The speech of the Director-General of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) at the UN Security Council regular session on "Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts" on the situation in Afghanistan (19 August 2021, New York-UN)
It is a great honour for me to have the opportunity to share with this august forum my perspective on the threat of Daesh to international security. In light of the unfolding catastrophe and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, I will also bring in the Afghan tragedy and factor in the context of today’s briefing.
In less than three weeks, the world would witness and commemorate the tragic and painful 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which gave birth to our collective struggle against terrorism. The fact that the UN Security Council holds regular session on Daesh in August 2021 is a testimony that the World has collectively failed to deal with the threat of terrorism after 20 years and despite allocating abundant resources in blood and treasure. I would like to offer my reflection and analysis on some reasons for our collective failure. I would begin from my own field, the academic world.
There is hardly a reasonable consensus and intellectual agreement on the very definition and understanding of terrorism. The diversity of names to describe militant Islamist movements indicate this conceptual confusion: Names such as Jihadist, Salafi, Fundamentalist, Islamic Terrorist, Extremist, Violent Extremist, Islamo-fascist, Insurgent, Barbarian, Terrorist, Foreign Terrorist, International Terrorism and some other names and labels are used.
The failure of the Islamic World to own its share of responsibility is the other important reason for our collective failure. While the bulk of terrorist perpetrators and victims have been Muslims, sadly the Islamic World has remained a passive observer in articulating a consistent, credible, and constructive narrative about an existential threat to its wellbeing and security.
The intellectual and political stagnation of our religious, CULTURAL, and educational institutions have immensely contributed to the rise of extremism and THE FAILURES of defensive measures against this threat.
Let me bring in the role of the most privileged member of the international system, member states in our collective failure. The overwhelming approach to terrorism has been to treat it as a “non-state” phenomenon and independent from the state-centric international system. In reality, however, terrorism is a product of THE state system and ONE OR OTHER state TENDS TO BE behind or above a given terrorist group.
In some cases, there are a group of like-minded states that support militant groups, as WAS THE CASE WITH the Mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Daesh would not have survived and flourished, had it not been for the support that it receives from some member-states.
Sadly, the UN system protects its guilty members who engage in proxy wars against their regional and global adversaries by utilizing terrorism as a state policy. The disconnection between UN Analytical reports and UN political actions show the UN’s incapability to confront state-sponsored terrorism.
Our global struggle against terrorism can be compared and contrasted with our other global struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. In our recent struggle, we have witnessed the phenomenon of “vaccine nationalism”, in which the rich nations choose “self-interest” over collective interest. Despite the rhetoric of fighting all forms of terrorism, sadly many governments have chosen to focus on their own terrorist threat, rather than the integrated nature of global terrorism.
The case of Afghanistan is a prime example of the contradictory approach to deal with terrorism. Many have been recommending political means to deal with the Taliban while advocating military solution to other like-minded groups such as Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, and the ETIM. If there is utility and wisdom in a political approach to the Taliban, why should it not be extended to other groups? Or the other way around.
All these groups share fundamental characteristics with one another, despite differences in the scope of their activities. Again, using the COVID-19 analogy, there are variants of the same original phenomenon which have been mutated to different degree of lethality and version, as with the Alpha, Beta, Delta variants.
Terrorism, 9/11, and Afghanistan have become defining names in the global conversation about terrorism. The takeover of Kabul by the Taliban on the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 would be remembered as a historic benchmark and a turning point. It is natural to be fascinated by the symbolic coincidence of the two anniversaries or intellectual discussion about the definition of terrorism or to engage in the political debate about the "blame game”. But what we must focus on is “the humanitarian dimension” and the unfolding catastrophe. I was at Kabul airport when desperate passengers held departing US Airplane. It was sheer human desperation, helplessness, and fear. One of the passengers that fell to the ground from a flying airplane was reportedly a medical doctor. These passengers were not alone in their desperation and fear. They represent millions of Afghans from diverse backgrounds, from women's rights activists to destitute farmers.
The World must intervene to avert and mitigate an apocalyptic humanitarian tragedy.
To this end, the UN must overcome its usual approaches by declaring the situation as an urgent humanitarian crisis under the chapter 7 provision of the UN charter. This should include serious and urgent deliberation to declare Kabul as a “safe zone” protected by a UN peacekeeping mission. This would allow the opposing factions to come to an inclusive political settlement while working to mitigate the unfolding catastrophe.
The crisis of Afghanistan during the last 4 decades has shown that a military victory is a brief pause to the next phase of the war. The Taliban and their regional partners particularly the Islamic Republic of Pakistan should reflect on their principal role in either mitigating or accelerating a catastrophic situation; an outcome that will determine our decades-old struggle against terrorism.
Dr. Davood Moradian is director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies and former senior policy adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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The article does not reflect the official opinion of the AISS