- published: 28 Feb 2016
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The Afghan Ministry of Defense (Pashto: د افغانستان ملی دفاع وزارت) is an organ of the Central Government of Afghanistan, overseeing the Afghan Armed Forces. Its headquarters is located in Kabul.
The defense minister is nominated by the President of Afghanistan and the Parliament makes the final approval. As of May 2015, Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai has been serving as the acting defense minister. Dawlat Waziri is his spokesman.
Zahir Azimi is the Major General and spokesman of the Ministry of Defense. From late 2001 to 2004, Mohammed Fahim served as the Defense Minister but was not reappointed, after being accused of illegally occupying land in Kabul. During the same period, Abdul Rahim Wardak was the Deputy Minister. In December 2004, President Hamid Karzai appointed Wardak as the new Defense Minister. He resigned in August 2012.
One of the functions of the Defense Ministry is the continuance of disarming insurgent groups through programmes such as the Afghan New Beginnings Programme. These militant groups coalesced from warlords and former army personnel after the collapse of the Najibullah government in 1992.
A Ministry of Defence or Defense (see spelling differences), also known as a Department of Defence or Defense, is the common name for a part of the government found in states where the government is divided into ministries or departments, responsible for matters of defence. Such a department usually includes all branches of the military, and is usually controlled by a Defence Minister, Minister of Defence, or Secretary of Defense.
Historically, such departments were referred to as a Ministry of War or Department of War, although such departments generally had authority only over the army of a country, with a separate department governing other military branches. Prior to WWII, most "Ministries of War" were Army ministries, while the Navy and the Air Force, if it existed as a separate branch, had their own departments. As late as 1953, for example, the Soviets for instance had a "Ministry of War" alongside a "Ministry of the Navy".
The tendency to consolidate and rename these departments to highlight their purpose as providing "defence" arose after World War II. In India, for example, "the name of the War Department was found objectionable in the sense that the concept had an aggressive aspect which was inconsistent with Indian traditions".