Britannia Radio

Afghanistan: America’s Major Nonexistent Ally

Back in July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it official: Afghanistan is now a Major non-NATO Ally (MNNA), a classification that all but ensures that defense and development aid will continue to flow through 2014 and beyond. Is this good policy or an exhausted administration tugging on its very own geopolitical Gordian Knot? One must first consider the motivations underlying the Obama administration’s decision. The MNNA designation itself is largely symbolic, as it carries no legal weight in the realm of collective security. But that’s not to say that it isn’t important. Quite the contrary, it’s a label that is usually applied to countries that are viewed as crucial to US security interests. The 14 other MNNAs include Israel, Japan, the Philippines, Bahrain, and Pakistan to name a few. MNNAs also have open access to US military technology by virtue of circumventing most of the provisions of the Arms Control Export Act. Given the obvious strategic importance of other MNNAs, it seems strange that Afghanistan would make the list. After all, Afghanistan is not an energy supply lynchpin like Bahrain or a potentially critical staging ground for US troop deployments like South Korea. Rather, Afghanistan’s value as an MNNA derives from a more complex equation.   To read the complete article text, please visit: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/afghanistan-americas-major-nonexistent-ally-4716