How to Bring Peace to Afghanistan
A Proposal for a Non-Military Solution to the Afghan Conflict
Nov 27, 2008
Afghanistan has been more or less in a state of war for the last 30 years. The country's problems lie first in its geography and its highly strategic location at the crossroads of South, Central and Southwest Asia, overlapping or connecting historically Persian, Turkic, Chinese, Russian and Indian areas.
Secondly, Afghanistan's problems lie in the fact that its historic grievances and national interests have always been ignored by world powers. First by the British when they partitioned India and created a State of Pakistan that included large territories claimed by Afghanistan. Secondly by the United States, by excluding Afghanistan from the CENTO security structure, thus leaving a strategic void that the Soviet Union could fill. Thirdly by the United States again, by abandoning the country following Soviet withdrawal.
With the situation on the ground continually worsening and the American-NATO military presence unable to bring peace and stability after seven years since the 2001 US invasion and ouster of the Taliban, it is time to think about new solutions. Solutions that are non-military – particularly at a time when a new US President speaks of escalating the war – and that include all Afghan factions, as well as regional countries.
Internal Dialog and Reconciliation
The first step is to acknowledge the fact that the Taliban, and other parts of the Taliban-led insurgency, are an integral part of Afghanistan's political landscape and that they cannot be excluded from any peace process. A deal should be worked out that would condition a NATO withdrawal to the Taliban entering a reconciliation process, in accordance to Afghan tribal traditions, that would seek to created a new interim national-unity government and an assembly mandated to draft a new Afghan Constitution.
As a face-saving solution, NATO could try to keep a limited number of troops to continue training the national army and police, but peacekeeping operation should be transfered to a UN-sanctioned mission led by Muslim countries part of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Chinese and Russian-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization – both of which have members that neighbor Afghanistan – should also be made stakeholders in bringing peace.
A Regional Dialog Initiative
Engaging into a dialog that include all states of the region is just as important as internal reconciliation. The 1992-1996 and 1996-2001 civil wars were partially caused by conflicting interests between regional countries. For example, Pakistan – with Saudi and US tacit backing – supported the Taliban regime, while Iran, India, Russia and other countries supported the anti-Taliban National Islamic Front, or Northern Alliance.
Therefore, it is primordial to recreate a multilateral initiative similar to the pre-2001 “6+2 Forum” – which included Afghanistan's six neighbors (China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) plus Russia and the United States – but that also involves India.
Peace will remain unreachable if the US presence in Afghanistan continues to be perceived as a design to encircle and weaken Iran, displace Russia and contain China in Central Asia or influence the political configuration of Pakistan. Before Afghanistan becomes yet again a regional battleground, a regional initiative is needed as soon as possible.
This initiative would not only serve as a way to mediate between different regional actors as well as to fully integrate Afghanistan into a multilateral security structure that could assure long-term stabilization but it could also pave the way for lowering other sources of tensions or conflicting interests in this very complex area.
A New Political System
Finally, Afghanistan urgently needs a new political system. American political strategists imposed a US-style Presidential regime both as a way to have a powerful but compliant head-of-state that could rule without worrying about a possibly non-US-friendly parliament, but also because their bias led them to think of it as the best political system. But a Presidential regime simply cannot work in an ethnically, religiously and historically fractured country with a deep-rooted tribal system.
Afghanistan needs a parliamentary regime in which all factions could be represented in the government. Also, more power and responsibly needs to be transferred to the provinces. A permanent national tribal assembly could also prove helpful so as to keep active interaction between tribal leaders of all parts of the country.
Lastly, the place of Islam in Afghan institutions should not be feared by the secular West if it is tied to ancient tribal traditions and not to revolutionary rhetoric. Islam should be given a role in Afghanistan's future if it is the will of the Afghan people. Because those are the people whose interests really matter and that the American-NATO mission seem to have excluded until now from its geopolitical calculations. That is how to bring peace to Afghanistan.
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