In this article the authors raise the question if it is ethically responsible to introduce a western-style police organisation in a traditional society? Can we expect western organisational solutions to be as effective in a tribe-based society as they are in modern western societies?

Doing the wrong things for the right reason captures the intention of what the authors aim at. They point at the very awkward situation wherein soldiers on mission try to respect the indigenous population so much, that they almost neglect or look away from their own moral anchors. Respecting the other …

Deployments, such as the ones to Uruzgan, do not end when service members return home. For an extensive period of time, they have performed their jobs in a hazardous environment, with ambushes and violent attacks and the risk of being wounded or even killed. They may also have witnessed violation of …

Assessing the effectiveness and progress of efforts to ‘build states in order to build peace’ (Call and Wyeth, 2008) is inevitable for several reasons. Politicians want to know what is being achieved with the resources that they have allocated to the state building endeavours abroad. They want to judge …

Trust is of key importance in the military organization. Imagine, for example, a military convoy making its way along the dirt roads of Uruzgan, a province in southern Afghanistan. The threat of improvised explosive devices in such a situation is all around and the safety of the convoy depends entirely …

De Afghaanse overheid is het onderwerp van dit researchpaper. Onderzocht wordt hoe zij zich in loop van de geschiedenis heeft ontwikkeld, wat de internationale inspanningen van de laatste jaren om haar weer op te bouwen hebben opgeleverd en – waar dit hoofdstuk uiteindelijk voor bedoeld is – wat het …

The Afghan government is the subject of this contribution, which investigates how it has developed over time, what the efforts of recent years to build it up have resulted in, and – its actual objective– what it means for foreign militaries, such as the Dutch in Uruzgan at present, to have a weak …

On 2 February 2006, after earlier Dutch contributions in Afghanistan, a large parliamentary majority approved the Cabinet decision to deploy a mission to Uruzgan. On 3 February 2006 the decision was confirmed in the meeting of the Cabinet. This brought to a close the political decision making process …

Na eerdere Nederlandse bijdragen in Afghanistan stemde op 2 februari 2006 een grote Kamermeerderheid in met het Kabinetsbesluit een missie naar Uruzgan te ontplooien. Op 3 februari 2006 werd dit bekrachtigd in de ministerraad. Daarmee kwam een einde aan het politieke besluitvormingsproces dat meer …

De operatie in Afghanistan confronteert Nederlandse militairen met een veelheid van taken op het gebied van veiligheid, ondersteuning van het civiele bestuur en wederopbouw. Veiligheid komt vóór democratie en wederopbouw. Daarbij zijn ook veelvuldig militaire confrontaties aan de orde. Hoe treden …