A Comprehensive Approach to Post-Conflict Reconstruction: German Experience in Afghanistan

As a part of a larger research project on complex linkages between security and development implemented by the Center for Security and Development Studies at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, this paper examines the complex dilemmas of pursuing comprehensive approach to post-conflict reconstruction with an example of Federal Republic of Germany’s experience with the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The first section depicts the background of deployment of the PRTs on Afghan territory. The second section compares the U.S., British and German models of PRTs and assesses the role of those teams as vehicles of close civil-military, interagency coordination. The third and the fourth sections identify respectively characteristic features of the German PRTs’ activities in Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces and the main obstacles that hindered the achievement of key objectives. The conclusion contains a concise assessment of effectiveness and efficiency of PRTs as a mechanism of addressing complex challenges of post-conflict reconstruction and transition to peaceful development. It also postulates that the PRT model, regardless of some objective difficulties faced by various German agencies, may be very relevant in the future in fulfilling a revised agenda of the German foreign and defense policies in the XXI century.