Srinjoy Bose

Flooding the lake? International democracy promotion and the political economy of the 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan

Abstract The introductory article to this volume positions the Afghan case within the broader literature on the political economy of war-to-peace transitions. The paper begins by critiquing the rise of democracy promotion, and then employs a political economy framework to understand the more focused research on democratisation and elections. The paper highlights some of the major features of the Afghan case that provided a backdrop for the 2014 election: a deeply divided society, a highly militarised and invasive international presence, and a history of flawed elections. This discussion helps contextualise the seemingly technical questions about constitutional design, electoral systems and the organisation and monitoring of elections. It is argued that the pursuit of elections and democratisation efforts more broadly, in a context of growing insecurity and political fragmentation, have had unintended and perverse effects. The concluding section sets out the main themes of the individual contributions that follow.

Youth Interrupted: The Consequences of Urban Displacement for Young Men and Women in Afghanistan

In conflict-affected countries there is a trend of rapid urbanisation driven by internal migration and displacement. These countries are also increasingly young. Despite constituting a demographic majority in urban conflict and displacement-affected situations, youth are often invisible. Afghanistan fits this dynamic well with two-thirds of the population below the age of 25 and one in four living in cities in so-called ‘informal settlements’ on the fringes of cities, a vast majority with displacement backgrounds. Furthermore, Afghan youth have had very little agency in conceiving their future and that of their country. They are viewed as either vulnerable or risk factors for conflict, with action limited to ‘exit’ or ‘violence’. This article gives urban displaced Afghan youth a voice by telling their story of being caught between the desire for agency and the real and perceived obstacles that prevent this from happening.

The UN Secretary-General and the Forgotten Third R2P Responsibility

The responsibility to rebuild needs to be re-elevated to prominence as an integral component of R2P: conceptually, normatively and operationally; and its institutional homes in the UN system and the Secretary-General’s role clarified. The 2009 three pillar formulation of R2P works well in most contexts, but is problematic in that it buries and loses sight of the critical importance of the original ICISS third ‘responsibility to rebuild’ and reconstruct war-raved societies to the point of being viable and self-sustaining once again. We derive some key lessons from the major international interventions of the twenty-first century and recall the context in which R2P was originally formulated in order to highlight the distinctive features of its contribution to international policy. We then describe three dimensions of the responsibility to rebuild – recovery, reconstruction and reconciliation – and the strategies and steps needed for the rebuilding agenda. Recalling that Security Council authorisation of R2P coercive operations is a nonnegotiable prerequisite, we suggest that the responsibility to rebuild can be reintroduced and implemented through the administrative and political leadership roles of the Secretary-General.

Political networks and the 2014 Afghan presidential election: power restructuring, ethnicity and state stability

Abstract This article examines power dynamics in political groupings during the 2014 Afghanistan presidential election and assesses the impact on political stability and order. The focus is the power dynamics of local political-economic and identity networks that have come to underpin and constitute the state in post-2001 international state-building. The article first seeks to understand how the complex relationships between the two leading presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, and key powerbrokers were negotiated and subsequently influenced electoral outcomes. Second, focusing on negotiations over the appointment of the Cabinet ministers, advisers and staff, and governors, the study maps the restructuring of political networks within the Afghan state. The analysis reveals the impact of the election on the redistribution of power and resources, and the consequences for political order and state stability in the post-2014 period.

Hybridity in peacebuilding and development: a critical approach

Abstract The concept of hybridity has been used in numerous ways by scholars across a range of disciplines to generate important analytical and methodological insights. Its most recent application in the social sciences has also attracted powerful critiques that have highlighted its limitations and challenged its continuing usage. This article, which introduces the collection on Critical Hybridity in Peacebuilding and Development, examines whether the value of hybridity as a concept can continue to be harnessed, and how its shortcomings might be mitigated or overcome. Specifically, we seek to demonstrate the multiple ways to embrace the benefits of hybridity, while also guiding scholars through some of the potentially dangerous and problematic areas that we have identified through our own engagement with the hybridity concept and by learning from the critiques of others. This pathway, which we have termed ‘critical hybridity’, identifies eight approaches that are likely to lead scholars towards a more reflexive and nuanced engagement with the concept.

Indian and Chinese foreign policy imperatives and strategies vis-à-vis Afghanistan

ABSTRACT In this article, the authors conduct a comparative review of the strategic imperatives driving Sino-Indian policy on Afghanistan in the post-2014 scenario. The article argues that divergent strategic imperatives make cooperation difficult and/or unlikely. This analysis is based on a broader consideration of both contemporary history and geopolitical dynamics shaping the foreign policy considerations of these two countries, and an assessment of the impact of ongoing bi-lateral and regional aspirations. The authors begin by highlighting the salient dynamics that have historically characterized and driven Indian and Chinese foreign policy in general and on Afghanistan. They find that Afghanistan, although not a primary focus of either state’s foreign or security policy, historically, is increasing in importance for both; India and China compete on a range of economic and security issues.

Afghanistan: ‘spoilers’ in the regional security context

The ongoing international military withdrawal from Afghanistan has set the stage for energising the activities of Afghanistans external stakeholders to re-evaluate their activities. The possible return of the Taliban in some form could compel Afghanistans current external partners—Iran, India and Russia—to turn into limited spoilers. The absence of an international guarantor in Afghanistan from December 2014 is likely to encourage Pakistan—a greedy spoiler—to intensify its meddling as a means to reposition the Taliban—a total spoiler—at the helm of Afghan affairs. The combination of limited, greedy and total spoilers threatens to undermine security and state-building processes.

The limits of 'hybrid governance' in Afghanistan

The following commentary argues that the strategic and structural solutions proffered by advocates of ‘hybrid’ governance—encompassing elements from distinctly different ideological backgrounds or schools of thought—ignore or fail to address certain inherent shortcomings in their approach that are counter-productive to the ongoing and long-term statebuilding and peacebuilding projects in Afghanistan. The following study elucidates some of these shortcomings. Some of the strategies adopted by the Afghan government arise from hybrid approaches to governance, where the state has sought to draw its legitimacy from informal social structures by allowing them to perpetuate as competing institutions in matters concerning provision of individual security and important bodies to vet and validate state action. Such strategies can be counter-productive, particularly in view of the ongoing transition process in Afghanistan. While hybridism has had apparent ‘successes’ in Tanzania, Mozambique, Bostwana and Somaliland—where the inclusion of customary, non-liberal rule systems in the formal statebuilding/peacebuilding processes and the reliance on indigenous sources of state capability provide informal and/or domestic legitimacy—in the case of Afghanistan, reliance on/preservation of pre-existing political, economic and social conditions that fuel conflict are seen to be interfering with locally engrained approaches to/mechanisms for peacemaking. Moreover, empirical investigation also reveals that in countries with corrupt and abusive systems, such as Mexico and Uganda, those responsible for delivering security and justice are often the very perpetrators of insecurity. Too often, proponents of hybridism are over-eager to champion the advantages of a hybrid approach, even without paying sufficient attention to its possible ramifications, including that hybridism may, under certain circumstances, (1) negatively impact the working of formal (democratic) institutions, leading to elites once again taking refuge in patron–client networks, (2) dominate or undermine state institutions by violent methods and means, and (3) result in ‘spoiler’ behaviour and activity. The following study serves to identify challenges posed to the statebuilding/peacebuilding project in Afghanistan by a hybrid governance model and cautions against its overzealous and uncritical acceptance. As one scholar has argued, hybridism is not a phenomenon to be either universally condemned or venerated; rather the implications of hybridism need to be appraised in specific contexts.