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This article is about the interplay of defining characteristics in Afghanistan that led to the fall of King Amanullah in 1929. Previously, this has been done by looking at the reforms, tribal society and the ulema, the community of scholars, but the prism through which we examine Amanullah's downfall is Mahmud Tarzi's grouping together of 'Din, Daulat, Watan, Millat' (Religion, State, Homeland (or Fatherland), Nation). The ideals informing this grouping, as well as the concepts themselves, were key factors underpinning Amanullah's reform agenda. Where Tarzi wrote of these factors as integrative and functioning together, a perspective taken uncritically by many commentators, we argue here that, as concepts in governance intended to unify the country, they acted as the exact opposite; that they sparked off each other, contradicted each other, and undermined each other in the context of the period. Understanding this explains much of the fragmentation Afghanistan suffered in the 1920s and suggests a structural process of causation for the fall of Amanullah. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the emergence of the Taliban in the national scene of Afghanistan, speculations have abounded around whether to call the movement a Pashtun nationalist movement or should it be termed as a radical Islamic movement having supra ethnic tendencies? It can be viewed that the Taliban movement in Afghanistan neither has its origin directly in the Pashtun tribal culture nor in the tradition of Islam. The leaders of the movement tend to use both these identities voluntarily based on circumstances. Depending on the aims and objectives in a given situation, both these identities are instrumentalized by the Taliban leaders to recruit more fighters and also to carry on with the political aspect of strategic decision making. Moreover, in the post 2001 scenario Afghan Taliban's principal ambition is to fight for national liberation against the presence of foreign forces and their local allies in Afghanistan under the banner of 'divinely decreed Jihad'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses possible remedies to reduce or eliminate corruption in Afghanistan, particularly the establishment of a standard assets registration and verification systems. Also cited are the 2016 Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report stating that the lack of standard asset declaration system is the main cause of corruption by army commanders, and corruption as a barrier to economic development and good governance.

This article focuses on rebel governance and rebel legitimacy during civil war. It investigates how external intervention in support of an incumbent government and withdrawal of external forces shape rebel legitimacy dynamics and rebels' opportunities to govern. It adopts a longitudinal perspective on Afghanistan's Taliban, analyzing three phases of the movement's existence. Moral forms of legitimacy resonated particularly during instances of external intervention, whereas pragmatic forms of legitimacy became more relevant after the withdrawal of external forces and during periods of the Taliban's opponents' ineffective governance. The article is based on a literature review and fieldwork in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how Afghanistan is complying with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) as of July 2020. Also cited are the IP-related statutes enacted by the Afghan government like the 2009 Law on Trade Marks Registration, the need by the government to pass trademark laws to prevent corruption and boost the trust of foreign investors, and the structure of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This article discerns the shifts in China's engagement with its Western neighbour, Afghanistan. Beijing's approach has gradually shifted from dis-interest to a careful re-calibration of strategy indicating Afghanistan's growing eminence in its strategic calculus. This transposition – dating back to the 1980's – it is argued has been accentuated as the 'West' weans itself away from the Afghan theatre. This article demonstrates that Beijing's chequered history of engagement with Kabul has been historically underpinned by its engagement with a plethora of actors identified with 'political Islam' who in turn are patronized by its allies in Rawalpindi. Its deepening footprint in contemporary Afghanistan while continuing to be coloured by the prism of Rawalpindi, is informed by a growing sense of unease regarding the perceived adverse imprint that developments across China's Western borders are likely to leave on its domestic security and growing economic interests in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses several issues concerning Afghanistan under the administration of interim President Hamid Karzai. Concerns over the resumption of poppy cultivation and heroin production; Impact of conflicts among Afghan ethnic groups; Challenges in establishing a national army for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has been a war-tom country for the past forty years. Over this time, countless atrocities have been committed and the lives of thousands of innocents have been taken. For example, according to the most recent report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in 2018 alone 10,993 civilians were killed or injured in the country, one of the highest number of causalities since UNAMA started recording such numbers in 2007. Yet no one has been held accountable for the atrocities, neither in national nor in international courts, and an entrenched culture of impunity continues to flourish to the present day. This lack of accountability is particularly vexing given that Afghanistan has been a state party to the Rome Statute since 2003, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdictions over crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide committed within the country after May 1,2003. The purpose of this Article is to critically examine the situation in Afghanistan after 2003 with regard to international crimes and preliminary ICC investigations, with a close eye on the latest efforts of the ICC and the government of Afghanistan. This Article argues that Afghanistan has not yet fulfilled its basic obligations under the Rome Statute to prosecute grave crimes and cooperate with the ICC; and the ICC has not duly accomplished its mandate in the country by exercising its jurisdiction and prosecuting pertinent crimes. Furthermore, this Article will deconstruct the recent Afghan government's argument against the applicability of the complementarity principle of the Rome Statute, and instead contend that the two-pronged test of unwillingness and inability on the part of the Afghan government has been met and thus ICC intervention is not only legally justified but mandated. Furthermore, this Article problematizes the recent decision and reasoning of the Pre- Trial Chamber to not allow the Prosecutor to proceed with an actual investigation in Afghanistan. Finally, the Article explores potential impacts of an ICC intervention and benefits of opening an actual investigation in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Afghan Constitution and the Afghan Criminal Procedure Act ("ACPA") authorize Afghanistan's President to grant pardons or reduce criminal punishment. However, the Afghan Constitution and ACPA do not specify a method or mechanism for how Afghanistan's President may exercise his power. As a result, Afghanistan's President has been granting pardons through pardon decrees. The Afghanistan Constitution and ACPA's broad language has allowed corruption and enabled the President to undermine the judiciary. This article recommends for Afghanistan's government to amend its constitution and ACPA. The amendments should formalize and specify the method and mechanisms for the President's pardon power; thereby promoting respect for the rule of law and the judiciary. This article also proposes for Afghanistan's government to establish an independent pardon board to review petitions and recommend eligible requests to the President. This article suggests that Afghanistan's pardon procedures combine the methods used by Iran and Washington State. These methods are demonstrated in sources such as the Iranian Code, the Revised Code of Washington, and the Bylaws of the Washington State Clemency and Pardon Board. This amalgam of approaches would be both practical and appropriate for Afghanistan's socio-political context, striking a balance between progressive Western methods and an Islamic Republic's successful methods. This article also explains Afghanistan's current laws relating to presidential pardon power and exposes how the current system leads to corruption and the pardon's misuse. Next, the article will discuss how Iran and Washington State regulate their pardon power. In analyzing Iran and Washington State's methods, the article will suggest specific amendments to Afghanistan's laws. These specific amendments would (1) modify the President's pardon power, (2) limit the scope of this power, (3) establish an independent board that restricts the pardon power, and (4) authorize this board to recommend pardons or punishment reductions to Afghanistan's President. Finally, this article will address the potential criticisms and challenges to its proposed model, such as limiting the presidential and executive power and authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive elections are essential to establishing the political legitimacy of democratizing regimes. We argue that insurgents undermine the state's mandate through electoral violence. We study insurgent violence during elections using newly declassified microdata on the conflict in Afghanistan. Our data track insurgent activity by hour to within meters of attack locations. Our results suggest that insurgents carefully calibrate their production of violence during elections to avoid harming civilians. Leveraging a novel instrumental variables approach, we find that violence depresses voting. Collectively, the results suggest insurgents try to depress turnout while avoiding backlash from harming civilians. Counterfactual exercises provide potentially actionable insights for safeguarding at-risk elections and enhancing electoral legitimacy in emerging democracies. (JEL D72, D74, O17) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of elections around the globe between December 2019–March 2020. Topics include reelection of Ashraf Ghani as president of Afghanistan; the election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune as president of Algeria; and the victory of New Azerbaijan Party of President Ilham Aliyev in Azerbaijan elections.

En los últimos 20 años, muchos gobiernos han desarrollado instrumentos jurídicos y normativos para ayudar a incorporar los Principios Rectores a la legislación nacional o los marcos políticos. Sin embargo, lograr una aplicación efectiva y significativa es difícil, como lo demuestra Afganistán. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate Khaled Hosseini's use of the analogy of women as nation in his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Afghanistan has witnessed political interference from 1970 to 2001 -- a ruler overthrown, coup d'état, soviet invasion, civil war, the Taliban and an invasion by America and NATO forces. Under such tumultuous circumstances, Afghanistan has been striving to form an identity of its own. The predicament of Afghan people finds voice in their literature. Hosseini, through his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, tries to provide the physical and mental geography of his nation. The endurance of Afghanistan and its women can be traced out in Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini interrogates the patriarchal hierarchies that encompass the identity of women. The endurance of women and the endurance of Afghanistan amid hostile and oppressive circumstances become equally imperative for Hosseini. Hosseini correlates the suffering of woman to the suffering of the nation. He employs the apparent symbol of woman as nation and links the two in a reciprocally describing metaphor which problematizes the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war-torn Afghanistan has long suffered from the dynastical contests and fraught economic strategies of foreigners, which instigated constant internal strife and regional instability. The foreign interventions have made this land a sphere of influence and initiated the great game politics sporadically. This paper attempts to examine the historical geostrategic tussles in Afghanistan between international players on the one hand and regional actors on the other hand over control and manipulation of Afghanistan and its surrounding regions through the lens of conceptual framework of unintended consequences approach, which deals with irrational aspect of foreign policy of the states. This study makes interesting contribution to the existing literature of the [old] Great Game of the late 19th century between Czarist Russia and Great Britain or New Great Game by re-conceptualizing this idea into a new concept of the Grand Great Game or the 3G in place of explaining the unintended consequences of the historical events i.e. the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan of 1979, the post-Cold War era when the regional players Pakistan and India got involved in Afghanistan; and the US invasion of Afghanistan of 9/11 incident. The findings of the paper suggest that the unintended consequences of these historical events are bitter than the reality. The foreign interventions have paralyzed the Afghan society and made it more insecure by promoting clandestine terrorist activities and proxies. The interview technique helps to verify the 3G concept and present its unintended consequences. The critical content analysis of the primary and secondary data is of assistance to understand that the current 3G to be not only multidimensional competition, embodying multiple stakeholders but also incorporating complex self-defined rational as well as irrational foreign policy objectives and national interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power struggles within Afghanistan have been affecting the regional dynamics for the past forty years. Apart from the local actors, the devastating reverberations have intensely engaged global players in the diplomatic maneuvering. Islamabad and Kabul have had a frosty relationship. The former's desire for a peaceful and friendly western frontier has resulted in increasing mutual distrust. Of late, Chinese led integrationist initiatives in the form of 'One Belt One Road' have accelerated efforts towards greater inter-state dialogue. Moreover, Russia has also been closely watching the security developments in South Asia. As the US Afghan campaign enters its 16th year and fatigue develops in Washington policy circles, the immediate future might hold some interesting alignments apropos Afghanistan and its neighbours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA), the United States, the United Nations, and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have funded and led three different Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programs. Despite a significant investment in time and treasure, all of them have failed to significantly reduce the number of insurgents or arbaki (militia). This article explores why these programs failed despite incorporating ideas from the prominent DDR schools of thought. Utilizing Stathis Kalyvas’ theory of The Logic of Violence in Civil War as a lens, this article argues that GIRoA and ISAF did not have sufficient control of territory to entice insurgents or arbaki to reconcile and/or reintegrate with the government. Further, in areas GIRoA nominally controlled in northern and western Afghanistan, regional powerbrokers who controlled these areas balked at these programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a critical retort to the review of his book on India's policymaking towards Afghanistan. He touches on topics including India's intention, through the foreign policy, to maintain the balance of power between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the influence of India in Afghan politics, and India's attitudes towards the Taliban.

The constant presence of undemocratic regimes, insurgencies and political instability in Afghanistan has continuously resulted into the miserable status of civil and political human rights. Furthermore, the heterogeneous nature of Afghan society and economic under development have deprived the people of social, cultural and economic rights. In 2004, democratic government had been established in Afghanistan under the presidentship of Hamid Karzai. Very obviously, the people at domestic level as well as the international community expected from the democratically elected regime to take concrete initiatives for the promotion and protection of human rights. The study observes that the pioneer democratically elected government of Afghanistan had taken all constitutional measures and legal provisions for the promotion and protection of human rights in Afghanistan which can be expected from a democratic nation. But several political, socio-ethnic and socio-economic circumstances such as frequent violence due to insurgency and counter-insurgency operations, dearth of popular legitimacy to the regime, challenges to political instability along with the orthodox and heterogeneous society, facing acute economic underdevelopment have hampered the actual process of the promotion and protection of human rights in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afghan women's human rights are a crucial concern for the international community and the government in Afghanistan. Framed by hope theory, this study captured Afghan women's understandings of recent realities, particularly those focused on expanding women's roles in Afghan life and community. Based on focus groups with 107 women conducted in 10 different locations, findings reveal that many Afghan females are conditioned into selfperceptions that may undermine their capacity to believe they are worthy of human rights, education, and freedom from oppression. A discussion on agency, pathways, sociocultural influences, and education for hope in Afghan women's future is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the enactment of cooperation law by the Afghanistan government for bringing domestic law into conformity with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Topics include analysis of provisions of the Rome Statute that envision cooperation between the ICC and state parties; evaluation of current relevant rules and regulations in the laws of Afghanistan such as penal code, and criminal procedure code; and rules enacted by various countries related to same.

This article studies diplomatic history in its physical dimensions. Its point of departure is the interpretation of the term ‘corps diplomatique’ in a literal sense. The article introduces the concept of the diplomatic body as a diplomat's body and as a body with diplomatic functions and meanings. Based on material relating to the British Legation in Kabul from 1922 until 1947, the body's ubiquity in international relations is revealed through the themes of space, language, and medicine. The article first looks at the impact of Kabul's spatial conditions and the physical reactions it excited in British diplomats. It then considers the bodies of Afghanistan's ruling elite as objects of British attention, whose appearance was documented in diplomatic records. Descriptions of these bodies in diplomatic language expressed intimacy and consensus as well as estrangement in British–Afghan relations. In addition to the metaphorical use of the diplomatic body, the provision of healthcare through the Legation's medical unit addressed the needs of British and Afghan bodies alike. It was also employed to further diplomatic ends by extending colonial medicine to the Afghan population. The study of the Legation's physical practices ultimately reveals the diplomatic mission's colonial origins and character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a qualitative research project which invited those with direct experience – as serving personnel involved in media operations, military veterans and forces family members – to respond to a variety of media genres and discuss how such portrayals of military experience correspond with their own perceptions and their own representational practices. It is our contention that such mediations offer significant and interconnected spaces through which to explore negotiations of the meanings of military experience in contemporary public culture. Drawing on thematic analysis from our focus groups, we address a number of research questions: In what ways do the participants identify and engage with the various media portrayals, and how do they think this relates to the perceived public profile of the armed forces? How do they assess the capability of media texts to provide insights into the ‘realities’ of military experience (including emotionally charged moments of camaraderie and trauma)? In the multiple challenges and ambiguities heard within our groups, we find complex and troubled senses of ‘militariness’, bound up with sometimes intense affectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay on the opportunities and challenges of the negotiated settlement in Afghanistan is presented.

ABSTRACT This article investigates the implications of two competing modes of governance, those of the US Army and the Taliban, through the lens of the relations between property, citizenship and political authority in Kunar, Afghanistan, between 2001 and 2013. To account for the political struggle in the province, the author outlines two models of governance: a political one based on mediation and conciliation, which the US Army applied; and a legal one promoting direct relations between the rulers and the ruled, upheld by the Taliban. After looking at the political dynamics in Kunar since the nineteenth century and since 2001, I argue that it is paradoxically the Taliban that placed itself in continuity with the state, while the US Army played tribal politics and undermined the legitimacy of the regime it had helped to install in Kabul. Kunar is a case of an armed confrontation in which different militarized groups compete to impose their rule by controlling space and access to landed property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2014 presidential elections in Afghanistan were a major test of internationally led democratisation efforts in that country since 2001. They took place at a time of uncertainty, when the international community was withdrawing from Afghanistan, and in the shadow of the fraud-ridden 2009 elections that had required international intervention to resolve. The author situates the international attempt to ensure successful 2014 elections within the wider global paradigm shift over the past decade from elections as a means of self-determination to elections as a means of generating and ensuring international security. The focus on security meant that when the 2014 election did generate a political crisis in Afghanistan that threatened to destabilise the country, the international community intervened heavily in a way that undermined the future prospects of democratisation in Afghanistan. As well as questioning this intervention, the author describes a general pattern of international involvement in Afghanistan that tended to undermine sovereignty, overlook the importance of generating consensus among Afghan political actors, and badly misjudge timelines required to implement logistical processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections in September 2005 marked the re-establishment of the legislature after a 30-year hiatus. Instead of connecting constituents to central government, however, it is argued here the Wolesi Jirga (lower house or WJ) has undermined accountability structures. This article analyses parliamentary processes by focusing on two examples of legislation that appeared in successive plenary debates in 2013 (the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law and the electoral law). It argues, first, that Members of Parliament deploy political ambiguity in order to keep their political options open, simultaneously evading mechanisms that could hold them to account for their actions in parliament. Second, that historically and today, MPs’ role in Afghanistan has been less one of advancing legislation than advocating on the behalf of localised support bases. Third, however, that most damaging to parliamentary accountability are elite attempts to control the political process amid free-flowing resources. The article discusses the implications of these features and how they are gendered in relation to women’s strategic interests as well as behavioural roles of women MPs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on Hazaras to explore the dynamics of ethnic mobilisation during the 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan. It emphasises the communicative and interactive nature of ethnic identification as a product of the historical experiences of Afghanistan’s various ethnic communities with the state. The article analyses the election manifestos, speeches and campaign materials of the two leading candidates to identify their main communicative and discursive strategies. It finds that candidates employed Islam, ideas of national identity and specific ethnic concerns as discursive resources to appeal to elites and voters at different levels. It argues that ethnic identities as a framework for political mobilisation are closely linked to dynamics of state-building, especially the centralisation of political power and pervasive uncertainties which result from contestation over control of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the process and outcome of Afghanistan’s 2014 presidential election from a limited access social order perspective, building on the influential work of Douglass North and colleagues on violence and social orders. Under the threat of postelection violence, nontransparent, internationally overseen bargaining led to a negotiated result that accommodated the runner-up in the initial vote count by creating a new high-level government position and giving him a share in ministerial nominations. Applying the North et al. framework and related analysis, the paper discusses the contradictions, clashes, and perverse effects that can arise when democratic institutional forms such as elections are imposed on a limited access order, especially a fragile one like Afghanistan. It argues for modest expectations and longer time horizons, focusing less on each individual election and more on developing effective political institutions (including not least robust political parties), avoiding international interventions that inadvertently worsen outcomes or create problems for the future, and not combining elections with other major ‘turning points’ such as withdrawal of foreign troops or sharp reductions in aid and international political support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]