Human Security, Economic Vulnerability and Terrorism in Afghanistan

Summary: Afghanistan is known as the graveyard of empires, and like a Shakespearean tragedy, tells the story of contending political and ideological groups whose internal goals time and again serve only to destroy the innocent people around them. American interventions have stressed the destruction of terrorists’ footholds while supporting symbolic touchstones of burgeoning democracy and diminishing drug industries.  The core oft stated goal for the U.S. is to ensure that the terrorist groups lack the security and power to launch attacks on it, yet the tools employed by the US have failed to adequately address the dispersed power structure in Afghanistan. As result, American efforts have not taken root in a long-term sustainable way. Unending internal divisions, lack of physical security, and a dearth of economic opportunities all serve to promote an environment throughout Afghanistan in which disparate terrorist groups rather than a unified western-style democracy thrive. This paper aims…