Participants identify successes and remaining challenges

By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Local populations are the only ones capable of ensuring effective protection of domestic security, according to participants in a March 4 conference exploring strategies for security sector reconstruction in post-conflict situations.

The Washington conference, sponsored by the Swiss Foundation for World Affairs and the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), studied the lessons that could be drawn from recent efforts to rebuild stability and security in the Balkans and West Africa and how those lessons should be applied to current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Conference participants looked at the security sector in its broadest sense, including groups mandated to use force as well as judicial and civil oversight bodies.

Andrzej Karkoszka, Senior Political Advisor at DCAF and former Polish Defense Minister, said, "The first precondition of a security sector reconstruction program is that it must be based on the best possible knowledge of local circumstances and specific needs. Such an intimate knowledge is obtained only when the indigenous actors are involved in shaping the processes."

Assistant Secretary of Defense Mira Ricardel indicated that the United States is embracing this principle in its approach to rebuilding the security sectors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She said, "Our objective is not to engage in ‘nation building.' Our mission is to help the people of these countries so that they can build their own nation. That's an important distinction."

Ricardel explained that the Defense Department's goal is to see the Iraqis and Afghans take charge of their security apparatuses and their political institutions.

"Our objective is to advance Iraqi and Afghan independence by giving their people increasing responsibility over time for the security and governance of their countries because long-term stability comes not from the presence of foreign forces but from the development of functioning political institutions," she said.

Ricardel spoke of the progress that has been made in standing up a multiethnic army in Afghanistan and in building a 200,000 plus domestic security force in Iraq in just one year.

With regard to Iraq, she noted, "This effort has been so successful that today in Baghdad, General Dempsey, the commander of the First Armored Division, is starting to pull his forces back to the outskirts of the city with freed Iraqi forces increasingly taking the lead in security."

All of the speakers agreed, however, that training and arming soldiers and policemen is not enough to ensure long-term political stability.

Nicole Ball, Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, said, "Efforts aimed at strengthening security sector governance have to be part of a wider governance agenda, and that governance agenda has to be based on democratic principles and the rule of law."

"You can't just come in and say this sector is what we're dealing with," she said. "It has to be embedded in a broader democratic process."

Recognizing this need, Ricardel noted, "[Iraqis] are serving in local, regional and national governing institutions, signing up to serve as police, border guards, soldiers and civil defense forces, starting businesses, creating jobs, and building a new nation from the rubble of Saddam Hussein's tyranny."

She continued, "In the security sector, as with other sectors, we are mentoring and partnering with the Iraqis, not substituting for them."

Walter Slocombe offered a candid analysis of efforts to reestablish the security sector in Iraq from his perspective as former Senior Advisor and Director of Security Affairs for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

He noted that Iraq is different from other countries in a post-conflict situation because of its relative wealth in human, land and mineral resources. Quoting CPA Administrator Paul Bremer, Slocombe said, "This is a rich country that's temporarily poor."

Referring to ongoing terrorist operations, however, Slocombe said that Iraq is a country that remains under active attack.

In order to put an end to these attacks, he said, "it has to be essentially an Iraqi enterprise. And one important element of making Iraqis cooperate and want to be on the right side ... is giving them the sense that they have a stake in the success of the operation."

He continued, "The central part of the solution is that we have to move forward rapidly to giving Iraqis more room to see to their own security."

At the same time, however, he underscored the importance of rehabilitating basic services, facilitating the economic reconstruction and aiding in the establishment of political institutions.

"The issues of services and the economy and political structures are also security issues," he said.

Slocombe also noted the potential destabilizing presence of local militias such as the Kurdish Pesh Merga, but speculated that this problem would diminish as increased economic and political stability lowered the perceived need for such regional forces.

An additional challenge Slocombe identified was the high incidence of corruption within the Iraqi police forces. In his view, this is a problem of weak leadership given the historically low level of prestige enjoyed by the police forces.

"Leadership is critical. The hard part is to train up proper leaders who have a commitment to rule of law, who have a commitment to a system of discipline and a mutual confidence in a force that is not a force of brutality, who understand that you can't have corruption if the security force is to be effective," he said.

Despite the challenges, Slocombe indicated that he remains fundamentally optimistic about the future of Iraq.

"I think in this country, we tend to underestimate the degree to which Iraqis realize they have a huge opportunity. They've come out of a terrible nightmare, and none of them want to go back to that," he said.

He added, "I believe there is enough support in the Iraqi population, and there are enough inherent resources and there will be enough commitment from the outside to continue to provide resources, both in terms of people, meaning lives, for security, but also money and expertise and advice and support in the transformation of the security sector."

Robert Perito, a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute for Peace, offered a more mixed review of developments in Afghanistan. He observed that the United States is training a central core of forces for the future Afghan army but noted that these forces are witnessing a high rate of desertion following the training.

He also observed that many of the policemen slated to receive in-service training are "former militia or mujahideen who have been given security positions by local influential warlords."

Noting the high illiteracy rates in the population, he questioned "how far you can take a trainee who doesn't have basic education skills."

Perito also raised the issue of the continuing presence of old army forces and local militias. "In many cases, the United States continues to rely on these forces in its fight against Al-Qaida. And so in some cases the United States is in a situation where it is both supporting the central government and supporting regional leaders who have no loyalty to the central government," he said.

Finally, he noted the potential destabilizing existence of the opium poppy trade, saying that the large illicit profits to be made in this rapidly expanding sector could undermine the central government's efforts to establish secure control over the country.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)