The Impact of Counter-Terrorism Objectives on Democratization and Statebuilding in Afghanistan

Abstract

This essay explores how the democratization and statebuilding objectives in Afghanistan were affected by the invasion of 2001 and the counterterrorism objectives adopted by the United States. It outlines the current challenges facing the democratic institutions of Afghanistan and its supporting international actors, including a growing insurgency, a lack of accountability and widespread corruption, and declining legitimacy among the wider Afghan polity. It reviews the background to these challenges, focusing on the pursuit of the Taliban and al Qa'eda under the War on Terror, and the consequences for the wider statebuilding effort: reempowered regional warlords, institutions of state shaped into a highly centralized system dependent on international support, the exclusion of key factions within society, and a resulting unstable political settlement.