Security is a formidable challenge. It is an obstacle to investment and economic development. It is also a hurdle for state-building in a post-conflict nation. After the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, which was made possible with the help of the US-led international community, the discussion about state-building and nation-building was all the rage at both national and international levels.

When the Taliban began to resurge and the security situation began to deteriorate in 2006, both Afghan and international officials began to think of how to improve security and liberate districts and provinces from the influence and sway of the resurgent Taliban and other militant groups.

As the war lingered on and international forces were getting killed increasingly, public pressure mounted on the government officials in the Western capitals. In order to keep their forces in Afghanistan to keep the Taliban and other insurgent groups at bay, the troop contributing nations had to bear huge financial costs for the presence of their troops in the country.

This was concomitant with the global financial crises. In order to respond to the increasing questions on whether the mission in Afghanistan was right, Western officials had to focus on the security aspect of the mission in Afghanistan, saying that the presence of lunatic fringes and terrorists in Afghanistan would continue to pose a threat to the security of their people back in their streets.

In the meanwhile, the 2009 presidential and provincial council elections and the 2010 parliamentary election disappointed Afghanistan's western allies, both officials and public alike. Perception began to grow that it is not possible to install democracy in Afghanistan, and Afghan people are not ready to democratize their country.

As a result, the international community backtracked from their state-building and nation-building commitments and solely focused on the security situation. They did not hesitate to state that it is the Afghan people that should move forward the democratic processes in their country, and they had nothing to do with these processes.

In order to improve security, President Barack Obama dispatched a 30000 surge troops to be deployed in Afghanistan to increase pressure on the Taliban. But since there was no efficient government institution in place to provide services for the Afghans who were being liberated from the control of the Taliban, the surge did not work.

President Karzai had sympathy with the Taliban and called them as his upset brothers. So he tried to contribute to shaping Western perception that the war could not be won militarily. He began to talk about the necessity of reconciliation with the Taliban.

In this way, the attention was diverted to the security aspect of the Afghan mission and international community's goal was reduced to dismantling and disrupting Al-Qaeda network in the country. This approach and strategy has not paid off and the situation has worsened. It is time to change this approach and focus by helping the fundamental reforms needed to strengthen the state-building and nation-building processes and lead to a permanent stability in Afghanistan.