@article{2f7d4ecaf4c04255a89a0808a027d1c4,
title = "State-building and the armed forces in modern Afghanistan: A structural analysis",
abstract = "NATO's ISAF mission in Afghanistan ended on 31 December 2014. The future of Afghanistan is now largely in the hands of the Afghan National Army (ANA). NATO countries have invested billions of dollars in the ANA to create an actor that can provide stability and partner with the Afghan government to further state development. But civil-military relations in Afghanistan have proven historically difficult. NATO allies believe that the ANA will be a partner for the government, but the military might also intervene in governance, and become a destabilizing force. Using the unique timing of the ANA's development and NATO handover, this article applies the Stepan-Desch's structural theory of civil-military relations to the case of Afghanistan to hypothesize about the future of Afghan civil-military relations. It argues that, given the dominance of internal threats in Afghanistan, it is highly likely that the military will intervene directly in Afghan governance, rather than maintain a western standard of military non-involvement in governance.",
keywords = "ANA, Afghanistan, NATO, civil-military relations, coup theory, coups",
author = "Williams, {M. J.}",
note = "Funding Information: Here the story of Afghanistan becomes more tragic and a full-on insurgency against the communist government (1979–1992) and subsequent civil war (1992–2001) would destroy the modern, centralized Afghan state. At this time, the Afghan Army continued to exist so long as it was funded by the Soviets. Even after the Soviets withdrew, the Afghan Army was able to hold its own against insurgents. With poor internal revenue generation, because Moscow stopped funding Kabul, the military fractured and dissolved. From 1992–2001 it is impossible to identify Afghan civil-military relations that follow a western framework. Funding Information: The author would like to thank Lara Nettelfield, Stephanie Carvin, Michael Desch, Roland Paris, John Mearsheimer, Austin Knuppe, Walter Ladwig, Christopher Dandeker, Kimberly Marten, Barnett Rubin, Thomas Wright and Theo Farrell for their careful reading of earlier drafts of this manuscript as well as their thoughtful comments. Part of this project was conducted during his time as a Bosch Fellow in the office of Christian Schmidt MdB and he is grateful for the support the office provided. He is very indebted to the librarians at NYU, the British Library of Political Science at the LSE, the Royal United Services Institute Library in London and the British Library for helping him to track down some of the more obscure historical sources. This project was greatly facilitated through research in Afghanistan funded in part by NATO and a great deal of thanks goes to Major David Nevers USMC for helping the author to obtain information on current training operations from NATO ISAF and NTM-A in Afghanistan. This project was financially supported through a grant from the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart, Germany. Any mistakes contained herein are my own.",
year = "2015",
month = may,
day = "21",
doi = "10.1057/ip.2015.12",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "52",
pages = "305--334",
journal = "International Politics",
issn = "1384-5748",
publisher = "Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.",
number = "3",
}