1 DRAFT DO NOT CITE – CITE THE PUBLISHED VERSION This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article submitted for consideration in the Journal of the Royal United Services Institute [copyright Taylor & Francis]; the article is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Ntqr2CMFtvIBBExmerMD/full The first 50 downloads are available free. DECOMPOSING AN INSURGENCY: REINTEGRATION IN AFGHANISTAN JOHN ALEXANDER Abstract While the conventional wisdom is that reintegrating ex-fighters back into their society is a post- conflict activity, ISAF’s commander General John Allen sees removing fighters from the battlefield through reintegration as a means of decomposing the insurgency in Afghanistan. The mechanism for this reintegration is the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme (APRP), an Afghan-led, community-based peace process aimed at resolving the local grievances which cause David Kilcullen’s ‘accidental guerrillas’ to fight. John Alexander argues that the combination of ISAF and Afghan military pressure, increasing APRP capacity, the transition to Afghan security responsibility, the international community’s long-term commitment and differences within the Taliban over peace talks now provide an opportunity for the acceleration of reintegration in Afghanistan.