CONTENTS
Background . . . 5
Shifting Security and Policing Environment . . . 6
Emergence of the ALP ... 7
Antecedents . . . 9
Emergence . . . 11
Rationalities and Incentives . . . 15
ALP in the Provinces ... 17
Wardak . . . 17
Baghlan . . . 25
Kunduz . . . 32
Findings and Analysis ... 37
Explaining Different Outcomes . . . 38
Impacts on Security . . . 38
Impacts on Statebuilding and Governance . . . 41
Implications . . . 43
Recommendations . . . 44
[The greatest threat to stability in afghanistan is less the existence of a few hundred militias per district in the form of the aLP and more the danger that after 2014 an oversized and unevenly trained armed force will decompose and fragment into myriad competing militia groups.]