CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Amani, Zulfiqar |
|---|---|
| Title | Reintegration: The Wrong Approach to Peace-building in Afghanistan |
| Summary | This paper addresses the question why US strategy to achieve durable peace in Afghanistan has failed. The first chapter is about US involvement in Afghanistan. It argues that the literature pays a greater attention to Afghanistan from a strategic perspective—linking the problem of Afghanistan and 9/11 attacks to Al-Qaida and Cold War. Explaining the problem from the perspective of Al-Qaida and Cold War is strong but not enough because it will not show the blue-print for the long term solution. There is a need for a critical perspective which defines deep roots of 9/11 and make sure that such incident will not happen ever again. The second chapter is about the conflict management approach of US in Afghanistan. US choose the ‘Reintegration’ approach of conflict management which was matching the ethnic composition of Afghanistan. It pays a close attention to how institution design formally paved the way to dominance of a single ethnic group on resources and discriminating others. It has empowered the ethnic spoils and accordingly the reintegration has failed. First, it critically evaluates the reintegration in case of Afghanistan, and second, it implies that reintegration has failed by offering empirical evidences that how the ethnic groups are still divided, corruption and discrimination is going on. The third chapter proposes power-sharing as a potential solution. It argues that participation, autonomy, proportionality and minority veto entailed in power-sharing are potential means to accommodate the interest of each ethnic group. It concludes that US strategy to achieve long-term peace in Afghanistan has failed due to ‘Reintegration’ approach of conflict management, un-proper institution and electoral design, all of which are not matching ethnic composition of Afghanistan. Alternatively, it suggests the ‘powers-sharing’ approach as a solution because it will alter the institution design and electoral system which will give each ethnic group proportional political power, autonomy and minority veto to create a true inclusive society. |
| Supervisor | Erin Kristin Jenne |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/amani_zulfiqar.pdf |
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