IntroductionIn Afghanistan, administrative corruption, state capture, systemic and political corruption, patronage, cronyism, bidding for Chief of Police (CoP) appointments and drug-related corruption has hindered effective law enforcement. This is due to the fact that institutions and anti-corruption units have been infiltrated by the government to serve criminal interests.Those criminal interests are often linked to the drug trade. As a number of experts have observed, many elements of Afghan government structures serve individual patrons and not the wider public interest. 1 For instance, appointments of senior officials, such as police chiefs and provincial governors, are based on bidding wars: positions regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of United States (US) dollars and these positions cost even more in high drug producing areas. 2 This has distorted both the provision of security and the rule of law.The rule of law is perverted by the Afghan police to serve all manner of criminal activities, such as: drug trafficking (and preserving the interests of criminal groups involved in trafficking), land theft, real estate swindling, tax and customs evasion, the operation of illegal security forces and illegal monopolies on markets with legal goods, and so forth. The Afghan National Police (ANP) and Afghan government are perceived as highly corrupt in the eyes of ordinary Afghans. This has led to public discontent toward an illegitimate government and police force that has arguably remobilised support for the Taliban. As a consequence, the security situation has further deteriorated. Therefore, a robust anticorruption strategy for the Afghan police force is required due to the fact that-as is held to be central to the proper functioning of a liberal state-the police and judges are pivotal law enforcement actors.This article examines the features of corruption and clientelism in the Afghan police and assesses the effectiveness of the anti-corruption strategies implemented to date. In the first section, the research methodology is outlined and this is followed by an overview of the different forms corruption takes and the perceptions of corruption among ordinary Afghans.This allows for a consideration of four prominent causes of corruption in the Afghan police.Subsequently, the following two sections discuss internal Ministry of Interior (MoI) anticorruption strategies, pay reform, recruitment and stationing in the ANP. This provides the basis for an analysis of the findings from the original research conducted by the author, consisting of interviews and surveys. It provides insights with respect to the respondents' perceptions on pay and living costs, corruption, clientelism and anti-corruption strategies.The article finds that pay reform alone will fail to combat systemic corruption, clientelism and state capture. Moreover, care needs to be taken when randomly assigning low-paid policemen, particularly sole breadwinners, in distant provinces to undermine the phenomenon of policemen remaining loyal to local po...

Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. This article provides a critical examination of Afghan anticorruption strategies based on formal anticorruption strategy, bureaucratic reform, and counter-narcotics. This article includes reference to some of the opinions of 70 semi-structured interviews conducted by the author in Kabul during May–June 2010 with anticorruption experts, rights-based organizations, civil society groups, ministries, and international and national organizations. The findings are that political interference from Afghan elites preserves corruption and deep roots of patron–client corruption—patronage networks and illicit drug trafficking interests with criminal groups for profitable gain—are difficult to combat with the existing anticorruption strategy. Hence, new approaches need to be attempted, such as, incorporating religion and ethics and empowering local leaders to combat corruption within a sixfold approach which involves (i) raising awareness, (ii) prevention, (iii) prosecution and sanctions, (iv) detection, (v) a collaborative counter-narcotics strategy, and (vi) linking religion.

Lecturer in Criminology and Policing with research interests and specialism on terrorism, counterterrorism, and peacebuilding in post conflict context. She is also a recipient of the 2018 best article award from the British International Studies Association Royal African Society Postgraduate paper prize. Tarela have also published on areas concerning reintegration in post conflict settings. Tarela have also been involved in research that informs government policies. b Senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations with research interests largely in Criminology, International terrorism and corruption in war-torn contexts. Danny's studies include mechanisms of crime control within indigenous environments, namely in developing and war-torn contexts. Danny's research also spans other criminology-related disciplines. These include international terrorism and human rights. It also includes criminology related to police corruption, state corruption and methods of crime control. c Lecturer in Psychology with expertise on mental health within the African and Caribbean contexts. Dung's PhD research also received accolades such as the 2017 and 2018 Delegates Choice Poster Winner at the British Psychological Society (BPS) Annual Conferences in Brighton and Nottingham UK. d Senior lecturer in Youth Works with research interests on youth justice, culture, identity and belonging. Sean has developed key specialisms in a range of topics, including Youth Work Practice, Childhood and Youth Studies. Sean has also been engaged in systematic review concerning reintegration in post-conflict settings. e Research Assistant with expertise in data retrieval, and literature synthesis. Evangelyn has engaged in research and systematic synthesis related to reintegration in post conflict settings.

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