Afghanistan: The Mirage of PeaceThe West has never understood Afghanistan. It has been portrayed as both an exotic and remote land of turbaned warriors and as a 'failed' state requiring our humanitarian assistance. Politically marginal after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Afghanistan's strategic importance re-emerged after September 11th 2001, when the 'war on terror' was launched as part of a new generation of international interventions. Drawing on the experience of a decade and a half of living and working in Afghanistan, Chris Johnson and Jolyon Leslie examine what the changes of recent years have meant in terms of Afghans' sense of their own identity and argues that if there is to be a hope of peace and stability, there needs to be a new form of engagement with the country, which respects the rights of Afghans to determine their own political future while recognising the responsibilities that must follow an intervention in someone else's land. |
Contents
The mirage of peace | xvi |
Illusions of peace | xvi |
Liberation | xvi |
Raising the stakes | 7 |
Bombingin a peace | 11 |
Losing hearts and minds | 13 |
New beginnings? | 16 |
Failure is not an option | 21 |
NGOs wanting it both ways | 105 |
Failing the Afghans | 106 |
The makings of a narco state? | 110 |
Or corrupting the state? | 115 |
Transitional attitudes | 123 |
Agency responses | 125 |
Double standards or caught in a bind? | 127 |
State | 135 |
Identity and society | 23 |
Rooted in Islam | 28 |
Identity and others | 30 |
Civil society? | 39 |
Making decisions being represented | 41 |
War and social change | 45 |
Ethnicity | 52 |
Closing ranks | 57 |
Dreaming a past | 59 |
Ideology and difference | 63 |
Confronting the Taliban | 66 |
The UN and the Strategic Framework for Afghanistan | 69 |
An alien way of looking at the world | 74 |
Could it have been different? | 78 |
The legacy of confrontation | 82 |
One size fits all Afghanistan in the new world order | 84 |
Early courtship | 87 |
Changing attitudes | 89 |
Isolating the Taliban | 93 |
Aid rights and the US project | 95 |
Stitching up a country | 98 |
Human rights | 103 |
A short history | 138 |
The Taliban state | 145 |
Aid and the state | 147 |
The UN and the failed state model | 148 |
The legacy of centralization | 153 |
Bonn and beyond part I the political transition | 155 |
Inauspicious beginnings | 157 |
Imagining a state | 158 |
The political transition | 164 |
Building state failure | 170 |
Enduring security? | 174 |
Bonn and beyond part II the governance transition | 180 |
International failure | 197 |
Letting the Afghans down | 207 |
Concluding thoughts | 209 |
Whos who | 217 |
Parties | 221 |
An Afghan chronology | 222 |
| 224 | |
| 225 | |
| 230 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdur Rahman Khan Afghan Afghanistan aid agencies al-Qa'eda areas assistance attempts Badakhshan Bonn agreement building burqa cent central centre commanders communist conflict constitution continued Despite disarmament district donors drugs economy elections ensure ethnic factions failure farmers fighting forces foreign Hazarajat Hazaras Herat heroin Hizbe human rights humanitarian international community Iran Iraq ISAF Islamic issue jihad Kabul Kabul University Khan leaders legitimacy lives Loya Jirga Mazar i Sharif military million Minister Ministry mujahideen Najibullah negotiations NGOs Northern Alliance official opium Oxfam Pakistan Pashtun peace political President Karzai problem programme protection provinces Qandahar qawm Qunduz reform regime regional represented rural Sayyeds sector seemed simply society Soviet staff strategy Tajik Taliban things tion trade Transitional Administration tribal UNAMA UNODC village warlords western women workers