Commissioned inquiry into Denmark's engagements in Afghanistan 2001-2021

The phasing out of the international military presence in Afghanistan marks the end of 20 years of Danish engagement in the country under successive Danish governments. The collapse of Afghan institutions and the Taliban's assumption of government point to the need to assess and evaluate Denmark's actions with a view to learning for future peace, stabilisation, and reconstruction initiatives.

A majority in the Danish Parliament, consisting of The Social Democratic Party, The Liberal Party, The Danish People's Party, The Green Left, The Social Liberal Party, The Red-Green Alliance, The Conservative Party, The Liberal Alliance, The Independent Greens, The Christian Democrats and The Alternative parties, has asked DIIS to initiate an independent historical inquiry to shed light on the following elements:

• The basis for the central political decisions regarding the up- and downscaling of Danish military and civilian involvement, including development aid.
• The key objectives of the actions as well as their exit strategies. The international framework for involvement is an important dimension here.

The inquiry must also:

• Assess how the decision-making basis for the up- and down scaling of military and civilian involvement from 2001 until the collapse of the Afghan institutions and security forces in August 2021 included experiences concerning their impact in the previous period.

A key goal of the inquiry is to:

• Identify relevant lessons learned that may be of value for future decisions in relation to ongoing and future Danish military and civilian contributions to international involvement. This includes the question of how the Taliban were able to regain power in Afghanistan after 20 years of massive international civilian and military involvement in the country.

Furthermore, as the inquiry will produce a gathering of experiences, DIIS will therefore hold a number of public seminars on Danish involvement in Afghanistan. The focus here is the experiences and lessons learned in the following key areas of the Danish engagement:

• What have the involvement in Afghanistan taught us about civil-military cooperation?
• Has there been sufficient focus on and knowledge about the local context and how the interaction in local power structures – including corrupt officials, warlords, etc. – affected the local population, their fundamental rights and their support for and view on the coalition that Denmark was part of?
• What have the involvement in Afghanistan taught us about capacity-building of local security structures.

Chief investigator for the report is Dr. Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke, Senior Researcher and Head of Research Unit at DIIS, in collaboration with Senior Researchers Dr. Mikkel Runge Olesen, Dr. Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard and Senior Researcher Unit Dr. Mona Kanwal Sheikh. DIIS Director Kristian Fischer is responsible for the inquiry; cf. Lov om Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier, §2 nr.3.

In order to ensure the quality of the work, an internal monitoring group consisting of experts from DIIS, as well as an external monitoring group consisting of researchers from other research institutions, will be set up to read, review and comment on the researchers' drafts. The inquiry is expected to take place over two years.

An inquiry is an independent, research-based investigation – typically commissioned by the Danish Parliament and prepared based on a term of reference that set out the framework for what the inquiry should reveal, what (classified) material is to be given access to and on what basis the inquiry is to be carried out.

The researchers have freedom of research and method to prepare the report.

Typically, an external review group is set up to help ensure the academic quality of the inquiry. The monitoring group can give advice but cannot demand changes in the inquiry.

The enormous amount of material to be reviewed means that inquiries often take several years.

Over the years, DIIS has undertaken a number of inquiries – including:

Nye sikkerhedspolitiske dynamikker i Arktis 2020
Muligheder og udfordringer for Kongeriget Danmark

Europæisk forsvarssamarbejde og danske forsvarsforbehold, 2019
Udredning om udviklingen i EU og Europa på det sikkerheds- og forsvarspolitiske område og betydningen for Danmark

International Lessons from Integrated Approaches in Afghanistan
Afghanistan Lessons identified 2001-2014

Danmark under Den kolde krig
Den sikkerhedspolitiske situation 1945-1991

Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke
Head of inquiry, Head of unit, Senior researcher, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Mikkel Runge Olesen
Senior Researcher, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Mona Kanwal Sheikh
Senior Researcher, Global Security and Worldviews

Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard
Senior Researcher, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Lars Erslev Andersen
Senior Researcher, Migration and Global Order

Ole Wæver
Professor of International Relations, Director of Centre for Resolution of International Conflicts, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen

Thorsten Borring Olesen
Professor of Contemporary Danish and European History, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University

Jan Werner Mathiasen
Military Analyst, Institute for Strategy and War Studies, Royal Danish Defence College

Jakob Linnet Schmidt
Analyst, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Dino Krause
Research Assistant, Global Security and Worldviews

Kasper Arabi
Research Assistant, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

Anna Sofie Hansen Schøning
Assistant Professor, Institute for Strategy and War Studies, Royal Danish Defence College

Jakob Brink Rasmussen
Analyst, Foreign Policy and Diplomacy