CEU eTD Collection (2023); Maysam Mohseni: Why did the US-Led Afghanistan Reconstruction fail?

CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
Author Maysam Mohseni
Title Why did the US-Led Afghanistan Reconstruction fail?
Summary In 2001, the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban regime. A new substitute government was established and later a new constitution was approved too. A joint effort by the United States and its allies along with the Republic Islamic of Afghanistan for recovery and development started as the process of Afghanistan reconstruction. Since then, the people of Afghanistan, the United States, and its allies incurred huge costs from spending billions of dollars to losing thousands of lives in the process of struggling to stabilize and recover the country. However, after 20 years, all costs and endeavors suddenly faded when the Government of the Republic of Afghanistan collapsed in August 2021 and the Taliban returned to power. Using resources from different parties involved in the process, this study attempts to explore major policy flaws and weaknesses that led to the failure of the process. Our findings suggest that several factors—high off-budget spending, misalignment, lack of consensus on the modality of projects, biased distribution of funds, shortfalls in fund commitments, and fragmented projects—led to the failure of the process and gave space to the Taliban to revive.
Supervisor Horvath, Julius
Department Economics MA
Full texthttps://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/mohseni_maysam.pdf

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