Regional Responses to Radicalization in Afghanistan. Obstacles, Opportunities and an Agenda for Action

This PRIO Paper forms part of the project ‘Afghanistan in a Neighbourhood Perspective’, funded by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While the first phase of the project (2009–2013) led to the preparation of four comprehensive papers (a general overview and framework plus subsequent papers devoted to each of the three regions), this paper is the result of the second phase, aming to refine the policy implications of the initial study and make those available to broader audiences.

This paper makes a distinction between counter-measures (to already existent extremists) and preventive measures (for potential long-term recruits), drawing attention to the tendency of the regional countries to focus more on the former – to the detriment of the latter’s longer term effects. Along with a potential multilateral approach or indeed prior to, there should be political commitment to seek the domestic roots and conditions that allow for violent extremism and radicalization to happen instead of blaming the phenomena as purely external.