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By Deborah Avant By Deborah Avant July 12

The New York Times reported July 10on meetings between President Trump, his top advisers and private military and security company (PMSC) magnates, Erik Prince (founder of Blackwater) and Stephen A. Feinberg (owner of DynCorp International) to discuss plans for having contractors take over U.S. operations in Afghanistan. The plans are said to hew closely to the Wall Street Journal op-ed Erik Prince published in June proposing a MacArthur solution to Afghanistan. Like the historical analogy it borrows from, the plan proposes a U.S. viceroy, but unlike MacArthur, the viceroy would carry out his plans with the help of a private army.

Could such a plan actually improve counterinsurgency, leading to the success that has thus eluded the U.S. (and NATO)? In a word: no. And the plan is much more than a different strategy; it reformulates (one might say privatizes) U.S. goals.

General studies of PMSCs (though not focused on counterinsurgency, per se) begin to shed light on their overall impact on war. Looking at civil wars in Africa, only when there is competition among companies do PMSCs working for government and rebels have a positive effect on civil war termination. This suggests that we may not want the unified effort Prince envisions.

Data from Iraq show that competition is not enough. Only when there is competition joined by contracts with particular performance incentives do PMSCs reduce violence in an area. And using the Private Security Database (PSD) to focus on contracts between governments and PMSCs in failed or failing states notably applicable for Afghanistan is shown to increase conflict severity.

More detailed studies show that PMSCs work differently than military forces and should increase our skepticism of their counterinsurgency value. Different recruitment, motivation, rules, training and flexibility all contribute to a number of well-known concerns over misbehavior by individuals, PMSCs and the governments (and other clients) that contract with them. The International Code of Conduct (ICoC), Private Security Standardsand other transnational regulatory efforts the U.S. has supported all limit PMSC behavior in ways that address these concerns by drawing PMSCs closer to common rules for public forces. (It is worth mentioning that a PMSC could not do some of what Prince calls for, like fighting alongside Afghan forces, without violating these regulations and the regulations are now required for private security providers working for the Pentagon in contingency operations abroad.)

Beyond all of this, evaluating Princes plan as an attempt to improve counterinsurgency has three significant difficulties. First, it would not solve the thorniest problem: working with the Afghan government. Just as U.S. and NATO leaders do, the viceroy would have to work closely with the Afghan government. My guess is that the Afghan government might not react warmly to this new viceroy what then?

Second, everything we know about successful counterinsurgency tells us that it requires close integration between political goals and forces. It is the tethering of force to common and shared concerns that begin to build its legitimacy and thus the political buy-in on which stable governance is built. But with PMSCs you often trade integration away. This has been particularly true with U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Third, though Prince is right that hiring locals might be cheaper and also provide contextual knowledge, which can be critical to successful counterinsurgency when local knowledge is used to satisfy the concerns of external or private patrons rather than common concerns, it contributes to warlordism. Warlordism is the worst form of rentier state, neither stable nor legitimate. A viceroy, working to secure Afghanistans resources, threatens to do just this. (By the way, the East India Company that Prince touts as a model also generally yielded warlords and to the extent that it achieved the stability Prince claims, it was only due to continual intervention by British forces.)

These shortcomings are why many similar plans that Prince has touted over the past 10 years such as those for private forces to replace NATOor the U.N.(Prince actually visited me at my George Washington University office to pitch the latter), respond to the genocide in Darfurand more have been politely refused by previous U.S. administrations. They also explain why Gens. MacMaster and Mattis are reportedly less than supportive.

But the plan Prince describes is not just unlikely to improve the United States ability to conduct counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, it reflect entirely different of U.S. goals. Instead of an albeit flawed policy aimed at building a legitimate government willing to be part of the international community, this plan aims only to secure resources (and it is not even clear for whom).

On that count, it is strikingly similar to news this month that the Kremlin is now rewarding PMSCs that seize oil and mining facilities from the Islamic State in Syria with profits from those same facilities. Princes MacArthur strategy aims not to help Afghanistan reach its potential, but to protect its resources. Had the U.S. had such goals in post-World War II Japan, its unlikely that we would remember the MacArthur strategy with the same reverence.

Deborah Avant is a professor and director of the Si Chou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy at the University of Denvers Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

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Private military contractors aren't going to do a better job in ... - Washington Post

The manicured emerald pitch at Lords in London, where Afghanistan played for the first time ever Tuesday, is a world away from the border refugee camps where the country found its love for cricket.

In dusty Pakistani camps like Khurasan, young barefoot cricketers have no pitch, no kit, no wickets, no helmets, no gloves and no shade -- only the hunger that helped catapult Afghanistan into the elite group of Test nations last month.

Millions of Afghans fleeing war have sought refuge for nearly 40 years in camps outside Pakistans border city of Peshawar, where they have been exposed to the cricketing fever that has gripped their neighbouring nation since Britain colonised the sub-continent centuries ago.

We learned cricket here and we took this cricket with us to Afghanistan, and now Afghanistan has a team which plays on a world level and the entire world has recognised it, 35-year-old Abdul Wahid, a refugee from Kunar province, tells AFP.

He and a generation of Afghans spent years cheering for the Pakistani team before daring to dream of more.

Wahid, who missed out on a spot in the national team but now coaches refugees, says his contemporaries in the camps learned to play with tennis balls. The best of them would go on to join academies in Peshawar, where they encountered the hard cricket ball for the first time.

Faridullah Shah, a coach with the Pakistan Cricket Board, remembers the fierce determination of the Afghan players who reached the academies.

They used to work as labourers until the afternoon and were later playing cricket here... The team of Afghan players was named the Team of Chickens as many were trying to survive by supplying poultry in Peshawar, he says.

They worried about how to afford kit but played every day, Shah recalls. They had extreme eagerness -- more than our players -- and that was the reason for their success.

Surviving on biscuits

At the Islamia Cricket Academy, selector Qazi Shafiq, a former first class player, agrees.

Afghans are quick learners -- if you pinpoint a mistake, he understands ... then he will work hard on that, Shafiq says.

I will not mention his name but one Afghan national player told me that he had to borrow money to reach here... and then he could only afford a 10-rupee (10-cent) packet of biscuits a day on which to survive.

Afghanistan cricket team have achieved great success in the international stage, having recently drawn an ODI series in the West Indies. (Getty Images)

Asghar Khan, a coach and twice the president of the Peshawar district cricket association, remembers Afghan players as the beauty of tournaments here.

He rattles off a list of names, from Mohammad Nabi -- whom Khan praises for his long, long sixes -- up to Asghar Stanikzai, captain of the Afghan cricket team. All learned in Peshawar, Khan says, with many like Shapoor Zadran beginning in the refugee camps.

A picture of Afghan cricket star Muhammad Shahzad from his days as a club player in Peshawar is still on display in Gymkhana, the biggest of the citys cricket academies -- testament to his entertaining playing style even as he faces an ICC suspension for failing a drug test.

Fans in the Taliban

Today, the number of Afghan cricketers training in the Peshawar academies is dwindling, officials say.

Pakistan launched a controversial bid to drive refugees back into Afghanistan last year which has seen hundreds of thousands of people flow back over the porous border, while new restrictions imposed by both Islamabad and Kabul are also affecting the players.

Rashid Khan has created several records for Afghanistan and he has been the key behind the teams success. (AFP)

Whether the changes will stall the countrys meteoric rise remains to be seen.

Cricket in Afghanistan struggled under the hardline Islamist Taliban, which viewed sports as a distraction from religious duties.

But now even members of the Taliban -- whose regime was toppled 16 years ago but is now surging again, dealing stinging blows to Afghan forces -- have caught the cricketing bug, one insurgent commander tells AFP.

Now, not only do they listen to cricket on radio, but they even play it when they have spare time, the commander says.

The ecstasy with which Afghans greeted the news they had been granted Test status, and the enthusiasm with which fans watched the Lords match -- even though it was rained out, leaving the players without a result -- suggests a brighter future for cricket players, even as insecurity spirals once more.

Arshad Khan, a 17-year-old left arm spin bowler from eastern Nangarhar province who now trains at the Islamia academy, says he has made a commitment to himself that one day he will play for Afghanistan.

I am hopeful that I will be selected, the young refugee says.

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Afghanistan cricket team's meteoric rise: From refugee camps to Lord's - Hindustan Times

MCC have today confirmed that the recent fixture with Afghanistan at Lords was a great success off the pitch as well as on, with the live broadcast of the match being watched by over 1.3 million people worldwide.

Around 930,000 viewed the action on MCCs official Facebook page, with another 390,000 supporters watching the stream via the Lords website and YouTube channel.

Afghanistan, who were recently awarded Full Member status by the International Cricket Council and were playing for the first time at Lords, faced a vastly experienced MCC line-up who included Brendon McCullum, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Misbah-ul-Haq amongst their ranks.

Despite the match ending without a result due to rain, the Afghanistan supporters made for a partisan atmosphere inside Lords, with around 6,000 in attendance.

The broadcast also included ball-by-ball analysis from a team of commentators who welcomed several guests on air throughout the day.

One of the guests was Dr Sarah Fane, Chief Executive and Founder of Afghan Connection, who have been supporting cricket in the country since 2008 with the help of MCC.

BBC Pashto, an arm of the BBC World Service, were also at Lords to broadcast clips from the match to Pashto speakers in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Derek Brewer, MCC Chief Executive and Secretary, said: The match between MCC and Afghanistan was a huge success, despite the rain, and the atmosphere spectators created inside the ground made for a very special occasion.

The numbers that were reached around the world with the broadcast of the game are staggering and proves the popularity of Afghanistan cricket around the globe.

Given MCCs support of the charitable work which has taken place in Afghanistan over the last decade, it was a thrill and privilege for us all at the Club to see the team play at Lords.

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MCC v Afghanistan stream a worldwide success - Lord's

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the revamped U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, which he promised by mid-July, is still not finished.

Mattis, speaking to reporters in an impromptu session Friday, said "it's underway," but would not says how soon it will be ready to present to the president. "You know me, I don't give timelines," he said.

Even though it's already mid-July, Mattis said mid-July remains his goal to complete the review.

"Somewhere around there," he said. "We are driven by the maturity of the discussion, and where we're at. We're not going to meet some timeline if we are not ready, but we are pretty close."

One holdup appears to be a White House initiative backed by chief strategist Steve Bannon to use private contractors to train and equip Afghan forces in the future, a proposal that was first reported by the New York Times.

Mattis is said to be opposed to the idea, which is designed to save money but is often more expensive than using U.S. military personnel.

The idea of using more contractors and fewer troops was defended Thursday by Sebastian Gorka, presidential deputy assistant. He told CNN, "We open the door here at the White House to outside ideas."

"It's about saving the U.S. taxpayer money, it's about creating indigenous capacity," Gorka said. He also appeared to confirm that Erik Prince, a founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, was among those approached for alternatives to dispatching more U.S. troops.

"This is a former operator. This is a man who hires former operators, first tier, special operations forces, retired individuals, not to go and fight there instead of somebody else, but to help the Afghans, to help local indigenous forces protect their own territory," Gorka said. "So this is a cost-cutting venture."

This week, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed frustration that the promised strategy has not been provided to the Congress, and threatened to insert his own strategy into the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Bill.

At a defense ministers meeting in Brussels last month, NATO countries committed to send several thousand additional military trainers to support the alliances "Resolute Support" mission of which the U.S. contribution was expected to number as many as 4,000 troops.

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Jim Mattis: New Afghanistan strategy isn't finished yet - Washington Examiner

Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said at the event that all regional countries must take part in the fight against terrorist.

The fourth conference of Afghanistan-Central Asia dialogue was kicked off in Bamiyan province on Friday where high ranking foreign and Afghan officials including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah attended.

The two-day session will discuss the mechanisms to improve Afghanistans trade and political ties with the Central Asian countries.

The conference will also discuss ways to improve regional countries cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The conference has been organized by Afghanistan Strategic Studies Institute.

Abdullah said at the event that Afghanistan had various relations with the Central Asian countries and that Kabul continues its efforts to improve the ties.

He said the dialogue will discuss cooperation among regional countries in the fight against terrorism.

He stressed the need for regional countries contribution in anti-terror campaign.

"Afghans are on the front line in fighting terrorism and have endured massive suffering. Central Asian countries must work together to stop terrorism, he stated. Cooperation is better in cultural and trade arenas. (But) in fight against terrorism, a big part of the efforts is done Afghanistan.

The chief executive called on representatives of other countries to convey the message of balancing the cooperation in the war.

Referring to a number of regional countries, he said terrorism is still supported by some states in the region.There is no difference between Daesh and Taliban as well as between good terrorists and bad terrorists, Abdullah said.

The session will continue for two days where senior officials from Afghanistan and Central Asian countries will discuss a wide range of issues particularly boosting cooperation among countries in the region.

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4th Afghanistan-Central Asia Dialogue Kicks Off In Bamiyan ... - TOLOnews