Islamabad: Afghanistan maybe deemed as a supreme case study for understanding comparative “insurgencies”. Afghanistan has been home of insurgency since the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the 9/11 attacks added fuel to the fire.
Afghanistan is made up of rugged mountainous terrain, with deep valleys and majestic mountains. Soviets initially and now Russians are biggest threat to Afghan sovereignty, but United States is too no way else after the inclusion of “War on Terror”. Soviet invasion was in a centralized manner and the resistance was in a de-centralized manner initially.
To counter the invasion there must be a centralized entity, which later on emerged as Taliban in Afghanistan. Taliban in Afghanistan came out as a centralized entity to counter the centralized invasion of Soviet a due to their command over guerilla warfare, Soviets surrendered as centralized entity was against centralized insurgency.
Later on the atmosphere was created that Taliban are a source of insurgency in Afghanistan. United States has also used Pakistan to create de-centralized insurgency in Afghanistan by landing it’s back on the elimination of “War of Terror” form Afghan soil which is home to Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.
The US invasion was de-centralized in Afghanistan and the insurgency was difficult to counter because the group or politically entity they were referring as insurgent were the only centralized and powerful group in the country, Taliban. The invasion of ISIS in Afghanistan was de-centralized, whereas, the Taliban is centralized, that is the reason that it has shaped this way.
The insurgency in Afghanistan would not be solved due to various reason, of which the foremost is, the governance and political stability in Afghanistan, as well as the Taliban in Pakistan. Afghanistan is now a battle ground of direct and indirect violent conflict along with serious crisis.
The Afghani’s are extremely resilient nation. They are resilient in nature that is why the two super powers failed in Afghanistan, I.e. USSR and USA. De-Centralized insurgency is difficult to counter then centralized.
