Getting it Right in Afghanistan PDF Download

Author: Scott Seward Smith
Publisher: United States Institute of Peace Press
ISBN: 9781601271822
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Building an enduring and stable political consensus in Afghanistan's complex, multiactor environment requires clear analysis of the conflict. Getting It Right in Afghanistan addresses the real drivers of the insurgency, how Afghanistan's neighbors can contribute to peace in the region, and the need for more inclusive political arrangements in peace and reconciliation processes.

Author: Michael Semple
Publisher: US Institute of Peace Press
ISBN: 1601270429
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
In this timely and thorough volume, Michael Semple analyzes the rationale and effectiveness post-2001 attempts at reconciliation in Afghanistan. He explains the poor performance of these attempts and argues that rethinking is necessary if reconciliation is to help revive prospects for peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Author: Dana Burde
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780231169288
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Dana Burde shows how aid to education in Afghanistan bolstered conflict both deliberately in the 1980s through violence-infused, anti-Soviet curricula and inadvertently in the 2000s through misguided stabilization programs

Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0307430693
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In his acclaimed collection An Autumn of War, the scholar and military historian Victor Davis Hanson expressed powerful and provocative views of September 11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan. Now, in these challenging new essays, he examines the world’s ongoing war on terrorism, from America to Iraq, from Europe to Israel, and beyond. In direct language, Hanson portrays an America making progress against Islamic fundamentalism but hampered by the self-hatred of elite academics at home and the cynical self-interest of allies abroad. He sees a new and urgent struggle of evil against good, one that can fail only if “we convince ourselves that our enemies fight because of something we, rather than they, did.” Whether it’s a clear-cut defense of Israel as a secular democracy, a denunciation of how the U.N. undermines the U.S., a plea to drastically alter our alliance with Saudi Arabia, or a perception that postwar Iraq is reaching a dangerous tipping point, Hanson’s arguments have the shock of candor and the fire of conviction.

Author: Ali A. Jalali
Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
ISBN: 9948144805
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 19

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Book Description
Sustainable peace in Afghanistan can be achieved only through the establishment of an “end-state” that is acceptable to the Afghan people but does not undermine the legitimate security interests of other actors in the region and beyond. This necessitates addressing legitimate national, regional and international concerns emanating from the Afghanistan situation. The key to achieving this goal is an integrated strategy that combines military strategy with political and developmental strategies. In developing such strategies, Afghan society needs to be mobilized in pursuit of what its population aspires to instead of what a supply-driven assistance program imposes upon it. The success of such a strategy depends on resources, sound Afghan leadership, coordinated international partnership, and – most importantly – time. Given local and regional political and security dynamics, the transition process will be multi-dimensional, complex, and nonlinear. Given the complexities of the regional environment, there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. Sustainable peace should come through a political settlement; and yet, the conflict can be lost militarily. Without military gains in the field, no elements of a political strategy can succeed: the insurgents will have little incentive to enter meaningful peace talks; the government will be unable to hold contested areas to establish effective local government and win over the population; regional actors will continue to hedge their bets. Furthermore, lack of military progress will give way to doubts in troop-providing nations about the sagacity of the mission. A successful transition is contingent on progress in reconciliation with, and reintegration of insurgents. Security arrangements for the process need to accompany peace talks. In this context, the military strategy should play a supporting role creating the space for effective prosecution of the political strategy. The gradual drawdown of US forces should be balanced with shifting the security responsibility to Afghan security forces as they progressively become more capable of doing the job. The pace of the drawdown must be “condition-based.” A fast-paced drawdown creates a security vacuum and reduces the chances of drawing the insurgents toward a negotiated political settlement. Finally, there is a need to emphasize the development of good governance and the rule of law, and to address the key grievances that fuel insurgency. In concrete terms, government reform requires a series of short-term and long-term corrective measures, including: improvement in the center–peripheries relationship; establishing checks and balances on executive power; improving government service-delivery capacity; enforcing the rule of law; and fighting corruption.

Author: Mark Isaacs
Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing
ISBN: 1743586043
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
A story of peace in a land of unending war. This is a story of hope and resilience in Afghanistan, a country constantly under siege from within and without. Refugee advocate, activist and acclaimed author Mark Isaacs takes us inside a remarkable and unlikely peace project established in one of the most war-torn, violent countries in the world, Afghanistan. After decades of war, few Afghans remember what it is like to live in peace, and many have never known a time without war. Yet, a group of Afghan youth, male and female, have come together – led by the charismatic and idealistic Insaan – to form a model community, a microcosm of how a new Afghanistan could be: a place of peaceful coexistence, a nation without violence and war that embraces the values of peace and humanity. Mark takes us on a journey to the streets of Kabul, where day-to-day life involves terror and extreme danger, and lives alongside these inspirational and courageous young people in 'The Community’. Mark reveals their personal stories of trauma and loss that ultimately lead them to defy the risks and stand up to demand peace, a seemingly impossible dream. He witnesses their acts of non-violent protest, their small steps in making life better, their setbacks and struggles, but mostly their bravery and hope for a future that shines with peace.

Author: Chris Johnson
Publisher: Zed Books
ISBN: 9781842773772
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
With the re-building of the failed Afghan state now at the center of the new international intervention, this book explores how the perceptions of outsiders have been at odds with Afghans' own understandings of their country. It shows how the lack of understanding that characterized past policies remains highly problematical. By continuing to indulge in a superficial, selective portrayal of the country, the international community risks manufacturing a state that does not exist, and policies that will not work.

Author: Ann Jones
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1466827653
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
A sharp and arresting people's-eye view of real life in Afghanistan after the Taliban Soon after the bombing of Kabul ceased, award-winning journalist and women's rights activist Ann Jones set out for the shattered city, determined to bring help where her country had brought destruction. Here is her trenchant report from inside a city struggling to rise from the ruins. Working among the multitude of impoverished war widows, retraining Kabul's long-silenced English teachers, and investigating the city's prison for women, Jones enters a large community of female outcasts: runaway child brides, pariah prostitutes, cast-off wives, victims of rape. In the streets and markets, she hears the Afghan view of the supposed benefits brought by the fall of the Taliban, and learns that regarding women as less than human is the norm, not the aberration of one conspicuously repressive regime. Jones confronts the ways in which Afghan education, culture, and politics have repeatedly been hijacked—by Communists, Islamic fundamentalists, and the Western free marketeers—always with disastrous results. And she reveals, through small events, the big disjunctions: between U.S promises and performance, between the new "democracy" and the still-entrenched warlords, between what's boasted of and what is. At once angry, profound, and starkly beautiful, Kabul in Winter brings alive the people and day-to-day life of a place whose future depends so much upon our own.

Author: James Shinn
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833058266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
The objective of a negotiated peace in Afghanistan has been firmly embraced by most of the potential parties to a treaty. However, arriving at an agreement about the sequencing, timing, and prioritization of peace terms is likely to be difficult, given the divergence in the parties' interests and objectives. The U.S. objective in these negotiations should be a stable and peaceful Afghanistan that neither hosts nor collaborates with terrorists.

Author: Antonio Giustozzi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1787380955
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
So-called Islamic State began to appear in what it calls Khorasan (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Iran and India) in 2014. Reports of its presence were at first dismissed as propaganda, but during 2015 it became clear that IS had a serious presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan at least. This book, by one of the leading experts on Islamist insurgency in the region, explores the nature of IS in Khorasan, its aim and strategies, and its evolution in an environment already populated by many jihadist organisations. Based on first-hand research and numerous interviews with members of IS in Khorasan, as well as with other participants and observers, the book addresses highly contentious issues such as funding, IS's relationship with the region's authorities, and its interactions with other insurgent groups. Giustozzi argues that the central leadership of IS invested significant financial resources in establishing its own branch in Khorasan, and as such it is more than a local movement which adopted the IS brand for its own aims. Though the central leadership has been struggling in implementing its project, it is now turning towards a more realistic approach. This is the first book on a new frontier in Islamic State's international jihad.