UExperts believe that in order to avoid failures like the German involvement in Afghanistan in the future, both structural reforms and a greater sense of reality are needed. This became clear at a public hearing of the Bundestag's “Lessons from Afghanistan” study commission, which presented an interim report on Monday.

Robin Schroeder, who as a security advisor has worked on stabilization efforts in Afghanistan and Mali, among other things, said he considers the creation of a Federal Security Council “to be the most promising solution.” The federal government and Germany lack such an authority, “and that has a very negative impact on our ability to act.”

The director of the Global Public Policy Institute, Philipp Rotmann, stated in his written statement: “The individual departments have proven to be too weak and too caught up in their silo perspectives and turf wars for effective integrated analysis, strategy formation and strategic leadership.”

Rotmann advised not only to take note of evaluation reports with critical assessments and recommendations in the future, but also to draw practical consequences. In addition to the public debates on foreign missions in the Bundestag, it is also necessary to regularly establish a non-public dialogue between parliament and the government on current developments in these missions.

Only send small contingents to crisis areas

Schroeder said that the Bundeswehr had to refocus the bulk of its troops on national and alliance defense. Therefore, the military contribution to stabilizing crisis areas in the future will require “training local security forces with very small contingents”. Furthermore, small contingents would also have to be able to advise local security forces in operations and to accompany them on operations under self-protection.

He also spoke out in favor of increasing the number of police trainers sent by Germany. Although the training of police forces abroad is one of the most important contributions to protecting the civilian population in partner countries, Germany can only send a tiny number of police trainers to such operations. There is an urgent need to create a unit specializing in training missions abroad.

The Bundeswehr left Afghanistan in June 2021 faster than originally planned. It followed US timelines. In August 2021, when the Taliban took Kabul – with virtually no resistance – Germany took part in an international military evacuation operation. There were chaotic conditions and dangerous situations around the airport.