Transitioning from military interventions to long-term counter-terrorism policy: The Case of Afghanistan (2001-2016)

This paper focus on Afghanistan, a country in the midst of an ongoing insurgency rather than being in a ‘nation building’ phase, something which is demonstrated by the casualty rate of security personnel and civilians alike. In the context of the project, Afghanistan was selected as a case study because, compared to the other two case studies, it has had a long fight against insurgency and terrorism which has not yet led to the creation of a coherent counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism strategy. The paper looks at the country in three phases: prior to the US-led invasion in 2001, post -2001 and the transition/exit phase during which the country has gone from fighting an insurgency war to a counter-terrorism one. The paper ends by analysing whether (i) the objectives of the mission were met, (ii) if there was a clear strategy of transition and finally (iii) how the transition in the country was managed and to what extent it can be defined successful