The Unintended Consequences of US Support on Militia Governance in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan

Abstract

How do militias use the external support provided to them by powerful foreign actors? In Kunduz province, Afghanistan, a wide range of militias have received money, weapons, training and political support through several US-funded militia programmes. While labelled as ‘local self-defence forces’, the observable behaviour of these militias ranges from providing local governance services in the areas they control to preying upon the people they are supposed to guard. Through the analytical lens of multi-layered governance this article investigates how the external support of the United States has been adopted, manipulated, and/or diverted by local militias in Kunduz to serve their own agendas. While the militia support yielded short-term counterinsurgency gains, in the mid to long term, it has unintentionally undermined both the security needs of local populations in Kunduz and US strategic interests.