Afghanistan’s Necessary Shift in Ethnic Narratives From Dominance to Dialogue Wilson Center (original) (raw)
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From Identity Crisis to Identity in Crisis in Afghanistan
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In this Policy Brief, the author traces the evolution of Afghanistan’s “identity crisis” from its origins during the Soviet occupation to its present day manifestations. The roles and histories of Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic communities in this crisis are described, and linkages made between these groups and the outside states, communities, and actors who shared or opposed their interests. Recommendations for transcending this recent history of crisis and division are offered.
Comment on Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Afghanistan: The Impact of Post‐2001 Foreign Intervention
Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 2016
Note from the Editors: Rahmatullah Amiri, a student at the American University of Afghanistan, was seriously injured during the terrorist attack on the university in August 2016. Previous to the attack he had drawn on his ongoing field-based research to submit the following comment on ethnic politics in contemporary Afghanistan for inclusion in this Special Features section. He was injured before he was able to provide us with a revised version. In light of the circumstances, we have chosen to include his original comment, with minor editing done by the Special Features editors. We believe that the comment provides a window into the perspective of a young, careful observer of contemporary Afghanistan who has lived his entire life in the shadow of political violence.
Afghanistan in the Trap of an Ethnic Security Dilemma: Is There Any Solution on the Horizon?
Journal of Social and Political Sciences, 2023
Afghanistan represents one of the most complex mosaics of ethnic groups in the world and its contemporary history has been characterised by ethnic hierarchy. Pashtuns domination of the country and their discriminatory policies toward non-Pashtuns have had long-term effects in destroying inter-ethnic trust. The hierarchical relationships among ethnic groups have always been an obstacle to creating ethnic harmony even in pre-war Afghanistan. The paper, by adopting ‘ethnic security dilemma theory,’ attempts to analyse how and why ethnicity in Afghanistan was politicised and morphed into fault line that finally surfaced in the form of civil war in 1990s. It will discuss the impacts of internecine war on inter-ethnic relations and explores the possible options to deal with the long-standing ethnic security dilemma. Being caught in an ethnic trap, the paper argues, only a meaningful power-sharing mechanism can glue the future Afghanistan together.
Identity politics is a complex concept. However, it is rarely studied in the context of weak non-Western states. This study seeks to study identity politics in Afghanistan with a focus on ethnic and sectarian identities. The central hypothesis is that the manipulation and instrumentalisation of ethnic and sectarian identities as sources of political legitimacy have significantly constrained efforts towards state-building in Afghanistan. By taking a historical perspective, it shows that identity politics is not a new phenomenon in Afghanistan and that a weak historical state and widespread culture of poverty have caused, sustained and reinforced ethnic and sectarian identity politics over time. It will also demonstrate that ethnic and sectarian identity politics have been a dominant feature of Afghanistan's post-Taliban statebuilding. Ethnic and sectarian identity politics have seriously undermined the process of statebuilding as they have prevented, amongst other things, a meaningful national reconciliation and the development of an effective state-society relation and a national identity in Afghanistan in the past decade.
Identity Politics - A Case Study of Afghanistan
2011
Identity politics is a complex concept. However, it is rarely studied in the context of weak non-Western states. This study seeks to study identity politics in Afghanistan with a focus on ethnic and sectarian identities. The central hypothesis is that the manipulation and instrumentalisation of ethnic and sectarian identities as sources of political legitimacy have significantly constrained efforts towards state-building in Afghanistan. By taking a historical perspective, it shows that identity politics is not a new phenomenon in Afghanistan and that a weak historical state and widespread culture of poverty have caused, sustained and reinforced ethnic and sectarian identity politics over time. It will also demonstrate that ethnic and sectarian identity politics have been a dominant feature of Afghanistan's post-Taliban statebuilding. Ethnic and sectarian identity politics have seriously undermined the process of statebuilding as they have prevented, amongst other things, a meaningful national reconciliation and the development of an effective state-society relation and a national identity in Afghanistan in the past decade.
Ethnicity and the political reconstruction of Afghanistan
2005
When it comes to the meaning of ethnicity concerning the current Afghan War different opinions collide. On one hand, there are numerous journalists (e.g. RASHID 2000) and researchers (e.g. RIECK 1997) as well as policy-makers such as Colin Powell or Joschka Fischer who categorise the Afghan conflict as an ethnic one. On the other hand, the majority of Afghan politicians – in spite or just because of their different ethnic backgrounds – deny the importance of ethnicity in public. Against this background I intend to discuss in this paper the perception of ethnic groups by the Afghan people as well as the significance of ethnic groups regarding the design of a future government in Afghanistan.
Journal of Political Studies, 2012
Ethnicity as an issue has been faced by all multi-ethnic societies. But it is a matter of great apprehensions and graver outcomes in those societies which are going through postconflict reconstruction, like Afghanistan is today. The paper will discuss in detail the ethnic groups, which exist in Afghan society along with the country's ethnic history. This paper attempts to analyze the fact how social and political objectives of ethnic groups are liable to be accommodated in the new structure of Afghan State. It will also argue about the composition of ethnic groups, impact of war on ethnic communities, and why the ethnic fault lines may continue and under what circumstances, they may fade away?