FAAE Committee Report

There can be no government without an army

No army without money

No money without prosperity

And no prosperity without justice and good administration

Ibn Qutayba, 9^th century Muslim scholar[1]

The Committee first began public hearings on the situation in Afghanistan and Canada’s role in October 2006. Since that time, we have held almost 30 meetings on the subject, and heard from a diverse range of over 60 witnesses on matters pertaining to Afghanistan and Canada. These have included the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of International Cooperation and their immediate predecessors, the Minister of Public Safety (and a former Vice-Chair of this Committee) Hon. Stockwell Day, and the Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier at the beginning and the end of the hearings process.[2]

In addition, the Committee heard from: noted international experts on Afghanistan, such as Dr. Barnett Rubin of New York University’s Centre on International Cooperation (both in New York City and in Ottawa); Mr. Chris Alexander, Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General to Afghanistan (and Canada’s former ambassador in Afghanistan); His Excellency Omar Samad, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Canada; Mr. James Appathurai, international spokesperson for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); Hon. Flora MacDonald, a former Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs; as well as three members of the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan following the release of its January 22, 2008 Report, including its Chair Hon. John Manley (who was Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister at the time of the October 2001 US-led military campaign in Afghanistan and when Canadian combat troops were first deployed to Kandahar province early in 2002).

This is to highlight only some of the more prominent witnesses. We were enriched by the testimony of many other knowledgeable experts on Afghanistan from the academic community and from non-governmental organizations, including members of the Afghanistan Reference Group, a coalition of Canadian NGOs with links to partners working in Afghanistan.

The Committee regrets that it was not able to travel to Afghanistan as part of this study in order to obtain further insight on the ground.[3] However, in addition to hearing from Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada, we were able to obtain testimony from several Afghans, Afghan Canadians, and noted experts currently living in Afghanistan. For example, the Committee heard from intrepid American journalist and founder of the Arghand Cooperative, Sarah Chayes, by video-conference from Kandahar City.[4] Moreover, as the introduction below underlines, Afghanistan is a hugely complicated country in evolution that requires a patient persistent effort to better understand.

Canada’s role in Afghanistan is also one of the most difficult international policy challenges that Canadian decision-makers have had to confront in decades. This report follows on our preliminary report, Canada’s International Policy Put to the Test in Afghanistan, presented to the House of Commons on January 28, 2008, and also takes fully into consideration the January 2008 report Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan (commonly referred to as the Manley report), and the Government motion on Afghanistan passed by the House of Commons on March 13, 2008 (see Appendix I for the full text of the motion).

The Committee recognizes that events are not static, and that the troubled situation in Afghanistan within a volatile region bears constant monitoring. As much as possible, we have attempted to keep abreast of the latest developments affecting the policy environment -- including making reference to the Government of Canada’s first quarterly report Canada’s Engagement in Afghanistan: Setting a Course to 2011 presented to the House of Commons on June 10, the Government of Afghanistan’s new five-year Afghanistan National Development Strategy 2008-2013, and the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan held in Paris on June 12.[5] This report does not have any illusion of being the last word on Canada’s Afghan policy. We do not address all of the possible questions in depth, but concentrate rather on three fundamental areas which seem to us to be essential to any sustainable positive long-term outcome for the Afghan people: achieving basic security and a lasting peace; proceeding with reconstruction and development that provides long-term benefits to Afghans; and building governance institutions that will enable a more stable democratic Afghanistan to emerge and endure.

These objectives are at the core of the Afghanistan Compact[6] agreed to by Afghanistan, 49 other participating countries including Canada, and 10 international organizations at the London Conference in early 2006, unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council[7], and covering the five years from that time till the end of 2010. The Compact’s “principles, pillars and benchmarks” also underpin the aforementioned Afghanistan National Development Strategy: A Strategy for Security, Governance, Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction (2008-2013) submitted to the Paris conference of June 12.[8] Accordingly, these areas are the focus of the three main sections of the report.

Notes to the Preface