Afghanistan – Politics and government – 2001- . Postwar reconstruction – Afghanistan – Evaluation. North Atlantic Treaty Organization – Afghanistan. Taliban. Opium trade – Afghanistan.
Pamphlet DS 371.4 .K58 2009/ + /PDF /(3.98 MB)
Library of Congress Classification / Monograph
16865
Contents: NATO’s strategy : building the comprehensive approach
Jamie Shea – The pygmy who turned into a giant : the Afghan Taliban in 2009
Antonio Giustozzi—Opium in Afghanistan : a reality check
Fabrice Pothier—Afghanistan : the regional dimension
Amalendu Misra.
Summary: In this collection of four essays Jamie Shea discusses the difficulties of retaining the support of NATO governments and publics for the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan unless there is what he calls a ‘comprehensive approach’ among the international actors which has a renewed commitment to a realistic counter-insurgency strategy at its heart. Antonio Giustozzi reflects on the growth of the neo-Taliban and associated insurgent groups. He highlights that their disparate strategies and in particular the difficulties in establishing Mullah Omar’s goals makes the path of negotiations a profoundly uncertain one. Fabrice Pothier paints a picture of the sheer scale of the opium problem in Afghanistan and argues for a decoupling of the counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics operations as the first step towards creating the conditions under which the problem can be comprehensively addressed and negotiated settlements can proceed. Amalendu Misra explores the regional dimension to the Afghan problem, and suggests that the current variant of India and Pakistan’s deeply historical geostrategic competition for Afghanistan threatens both Afghanistan’s security and development. At the same time, Iran could emerge as a relatively stable partner that might play a constructive role in compromise agreements. (p. 5).