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1061. Afghanistan: Old Problems, New Parliament, New Expectations

Author:
Emily Hsu and Beth DeGrasse
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
With the September 18 parliamentary elections, Afghanistan completes its internationally mandated blueprint for democracy and enters a new phase of state building in uncharted waters. This transition occurs against the backdrop of rising threats to security and an economy dominated largely by illicit production and export of opium. On October 12, 2005, the U.S. Institute of Peace convened a meeting of the Afghanistan Working Group to review the recent parliamentary elections. The presenters at the meeting included Robert Varsalone, resident country director for Afghanistan for the International Republican Institute; Sam Zia-Zarifi, research director for the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch; Larry M. Sampler, former chief of staff for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan; and Barnett R. Rubin, chairman of the Afghanistan Working Group. The following USIPeace Briefing summarizes views expressed at the meeting. The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Institute, which does not take positions on policy issues.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Asia

1062. PRTs in Afghanistan: Successful but not Sufficient

Author:
Peter Viggo Jakobsen
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The report analyses the contributions made by the provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) on the ground in Afghanistan. It concludes that the PRTs are successful because they have helped to extend the authority of the Afghan government beyond Kabul, facilitated reconstruction and dampened violence. At the same time, it is equally clear that they cannot address the underlying causes of insecurity in Afghanistan. The PRTs only make sense as part of an overall strategy in which they serve to buy time while other instruments are employed to tackle the military threat posed by the Taliban and Al Qaida; the infighting between the warlords; the increased lawlessness and banditry; and the booming opium poppy cultivation and the drug trade. A comprehensive strategy that couples the deployment of more PRTs by NATO with determined action against these causes of instability is therefore required. Future PRTs should be based on the UK PRT model, which is generally considered the most successful. To heighten its profile in Afghanistan, Denmark should consider establishing a PRT of its own or contributing to the establishment of a joint Nordic PRT.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, NATO, and Development
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United Kingdom, Middle East, and Denmark

1063. Integrating Democracy Promotion Into U.S. Middle East Policy

Author:
Michele Dunne
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
BETWEEN 2002 AND 2004, THE UNITED STATES ACCORDED new prominence to political and economic reform and democratization as policy goals in the Middle East. Continuing that trend and translating rhetoric into effective strategies both depend on whether reform and democratization become fully integrated into the U.S. policy agenda in the region. Can the United States promote change at the risk of instability in the region while it remains dependent on petroleum from Arab countries? Can it pursue Arab–Israeli peace and democratization at the same time? Can the United States still secure needed military and counterterrorism cooperation if it antagonizes friendly regimes by promoting democratization as well? Is it feasible for the United States to promote democratization effectively amid widespread grievances against the war in Iraq and serious questions about U.S. human rights practices there and in Afghanistan?
Topic:
International Relations and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, Middle East, Israel, and Arabia

1064. How the Drug War in Afghanistan Undermines America's War on Terror

Author:
Ted Galen Carpenter
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
There is a growing tension between two U .S. objectives in Afghanistan. The most important objective is—or at least should be—the eradication of the remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in that country. But the United States and its coalition partners are now also emphasizing the eradication of Afghanistan's drug trade. These antidrug efforts may fatally undermine the far more important anti-terrorism campaign.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Middle East, and Taliban

1065. Securing Afghanistan: Entering a Make-or-Break Phase?

Author:
T.X Hammes and Robert B. Oakley
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
To appreciate Afghanistan's predicament, it is essential to understand that all Afghan politics are tribal. Thus, while Afghans share a genuine national identity, their immediate concern in any political process is to advance or preserve the welfare of their ethnic or extended family group. Further, since the Russians and British artificially imposed the country's international borders, the tribes are not wholly contained within Afghanistan. They straddle the borders with surrounding nations. Thus, tribal politics are also international politics.
Topic:
Security, NATO, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Russia, and Middle East

1066. A Way Out of the Mesopotamian Morass? The Case for a Partitioned Iraq

Author:
Ivan Eland
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
The United States has plunged into an Iraqi swamp. The swashbuckling victory in the first Gulf War led to the most egregious sin that can be made in the military affairs—hubris and underestimation of the enemy. The U.S. and Soviet superpowers made the same mistake respectively in Vietnam in the sixties and seventies and Afghanistan in the eighties. But as those quagmires fade from memory, government officials apparently have to relearn the same lessons.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Democratization, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, Soviet Union, and Vietnam

1067. From Warlords to Peacelords - Local Leadership Capacity in Peace Processes

Author:
Gordon Peake, Cathy Gormley-Heenan, and Mari Fitzduff
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity
Abstract:
The starting point for the research upon which the report is based has been our interest in the phenomenon of political leaders in conflict and peace building. In particular, this report has considered leadership in three countries that have attracted infamy for the protracted nature of their brutal conflicts - Afghanistan, Kosovo and Sierra Leone. Each country is now considered to have emerged from conflict and to be at formal 'peace'.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, and Politics
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Middle East, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone

1068. War Economies in a Regional Context: Overcoming the Challenges of Transformation

Author:
Kaysie Studdard
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
This policy report distills key findings from research commissioned by the International Peace Academy's program on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (EACW) on the regional dimensions of war economies and the challenges they pose for peacemaking and peacebuilding. Drawing from analytical research as well as case studies of Afghanistan in Central Asia, Sierra Leone in West Africa, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in Southeast Europe, a number of key issues concerning the political economy of regional war economies and lessons for more effective peacebuilding were identified: The notion that internal conflicts have economic "spill over" or "spill into" effects on neighboring states needs to be extended and deepened. Policymakers should work to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the interstate impacts of civil conflict that gives greater weight to systemic cross-border networks and less to potentially 'one-off' transborder phenomena.
Topic:
Economics, Peace Studies, Regional Cooperation, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Europe, Central Asia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and West Africa

1069. Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Idea of a "New Warfare

Author:
Carl Conetta
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Project on Defense Alternatives
Abstract:
Among those endeavors that a state or a people may undertake, none is more terrible than war. None has repercussions more far-reaching or profound. Thus, a grave responsibility to one's own nation and to the global community attends any decision to go to war. And part of this responsibility is to estimate and gauge the effects of war, including the collateral damage and civilian casualties that it incurs.
Topic:
Defense Policy and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Central Asia, and Middle East

1070. SIPRI Yearbook 2004: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security (Pocket-size Summary Edition)

Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
There were 19 major armed conflicts in 18 locations in 2003. The number of major armed conflicts and the number of conflict locations were slightly lower in 2003 than in 2002, when there were 20 major armed conflicts in 19 locations. Four of the 19 conflicts in 2003 were in Africa and eight in Asia. In the 14-year post-cold war period, there were 59 different major armed conflicts in 48 different locations. The number of major armed conflicts in 2003 was the lowest for the entire period except for 1997, when there were 18 major armed conflicts. Two interstate conflicts were active in 2003: the conflict between Iraq and the multinational coalition; and the conflict between India and Pakistan. The majority of the major armed conflicts today are intra- state. The persistence of intra-state wars, and their resistance to quick solutions, was reflected in 2003 by the continuation of the Colombian and Israeli–Palestinian conflicts. The potential for sudden and rapid escalation of intensity was evident in conflicts such as Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia, Liberia and Sudan (Darfur). The current international focus on the threat of terrorism is affecting the strategies, intensity and course of intra-state conflicts such as those in Indonesia and the Philippines. Outside actors cannot enforce a quick peace, as demonstrated in Afghanistan, Côte d'Ivoire, Iraq and Sri Lanka. The year demonstrated that intra-state conflicts can be brought to an end only through sustained and comprehensive external engagement. As illustrated by the peace agreements in 2003 in Liberia and Sudan, external assistance, mediation and support are vital to help bring warring parties to a negotiated end to conflict.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa, Sudan, Indonesia, Middle East, India, Asia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Liberia, and Burundi