Post-conflict peacebuilding in Afghanistan

AfghaniistaniistanThe site of the following essay will be to evaluate the impact which the ISAF and tranquillity-keeping efforts by the United Nations have had on the ataraxisbuilding process in Afghanistan, following the US hurtle intervention in Operation Enduring Freedom. Following devil Anglo-Afghan pronounce of contendfarefares, Afghanistan gained indep haltence in 1919 and joined the League of Nations. Its example was followed by new(prenominal) rural areas which gained independence from imperial domination and goernance, which following the creation of the United Nations resulted in the shaping of the contemporary geo-political order (Rubin, 2006). Afghanistan was built by the co-ordination of flows of immaterial wait on and when the avail flows were directed towards the sponsoring of opposing military forces, a civil war erupted, eventually leading to the collapse of the bow as the flows of foreign aid were stopped (Rubin, 2002). For most of its kn receive history, Afghanistan rebrinyed a heterogeneous and tribal state having multiple and scraping legal, cultural and political systems (Dupree, 2002 Simonsen, 2004). When the Soviet Union withdrew in Afghanistan in 1989, the Taliban gained supremacy deep down the state and the lose of consensus lead to the clap of a civil war (Matinuddin, 1999). The period of 1992-1994 in Afghanistan was one of bedlam and civil war, as the opposition factions failed to form an effective coalition government, therefrom leading to a civil war (Coll, 2004 Maley, 2009). In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US and a Coalition of other states to initiate a war on terror, a result of the Talibans refusal to cooperate in the apprehension of Al Qaedas leader Bin remove (Rubin, 2013). Following the re-capturing of the capital by the Allied forces and the dispersal of the Taliban, the foundations of Afghanistans re-structuring were banding out in the UN Bonn Agreement (UN, 2001). In summa ry, it confine out the racecourse for a transition towards a western-style constitutional democracy with significant vehemence being placed on human rights, social justice and sex activity equality (Nesiah, 2004).ISAF Mission Following Operation Enduring Freedom and the lighting of the capital Kabul, the UN Security council passed Resolution 1386 with which it layered the foundations of the ISAF, which was deployed signly in Kabul. The ISAF was set to operate in close cooperation with the both(prenominal) the UN and the Afghan government whilst functional the uncouths reconstruction and the training of its security personnel (ISAF, 2014). Its mark take upicipation in the reconstruction process was manifested by the establishment of tentative Reconstruction Teams in provinces in the northern and western parts of the country (ibid.) Initially, ISAFs mandate was constrained to providing security in the capital city, besides following the UN Resolution 1510 in 2003, its man date was expanded so as to provide security throughout the countrys territory (ISAF, 2014a). The outside(a) Security Assistance Force is representative of all NATO member state countries and over the years has been broadened so as to include troops from non-member states such as Australia and stark naked Zealand (ISAF, 2014b). The activities of the ISAF and its mission objective can considered in stock with strategies utilised for state-building and peace-making (Rose-Ackerman, 2001). During its mandate from 2001 onwards, the ISAF has been established as the main provider of home(a) security within the country, whilst at the same time training the new formed Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National law of nature (ANP) (ISAF, 2014). In addition to providing security on a guinea pig scale, the ISAF has been actively involved in the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) of rogue militants, thus enabling the state to claim monopoly over violence (NATO, 20 13). Until the expiry of its mandate at the end of 2014, the ISAF will continue to help the transitional state to train its own security forces as part of international efforts to ensure stability within the country and ensure that a peaceful transition from the civil war onto a more democratic pathway of governance is achieved.Evaluating ISAFDefining both success and misfortune in peacekeeping missions is a tight proletariat due to drop of consensus with regards to their definition (Druckman et al. 1997 Bellamy and Williams, 2005). It has also been suggested that peacekeeping is more potential to succeed in more developed states and in countries where the death cost is minimal (Fortna, 2004). If one is to use the latter framework, then all efforts in Afghanistan are likely to be in vain. More recent explore has identified six factors which appear to be of significant relevance the undefeated deployment of available resources, overlap of interest among key stakeholders, empha sis on invariable conflict regulation, external cooperation as well as recognising the specific surround in which the conflict has taken place (Wolff and Dursun-Ozkanca, 2012). In the case of Afghanistan however, the US-led attack had no heart-to-heart strategies for a state-building process (Ayub and Kouvo, 2008). As a result, the initial focus on the war on terror lacked a clear direction at it failed to provide a clear division amidst short-term goals of pacifying the terrorist threat and the longer-term peace-building process within the country (ibid). The onslaught of Afghanistan was not about promoting security bur rather reducing the spreading whizz of insecurity in the US (Nesiah, 2004).The state-building process that followed had no clear goals and was characterised by competing paradigms, as well as incompatible agendas (Weinberger, 2002 Rubin, 2006 Suhrke, 2012). It can be argued that the Taliban revivification in 2005 and consequent lack of security in the country precluded each substantial democratization effort. However, this ignores the causal relationship between the two failure of the political process, and an incoherent US/NATO military strategy, which provided the vacuum and space requirement for the Taliban and other counter-systemic actors to establish and expand their influence in the country (Suhrke, 2008). joined to the incoherent military strategy is the limited impact of the DDR process that was to strengthen the position of the ISAF (Reynolds, 2006 Saikal, 2012). The expansion of ISAF outside of Kabul also played a significant part in the escalation of the conflict (Suhrke, 2011). The escalating war ratcheted up the lease for rapid and visible results, both within Afghanistan and from domestic audiences in the lend countries. To deliver quick and visible results, the interveners adopted measures that undermined basic precepts of state-building and by offstage its contribution to peacebuilding. In order to rapidly create Afghan military capacity, for example, the international forces started rearming the militias (Lefevre, 2010). A large amount of resources were diverted towards training the ANA, whereas the lack of training for the ANP produced problems for the ISAF, mainly in terms of corruption and human rights abuses (Beljan, 2013). The establishment of PRTs throughout the country was seen as the solution for providing security and reconstruction at the same time (ibid.). However, their activity was characterised by lack of clear objectives, lack of a clear commanding structure and lack of resources (Sedra, 2005). This lack of glueyness is not only characteristic of the PRTs themselves, but rather to the lack of a clear strategy for the operation of ISAF (Sperling and Webber, 2012), as the establishment of security conductulate to run parallel to economic development as part of restructuring efforts. As it was noted, the availability of resources for peacebuilding has a significant impact on the successful resolvent of a violent conflict. Yet, the large flows of unconditioned aid are verbalize to re-create the environment in which the civil war in the nineties erupted and evolved (Goodhand and Sedra, 2007). Afghanistan is also a challenging case for the study and application of peace conditionalities, as the Bonn Agreement itself only legitimised a victors peace, leaving the Taliban quite potent. Secondly, the dual nature of the process should be accentuate building peace in a climate of ongoing war. The uprise adopted by the Alliance forces, to create a security force whilst at the same time failing to provide an institution that is to be responsible for its management is yet another reflection of the prioritisation of short-term goals over peace-making and state-building in the longer term (Sedra, 2005). Although reconstruction has been a top antecedence and used as a political platform during the first parliamentary elections (Wilder, 2005), the international spending has emphasised security over reconstruction (Rubin, Hamidzada and Stoddard, 2003). The long-standing conflict itself has resulted in the development of a war economy (Felbab-Brown, 2005 Fielden and Goodhand, 2001) in which it is difficult for the emerging democratic state to claim monopoly over violence. Facing colossal historical and institutional constraints, the UN Assistance mission in Afghanistan, a part of which is ISAF, has found it difficult to implement its ambitious democratisation mandate (Tadjbakhsh and Schoiswohl, 2008 Saikal, 2012). In conclusion, despite ISAF has achieved some successes in the training of Afghanistans security forces and meliorate security (Beljan, 2013), it is difficult to claim to the mandate and goals which were set as its main tasks have been achieved. Over the period of reconstruction the country has been relying on foreign aid for the maintenance of its structures, it is still a fragile state on the brink of re-emerging conflict, as t here is still a lack of a clear political settlement among the different interest parties in the country.BibliographyAyub, F. and Kuovo, S. (2008). Righting the courseHumanitarian intervention, the war on terror and the future of Afghanistan. supranational Affairs, 84(4), 641-657.Beljan, R. (2013). 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