Afghanistan The Mirage of Peace

by Johnson, Chris; Leslie, Jolyon

• ISBN13: 9781842779569
• ISBN10: 1842779567
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-15
• Publisher: ZED BOOKS

Summary

Widely portrayed as the 'success of the war on terror', Afghanistan is now in crisis. Increasingly detached from the people it is meant to serve, and unable to manage the massive amounts of aid that it has sought, the administration in Kabul struggles to govern even the diminishing areas of the country over which it has some sway. Whatever political progress that has been possible now takes place against a backdrop of mounting casualties among innocent Afghan civilians and NATO troops. Many Afghans feel themselves to be trapped, hostage between two forces, both of which claim to be their liberators. Perceived by some to be part of a wider struggle that extends to Iraq and Palestine, NATO's campaign in the south seems 'unwinnable'. Now, more than ever, it is important to understand Afghanistan and examine the recent experience of international engagement, and the myths and half-truths that abound.Drawing on long experience 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 hopes for the future. They argue that lasting peace and stability will only be brought about through a form of engagement that respects the rights of Afghans to determine their own political future, while delivering on the responsibilities that come with military intervention.

Author Biography

Chris Johnson lived in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2004. She first worked for Oxfam, then set up a joint UN/NGO/donor research unit, the Afghanistan research and Evaluation Unit, where she worked until early 2002. She then undertook a wide range of consultancy work for different organizations concerned with the transition. She now works for the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

Jolyon Leslie is an architect who has lived and worked in Afghanistan since 1989. He currently manages an urban conservation program in Kabul and Herat.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. viii
Glossary	p. ix
Preface	p. x
Foreword	p. xii
Map	p. xv
Introduction: four years on	p. 1
Losing the war	p. 2
State building	p. 6
Corrupting the state	p. 8
Human rights	p. 10
Religion and state	p. 11
Walking the tightrope	p. 12
Political developments	p. 12
The way forward	p. 13
The international dimension	p. 15
The mirage of peace	p. 19
Illusions of peace	p. 21
'Liberation'	p. 23
Raising the stakes	p. 25
Bombing-in a peace	p. 29
Losing hearts and minds	p. 31
New beginnings?	p. 34
'Failure is not an option'	p. 39
Identity and society	p. 41
New values and old	p. 41
Rooted in Islam	p. 46
Identity and others	p. 48
Civil society?	p. 57
Making decisions, being represented	p. 59
War and social change	p. 63
Ethnicity	p. 70
Closing ranks	p. 75
Managing the world beyond	p. 75
Dreaming a past	p. 77
Ideology and difference	p. 81
Confronting the Taliban	p. 84
The UN and the Strategic Framework for Afghanistan	p. 87
An alien way of looking at the world	p. 92
Could it have been different?	p. 96
The legacy of confrontation	p. 100
One size fits all - Afghanistan in the new world order	p. 102
Reasons for war	p. 102
Early courtship	p. 105
Changing attitudes	p. 107
Isolating the Taliban	p. 111
Aid, rights and the US project	p. 113
Stitching up a country	p. 116
Human rights	p. 121
NGOs - wanting it both ways	p. 123
Failing the Afghans	p. 124
The makings of a narco state?	p. 128
Seeding recovery	p. 128
Or corrupting the state?	p. 133
Transitional attitudes	p. 141
Agency responses	p. 143
Double standards - or caught in a bind?	p. 145
State	p. 153
State and nation	p. 153
A short history	p. 156
The Taliban state	p. 163
Aid and the state	p. 165
The UN and the failed state model	p. 166
The legacy of centralization	p. 171
Bonn and beyond, part I: the political transition	p. 173
Inauspicious beginnings	p. 175
Imagining a state	p. 176
The political transition	p. 182
Building state failure	p. 188
Enduring security?	p. 192
Bonn and beyond, part II: the governance transition	p. 198
The state: who is in control?	p. 198
International failure	p. 215
Letting the Afghans down	p. 225
Concluding thoughts	p. 227
Who's who	p. 235
Parties	p. 239
An Afghan chronology	p. 240
Further reading	p. 242
References	p. 243
Index	p. 248
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