues New COIN Guidance for Afghan Theater,” Defense Tech, Military.com, July 28, 2010, http://defensetech.org/2010/07/28/petraeus-issues-new-coin-guidance-for-afghan-theater/, (December 8, 2012), “Counterinsurgency Guidance.”
- 16.
Obama’s War, prod. and dir. Marcela Gaviria & Martin Smith, Frontline/PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/.
- 17.
Obama’s War.
- 18.
Obama’s War.
- 19.
Obama’s War.
- 20.
Appleby (2000), p. 69.
- 21.
“Underground Woman: Sakena Yacoobi and the Afghan Institute of Learning,” in Peacemakers in Action, ed. David Little (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 389–393.
- 22.
“Pakistan school aims to beat the Taliban trap of heroin, sexual abuse and prostitution,” The National, February 29, 2012, http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/pakistan-school-aims-to-beat-the-taliban-trap-of-heroin-sexual-abuse-and-prostitution (November 30, 2012).
- 23.
Patrick Carroll, “Part 2: Countering the Taliban narrative through credible religious voices,” Marine Corps Gazette, http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/victory-afghanistan, (November 21 2012).
- 24.
Alexs Thompson, “Religious Leader Engagement in Southern Afghanistan,” National Defense University, http://www.ndu.ed/press/religious-leader-engagement-afghanistan.html, (November 21, 2012).
- 25.
Carroll.
- 26.
Bryan Nygaard, “Religious shura in Garmsir promotes peace and stability,” ISAF, NATO, http://www.isaf.nato.int/article/news/religious-shura-in-garmsir-promotes-peace-and-stability.html, (November 21, 2012).
- 27.
Carroll.
- 28.
Philip Pelikan, “Mullah Engagement Program: Helmand and Farah Provinces, Afghanistan February 15– March 15 2010,” Small Wars Journal, December 28, 2010, http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/mullah-engagement-program, p. 2.
- 29.
Pelikan, p. 2.
- 30.
Pelikan, p. 2.
- 31.
Pelikan, p. 8.
- 32.
Pelikan, p. 8.
- 33.
Pelikan, p. 9.
- 34.
Gregg.
- 35.
Hunt et al. (2009), pp. 19–21.
References
R.S. Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers inc., New York, 2000)
T. Archer, The Importance of Ethics in Counterinsurgency Operations (School of Advanced Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, 2005–2006)
W. Dorn, Warfighting, counterinsurgency and peacekeeping in Afghanistan: three strategies examined in the light of just war theory, in War, Human Dignity and Nation Building: Theological Perspectives on Canada’s Role in Afghanistan, ed. by G.D. Badcock, D.C. Marks (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, New Castle, 2011)
A.E. Hunt, et al., Beyond Bullets: Strategies for Countering Violent Extremism (Center for a New American Security, 2009)
R. Maddow, Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power (Crown Publishing Group, New York, 2012)
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Ridout, M. (2016). Armed Peacebuilding: The Peacebuilding Aspects of the Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. In: Irvin-Erickson, D., Phan, P. (eds) Violence, Religion, Peacemaking. Interreligious Studies in Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56851-9_9
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