Lessons for Rebuilding Afghanistan
by Jim Stickford
Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Lessons from Development Experience. Edited by John D. Montgomery and Dennis A. Rondinelli. Palgrave Macmillan, 236 pages, $59.95.
The task is daunting. The probability of success is questionable. But the rebuilding of Afghanistan is critical to U.S. foreign policy, the war on terrorism, and the future of the Middle East and Central Asia.
Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan, edited by John Montgomery, emeritus professor of international studies at Harvard, and Dennis Rondinelli, professor of management at Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, examines Afghanistan from the perspective of scholars and international development specialists.
Their assessment of the post-conflict reconstruction efforts draws on fifty years of reconstruction programs around the world. It looks at the political, economic, social, cultural, and military conditions of the country, identifies problem areas, and suggests potential courses of action in the rebuilding process.
"The book was written for the academic community, public policy organizations, and the international development community such as the World Bank and the United Nations. We hope to provide a knowledge base that could be a road to public policy decisions," Rondinelli says.
The book doesn't try to lay down a template for reconstruction, recognizing that every country is different and Afghanistan has its own specific needs based on its ethnic and religious makeup. But there have been many lessons learned over the years that could ease the rebuilding task. A chapter, for example, deals with reconstruction after the U.S. Civil War, World War I, and World War II as potential guideposts for action in the current situation in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan, slightly smaller than Texas, has 28 million residents. Afghan society is tribal and ethnic, with seven ethnic groups comprising the bulk of the population. About 84 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim and 15 percent Shi'a. Most of its current borders were established in the late nineteenth century so the country could serve as a buffer between the British and Russian colonial territories.
Rondinelli describes Afghanistan as a "historical accident created by the colonial powers. Some scholars engage in a continued debate that it's even a nation." He notes that organizations such as the World Bank, United Nations, and the Asian Development Bank had done a great deal of work in developing an assessment of the immediate reconstruction needs. But, he says, because the conditions have not been created to implement them, many of those recommendations have largely been ignored by the United States, its coalition partners, and the development agencies themselves.
War-torn Afghanistan has been without an effective central government and rule of law for more than twenty years. When the Taliban was ousted in 2001, no strong central government emerged, and warlords — with their armies organized along ethnic and tribal lines — filled the power vacuum. And to compound the problems of reconstruction, there has been a resurgence of Taliban violence.
The book's contributors agree that the first step in reconstruction is to reestablish a system of law. From that can flow competitive economic activity, educational opportunities, and political stability. It's critical that the countries and organizations that have committed billions of dollars to the rebuilding of Afghanistan stay the course, they say.
"If we lose interest and walk away, we will have created the exact conditions we tried to eliminate — places where terrorists can regain their strength and consolidate their efforts," Rondinelli says.
There is potential for success. "If we can continue economic support
and provide some military security, the innate need of the Afghans to
improve their lives could emerge and lead the way to a successful reconstruction," he
adds.
Rondinelli was elected to chair the selection committee for the 2004 United Nations Public Service Awards.
