Download or read book Local Politics in Afghanistan written by Conrad J. Schetter and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the nineteenth century to today, Afghanistan has contended with relentless foreign intervention. Not only have external powers, such as British India, the Soviet Union, Pakistan, and NATO, egregiously interfered in local affairs, but various Afghan governments, including monarchical, Communist, Islamist, and ostensibly democratic ones, have also repeatedly meddled with the state. The Afghan population has nevertheless remained robustly resilient in the face of this upheaval, finding concrete ways to handle external influences while preserving the most valuable aspects of their political system. By shedding light on the dynamics of this phenomenon, the essays in this volume clarify both the complexities of Afghanistan's local political structure and the ways in which outside intervention either disturbs or reinforces the local social order. By freeing local politics from the false binary of romanticization and demonization, the collection provides a richer understanding of Afghan society and the role of social factors, such as trust, solidarity, reciprocity, and patronage, in the promotion of rational political objectives.The collection also explores the impact of intermediaries and local forums, such as jirgas and shura, as they negotiate between local actors and external interventionists.
Download or read book Local Politics in Afghanistan written by Conrad J. Schetter and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Afghanistan has contended with an almost continuous series of foreign interventions in its local affairs in the 19th and 20th centuries. While the resilience of the Afghan population in the face of external influence is widely recognised, how the local populations have dealt with these interventions and how local politics is structured in Afghanistan still remain somewhat open questions. This book sheds light on this phenomenon as well as illuminating the complexities of local politics in Afghanistan, analysing also how the local social order is disturbed or reinforced by outside intervention.
Download or read book Derailing Democracy in Afghanistan written by Noah Coburn and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume shows how Afghani elections since 2004 have threatened to derail the country’s fledgling democracy. Examining presidential, parliamentary, and provincial council elections and conducting interviews with more than one hundred candidates, officials, community leaders, and voters, the text shows how international approaches to Afghani elections have misunderstood the role of local actors, who have hijacked elections in their favor, alienated communities, undermined representative processes, and fueled insurgency, fostering a dangerous disillusionment among Afghan voters.
Download or read book Parliamentarians and Local Politics in Afghanistan written by Noah Coburn and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bazaar Politics written by Noah Coburn and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-28 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the fall of the Taliban, instability reigned across Afghanistan. However, in the small town of Istalif, located a little over an hour north of Kabul and not far from Bagram on the Shomali Plain, local politics remained relatively violence-free. Bazaar Politics examines this seemingly paradoxical situation, exploring how the town's local politics maintained peace despite a long, violent history in a country dealing with a growing insurgency. At the heart of this story are the Istalifi potters, skilled craftsmen trained over generations. With workshops organized around extended families and competition between workshops strong, kinship relations become political and subtle negotiations over power and authority underscore most interactions. Starting from this microcosm, Noah Coburn then investigates power and relationships at various levels, from the potters' families; to the local officials, religious figures, and former warlords; and ultimately to the international community and NGO workers. Offering the first long-term on-the-ground study since the arrival of allied forces in 2001, Noah Coburn introduces readers to daily life in Afghanistan through portraits of local residents and stories of his own experiences. He reveals the ways in which the international community has misunderstood the forces driving local conflict and the insurgency, misunderstandings that have ultimately contributed to the political unrest rather than resolved it. Though on first blush the potters of Istalif may seem far removed from international affairs, it is only through understanding politics, power, and culture on the local level that we can then shed new light on Afghanistan's difficult search for peace.
Download or read book Afghanistan Politics Elections and Government Performance written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the context of a review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan during September-November 2009, the performance and legitimacy of the Afghan government figured prominently. In his December 1, 2009, speech announcing a way forward in Afghanistan, President Obama stated that the Afghan government would be judged on performance, and "The days of providing a blank check are over." The policy statement was based, in part, on an assessment of the security situation furnished by the top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, which warned of potential mission failure unless a fully resourced classic counterinsurgency strategy is employed. That counterinsurgency effort is deemed to require a legitimate Afghan partner. The Afghan government's limited writ and widespread official corruption are believed by U.S. officials to be helping sustain a Taliban insurgency and complicating international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. At the same time, President Hamid Karzai has, through compromise with faction leaders, been able to confine ethnic disputes to political competition, enabling his government to focus on trying to win over those members of the ethnic Pashtun community that support Taliban and other insurgents.
Download or read book Afghanistan s Political Stability written by Ahmad Shayeq Qassem and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-16 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political stability has been a central theme of policy for all governments and political systems in the history of modern Afghanistan. Since its inception in the mid-nineteenth century, the country experimented with a diverse succession of political systems and state ideologies matched by few other countries' political histories. In the span of less than nine decades since independence in 1919, the Afghan state was substantially restructured at least a dozen times. This volume looks at Afghanistan's historic relations with Central and South Asia, ethno-nationalism and development, Soviet occupation and transformation of relations with Pakistan, stability of the Islamic State and regional cooperation. It examines how Afghanistan's different political systems reformed and readjusted policies to make them more conducive to political stability. Yet political stability, at best, has remained a dream unrealized in Afghanistan.
Download or read book Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan written by Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite vast efforts to build the state, profound political order in rural Afghanistan is maintained by self-governing, customary organizations. Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan explores the rules governing these organizations to explain why they can provide public goods. Instead of withering during decades of conflict, customary authority adapted to become more responsive and deliberative. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and observations from dozens of villages across Afghanistan, and statistical analysis of nationally representative surveys, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili demonstrates that such authority enhances citizen support for democracy, enabling the rule of law by providing citizens with a bulwark of defence against predatory state officials. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it shows that 'traditional' order does not impede the development of the state because even the most independent-minded communities see a need for a central government - but question its effectiveness when it attempts to rule them directly and without substantive consultation.
Download or read book Local Politics in Jordan and Morocco written by Janine A. Clark and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, authoritarian states in the Middle East and North Africa have faced increasing international pressure to decentralize political power. Decentralization is presented as a panacea that will foster good governance and civil society, helping citizens procure basic services and fight corruption. Two of these states, Jordan and Morocco, are monarchies with elected parliaments and recent experiences of liberalization. Morocco began devolving certain responsibilities to municipal councils decades ago, while Jordan has consistently followed a path of greater centralization. Their experiences test such assumptions about the benefits of localism. Janine A. Clark examines why Morocco decentralized while Jordan did not and evaluates the impact of their divergent paths, ultimately explaining how authoritarian regimes can use decentralization reforms to consolidate power. Local Politics in Jordan and Morocco argues that decentralization is a tactic authoritarian regimes employ based on their coalition strategies to expand their base of support and strengthen patron-client ties. Clark analyzes the opportunities that decentralization presents to local actors to pursue their interests and lays out how municipal-level figures find ways to use reforms to their advantage. In Morocco, decentralization has resulted not in greater political inclusivity or improved services, but rather in the entrenchment of pro-regime elites in power. The main Islamist political party has also taken advantage of these reforms. In Jordan, decentralization would undermine the networks that benefit elites and their supporters. Based on extensive fieldwork, Local Politics in Jordan and Morocco is an important contribution to Middle East studies and political science that challenges our understanding of authoritarian regimes’ survival strategies and resilience.
Download or read book Resources Over Reform in Afghanistan written by Anna Larson (Researcher) and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The election of Ashraf Ghani as president in 2014 gave Afghans and the international community hope that political reform was on its way. However, thus far, little has been achieved to improve governance and reduce corruption, especially at the local level. Based on interviews conducted in four communities in Afghanistan, this report reveals that economic and security changes are having the greatest impact on local politics, keeping the powerful elite in positions of influence as they compete over shifting resources and unpredictable political processes"--Publisher's web site.
Download or read book The Pitfalls of Protection written by Torunn Wimpelmann and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-05-22 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s open access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, violence against women has emerged as the single most important issue for Afghan gender politics. The Pitfalls of Protection, based on research conducted in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2015, locates the struggles over gender violence in local and global power configurations. The author finds that aid flows and geopolitics have served as both opportunities and obstacles to feminist politics in Afghanistan. Showing why Afghan activists often chose to use the leverage of Western powers instead of entering into either protracted negotiations with powerful national actors or broad political mobilization, the book examines both the achievements and the limits of this strategy.
Download or read book Afghanistan Politics Elections and Government Performance written by Congressional Research Congressional Research Service and published by . This book was released on 2015-01-12 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The capacity, transparency, legitimacy, and cohesiveness of Afghan governance are crucial to Afghan stability as nearly all international forces exit Afghanistan by the end of 2016. The size and capability of the Afghan governing structure has increased significantly since the Taliban regime fell in late 2001, but the government remains rife with corruption and ethnic and political tensions among its major factions are ever present. Its recent elections have been marred by allegations of vast fraud and resulting post-election political crises. Hamid Karzai, who served as president since late 2001, was constitutionally term-limited and left office when his successor, Ashraf Ghani, was inaugurated on September 29. The inauguration represented a resolution of a presidential election dispute that consumed Afghan and U.S. official attention from April to September. The results of the April 5, 2014, first round of the election required a June 14 runoff between Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah-increasing tensions between Ghani's Pashtun community, Afghanistan's largest group, and the Tajik community with which Abdullah is identified. Amid accusations by Abdullah of widespread fraud in the runoff, Secretary of State John Kerry brokered an agreement for a recount of all 23,000 ballot boxes and formation of a post-election unity government under which Abdullah, the losing candidate, became "Chief Executive Officer" (CEO) of the government. The CEO is to function as a prime minister, pending a subsequent national deliberation over changing the constitution to create a formal prime ministerial post. The resolution of the election dispute paved the way for the long-delayed signing of formal agreements to permit U.S. and NATO deployments in post-2014 international missions to train Afghan forces (Resolute Support Mission) and conduct counterterrorism operations (Operation Freedom Sentinel). To date, the power-sharing arrangement has nearly paralyzed the Afghan central government. Abdullah's role in governance has been limited and, until early January 2015, the two were unable to agree to new cabinet appointments despite a constitutional requirement to form a cabinet within 30 days of taking office. The government has been run in the interim by caretaker officials and bureaucrats lacking high-level policy direction. The cabinet choices reportedly represent efforts to balance the need for competent officials with the demands to satisfy both leaders' key constituencies. Government authority remains constrained not only by the power-sharing arrangement but also by the exertion of influence by the long-standing informal power structure consisting of regional and ethnic leaders. Faction leaders often maintain groups of armed fighters who often exercise arbitrary administration of justice and commit human rights abuses. These constraints could slow Ghani's efforts to prioritize curbing governmental corruption and promoting women's rights. International officials and groups are attempting to help ensure that the significant gains in civil society, women's rights, and media freedoms achieved since 2001 are preserved. Those gains have come despite the persistence of traditional attitudes and Islamic conservatism in many parts of Afghanistan-attitudes that cause the judicial and political system to tolerate child marriages and imprisonment of women who flee domestic violence. Islamist influence and tradition has also frequently led to persecution of converts from Islam to Christianity, and to curbs on the sale of alcohol and on Western-oriented media programs. Afghan civil society activists, particularly women's groups, assert that many of these gains are at risk as international forces depart, especially should there be a reconciliation agreement between the government and insurgent leaders. See also CRS Report RL30588, Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy, by Kenneth Katzman.
Download or read book Subnational Government in Afghanistan written by Michael Robert Shurkin and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This primer on subnational government in Afghanistan is meant to inform efforts to strengthen local government in recently cleared areas. Among the problems afflicting the Afghan state are the lack of effective service provision and representation, which together should constitute the base of the state's legitimacy. This paper identifies the various entities of local government and identifies opportunities for improvement. It is based on a review of the available academic and nongovernmental studies of subnational government in Afghanistan and interviews with civilian experts, including consultants attached to U.S. and allied government agencies. Opportunities to make the system more participatory and representative should be sought at lower levels to compensate for weak central institutions, and the court system must be strengthened where possible. Good intelligence about local politics must precede engagement. Governance metrics should gauge subjective perceptions of the legitimacy of the Afghan state, rather than objective outputs.
Download or read book Afghanistan written by Thomas Barfield and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-25 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the political history of Afghanistan from the sixteenth century to the present, looking at what has united the people as well as the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them.
Download or read book The State Religion and Ethnic Politics written by Ali Banuazizi and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Afghanistan s Local War written by Seth G. Jones and published by RAND Corporation. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Security in Afghanistan has historically required a combination of top-down efforts from the central government and bottom-up efforts from local communities. Since 2001, U.S. and broader international efforts have focused on establishing security solely from the top down through Afghan national security forces and other central government institutions. But local security forces are a critical complement to these efforts, especially in rural areas of the country. The Afghan government and NATO forces need to move quickly to establish a more-effective bottom-up strategy to complement top-down efforts by better leveraging local communities. The Afghan government can work with existing community structures that oppose insurgents to establish village-level policing entities, such as arbakai and chalweshtai, with support from NATO. Effectively leveraging local communities should significantly improve counterinsurgency prospects and can facilitate mobilization of the population against insurgents. This analysis documents lessons about the viability of establishing local security in Afghanistan and addresses concerns about the wisdom of such policies."--P. [4] of cover.
Download or read book Potters and Warlords in an Afghan Bazaar written by Noah S. Coburn and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Deteriorating security conditions, the resurgence of the Taliban and a corrupt national government have raised serious questions about the persistence of violence and the relationship between the state and stability in Afghanistan. This dissertation is based on eighteen months of ethnographic research in Istalif, a small town in the Shomali Plain, with a strong craft industry and a long history of violence, including its complete destruction by the Taliban. In the town there was a high degree of political tension, disputes over land and a tendency towards factionalism. Simultaneously, local politics remained non-violent. What created this seemingly paradoxical situation? This study describes not only how local politics in Afghanistan have shifted during the post-Taliban period, but how strategies of inactivity can lead to a political theater that masks tensions and suppresses violent conflict. Political power in Istalif was fractured and centered on certain categories of leaders, such as elders, religious figures and warlords. The dissertation looks initially at several lineages of potters who formed a guild-like group that cooperated politically and economically using the idiom of kinship. Often, however, these ties broke apart. Alternate sources of political and economic power caused individuals to balance loyalty with attempts to establish semi-covert networks of outside allies. Looking at the wider arena of town politics, the dissertation then analyzes how groups strove to portray themselves as powerful, while avoiding public and violent conflicts that revealed the actual limits of their power. Simultaneously, the people in the town and government officials perpetuated a fiction of the state as bounded and rational, denying the ambiguous nature of state-rule based upon patrimonial networks. This fiction encouraged international donors to continue to inject aid into the area in the hopes that Afghanistan would not become a 'failed state,' despite the fact that this Westphalian conception of the state misunderstood local political realities. This work argues that the case of post-Taliban Afghanistan demonstrates how local political arrangements can re-frame understandings of the state and violence, and disguise the ambiguous nature of power in order manipulate relationships with external forces and preserve peace.
