CIAO DATE: 12/2012
October 2012
Center on International Cooperation
The settlements among elites that underpin the post- 2001 political order in Afghanistan are deeply entangled with the political economy of the international presence. Transition will therefore have wide-ranging and potentially destabilizing effects on that political order. The United States and the international community have funded an unprecedented private security industry in Afghanistan comprising tens of thousands of Afghan employees, mostly armed guards. Many are linked to strongmen and their networks and are largely unaccountable either to their international patrons or to the Afghan government. The Afghan government and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have begun to transfer private security company (PSC) operations to the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF), a new Afghan government force, but a great deal of uncertainty remains about whether APPF will be able to protect international military bases and development contractors, and how it will absorb the commanders and former fighters who currently provide the bulk of PSC workforces.
Resource link: Contracting the Commanders: Transition and the Political Economy of Afghanistan's Private Security Industry [PDF] - 607K