Peace formation in Afghanistan
Research question:
Why the Liberal Peace formation has failed in Afghanistan.Discuss Applying Oliver richmond’s Liberal Theory:Peace formation.
2250 words in total
Write (500) words similar like below ( Yellow color) about the main actors. Taliban – Afghanistan use the same sources Ramsbotham , Cordesman and Garamone and the rest other academic sources but still the contain should be pretty much the same.
Main Actors Taliban – Afghanistan
Start with an argument/ citation of Oliver Richmond’s book and briefly explain his arguments about peace formation
The conflict in Afghanistan is of a very complex nature, where many actors are involved and even more have an interest in the development of the conflict both nationally and regionally. Based on Ramsbotham’s conflict curve, the conflict in Afghanistan can be placed in a combination of the phases of war-ceasefire-peace negotiations “5-6-7” (Ramsbotham 2016: 16). Which means the main actors in the conflict are working on the peace talks in parallel with the Taliban carrying out terrorist attacks against civilians and security forces while the Afghan government is conducting military operations against Taliban militias (Cordesman 2020).
Formally, there has also been a ceasefire between the actors in the conflict for shorter periods.
Afghanistan and the Taliban are believed to be key players in this US-facilitated peace talks. The peace talks are divided into two parts. The first part consists of a peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban. The peace process between these two actors has been signed but has not been formally concluded as the agreement is conditional. The agreement was signed by the parties on 22 September 2020. The purpose of the US / Taliban agreement is to promote and motivate a peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The ongoing peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban began in 2017. In September 2020, negotiations began in earnest between the Afghan government, led by Abdullah Abdullah, and Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar. It has been a lengthy process and it was not until 4 December 2020 that they agreed on the procedures of the peace negotiations.
It is expected that the negotiations will take longer due to the great complexity and the many actors involved.
In order to gain a better understanding of the main actors’ criteria and interest in a peace formation, it is relevant to examine the interests of the United States, the Taliban and Afghanistan in drawing up a possible peace agreement.
The Afghan government, which is primarily dominated by President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, has a broad interest in the terms of the peace agreement. One of the key points is the future role of ANDSF in Afghanistan. Here, the Taliban representatives have expressed that the current ANDSF is established with the help of the United States and must either be completely dissolved, greatly reduced or reintegrated according to Islamic sharia law (Asey 2020). The Afghan government has no intention of complying with this demand from the Taliban, as the ANDSF is one of the key components to a stable and successful Afghanistan; both before and after the peace process (Ibid.).
The second point that is assumed to be important is the democratic values, including human rights and women’s rights. Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan delegation in Doha, has stressed that he does not want to compromise on the issues of democratic values, women’s rights and human rights. This goes against the Taliban’s interest, since the organization is built on Islamic ideology. The Taliban movement between 1996-2001 was characterized by an extremely Islamic theocracy and although the organization’s rhetoric has changed a lot, it is still limited how much they will support the government on democratic values, including women’s and human rights (Minatti 2020)
Other issues that will be prioritized by the Afghan state are good governance and the judicial system, in order to meet the criteria of donors and to ensure that international support continues. Afghanistan’s local turnover is very limited and is therefore very dependent on the financial support of international donors, which gives the state an incentive to prioritize the donor countries’ criteria during the peace negotiations.
The Taliban organization is made up of different factions with different interests. What the common people are interested in and strive for is that the foreign security forces be withdrawn from Afghanistan. The US-Taliban agreement is conditional on the Americans withdrawing all its troops from Afghanistan. In addition, the agreement also includes the Taliban’s commitment and assurance that the group will prevent any international terrorist group, including al-Qaeda and Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-KP) from using Afghanistan to pose a threat to the United States, its allies or other states ( Garamone 2020).
In addition to the security threat to the United States and its allies, the US administration is also interested in Afghanistan continuing to work for the democratic values that the United States has supported for two decades, including women’s rights, human rights, and so on.
Rewrite/ Rephrase the part I have written ( Peace formation and Local Ownership) use the same sources. ( 250 words) in the continuation of this part I would send you a list of 21 Afghan negotiators with their ethnicity, sex/ gender based , and political background. Based on that list I would like you to focus in these areas ( 700)
Peace negotiations has not been inclusive in regards to ethnicity, gender based few female representatives. The opposition party have a very opposing view on women right ( Taliban Sharia Law)
Different ethnicities has different interesse, representatives are from powerful families , member of parliament or holds other high position in the government neo – patrimonialism plays a major role in the political process Pashtun dominated
Peace talk have very little local ownership
When you focus in these points please remember to apply Oliver Richmond’s Liberal theory what are his arguments about the local ownership of peace or a peace to be positive rather than negative
Peace formation and local ownership
“In broader sense they aim at social, legal, humanitarian justice, political institutional and economic order, autonomy and self-determination. None of these functions car be carried without local participation and support, and perhaps more importantly, local consent and legitimacy, whether these are fragmented across many different groups or united in common script of self-determination ”(Richmond 2014: 138).
“Its legitimacy depends to certain degrees on its not having direct or governmental power” (Richmond 2014: 136).
Richmond argues that peace formation processes are based on local ownership. Through local ownership through peace formation processes, eg the peace negotiations, legitimacy can be created (Richmind 2014: 136-138). This means that the degree of local ownership or elite ownership in the peace negotiations determines the degree of legitimacy. In addition, in order to carry out successful peace formation processes, it is necessary for the international community to facilitate and support the process (Richmond 2014: 144).
Peace formation is aimed at peace and not at structural violence or self-interest. The process exists from the most marginal position in relation to power relations, material resources and social status (Richmond 2014: 162). Although the process originates from a marginalized position, the peace formation process represents extensive local legitimacy. Richmond’s bid for a successful peace formation tends to be rejected by the elite because the process has a local character and is not built on national premises, including the interests of the elite (Ibid.).
In this connection, it is relevant to examine the composition of the peace negotiations, which can provide an insight into whether there is local ownership in the current peace negotiations or to what extent the peace negotiations are dominated by the elite and have a neopatrimonialist character
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|
