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Abstract
This article draws out the contradictions in the liberal peace that have become apparent in post-Taliban state-building in Afghanistan. In particular, it focuses on how warlords have been incorporated into the government. The government has been unable to achieve a monopoly of violence and has relied on the support of some powerful militia commanders to secure itself. This raises a number of practical and ethical questions for the liberal peace. The focus of the article is on warlordism, rather than in providing detailed narrative accounts of particular warlords. The case illustrates the difficulty of extending the liberal peace in the context of an ongoing insurgency.
Notes
Roger Mac Ginty is a Reader at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews. His books include No War, No Peace: The Rejuvenation of Stalled Peace Processes and Peace Accords (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), Contemporary Peacemaking (2nd ed, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, co-edited with John Darby) and Conflict and Development (Routledge, 2009, co-authored with Andrew Williams). He edits the ‘Rethinking Political Violence’ book series with Palgrave Macmillan.
1. CitationFukuyama, ‘Imperative of State-building’, 30; and CitationPritchett and Woolcock, ‘Solutions when the Solution is the Problem’.
2. For links between liberalism as an ideology and its operationalisation as the liberal peace, see CitationDoyle, ‘Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs’; and CitationWilliams, Liberalism and War.
3. This liberal hubris is well reflected in CitationFukuyama, End of History; and CitationMandelbaum, Ideas that Conquered the World.
4. For discussion of this, see CitationDoyle, ‘Liberalism and World Politics’; and CitationMac Ginty, No War, No Peace, 42–45.
5. This is excellently summarised in CitationHarvey, Brief History of Neoliberalism.
6. CitationParis and Sisk, ‘Introduction’, 3.
7. CitationBeissinger and Young, ‘Comparing State Crises’, 10.
8. This ‘fragmentation’ of war is well summed up in the ‘new wars’ literature. See CitationKaldor, New and Old Wars; CitationKeen, Complex Emergencies; and Munkler, Citation New Wars .
9. CitationCall and Stanley, ‘Military and Police Reform’; and CitationGamba, ‘Post-Agreement, Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reconstruction’.
10. CitationWainwright, ‘Responding to Failed States’, 488–489.
11. See, for example, CitationChandler, Bosnia; Mac Ginty, No War, No Peace; Mac Ginty, ‘Hybrid Peace’; CitationCooper, ‘On the Crisis of the Liberal Peace’.
12. CitationSchmid, ‘Peace Research and Politics’.
13. CitationRichmond and Franks, ‘Liberal Hubris?’.
14. CitationQuinn and Cox, ‘For better, for worse’, 27.
15. CitationRichmond, Transformation of Peace, 217.
16. Chandler, Bosnia.
17. CitationWalton, ‘Case for Strategic Traditionalism’.
18. CitationMac Ginty, ‘Hybrid Peace’, 12–13.
19. CitationSchetter et al., ‘Beyond Warlordism’, 137.
20. CitationReno, Warlord Politics, 1–4.
21. CitationGiustozzi, ‘Debate on Warlordism’, 5.
22. ‘Clinton says Karzai's Inauguration Speech Delivered in “Good Faith”’. Radio Free Europe, 11 January 2009. Available at: http://www.rferl.org/content/Clinton_Says_Karzais_Inauguration_Speech_Demonstrated_Good_Faith_/1882773.html. [Accessed 11 January 2010].
23. Reno, Warlord Politics, 2; and CitationBayart, State in Africa.
24. The ‘greed thesis’ is most closely associated with CitationPaul Collier who posited that ‘civil wars occur where rebel organisations are financially viable’ in ‘Economic Causes of Civil Conflict’, 2.
25. Ibid., 6–7.
26. CitationÖzerdem and Sofizada, ‘Sustainable Reintegration’, 89.
27. CitationFelbab-Brown, ‘Kicking the Opium Habit?’, 131–132.
28. Giustozzi, ‘Debate on Warlordism’, 8.
29. CitationFielden and Goodhand, ‘Beyond the Taliban?’, 12.
30. CitationLieven, ‘War in Afghanistan’, 338.
31. CitationReno, ‘African Weak States’, 185.
32. CitationMarten, ‘Warlordism in Comparative Perspective’, 46.
33. CitationJung and Schlichte, ‘From Interstate War to Warlordism’, 47.
34. David Keen's work conceptualising civil wars as systems is particularly useful here; Complex Emergencies, 15.
35. CitationGriffin, Reaping the Whirlwind, 383.
36. Fielden and Goodhand, ‘Beyond the Taliban?’, 14.
37. For pen portraits of Afghanistan's warlords, see CitationPan, ‘Afghanistan’; and the website http://www.warlordsofafghanistan.com/ [Accessed 20 May 2010].
38. CitationBezhan, ‘Afghanistan's Parliamentary Election’, 233.
39. Felbab-Brown, ‘Kicking the Opium Habit?’, 130; and Marten, ‘Warlordism in Comparative Perspective’, 55.
40. Ibid., 132.
41. CitationBeardman, ‘Afghanistan, Graveyard of Empires’, 17–30.
42. CitationRashid, ‘Taliban’, 24.
43. Marsden, P., 1998. The Taliban: War, religion and the new world order in Afghanistan. Zed Books, London, Taliban, 45.
44. CitationBiddle, ‘Afghanistan and the Future of Warfare’; and CitationO'Hanlon, ‘Flawed Masterpiece’.
45. CitationMalley, Afghan Wars, 276.
46. CitationKrepps, ‘When Does the Mission Determine the Coalition?’, 559.
47. CitationCaplan, ‘From Collapsing States to Neo-trusteeship’, 235.
48. CitationSuhrke, ‘Reconstruction as Modernisation’, 1298–1299.
49. CitationReynolds, ‘Curious Case of Afghanistan’, 107.
50. CitationStanton, Horse Soldiers.
51. CitationRubin, ‘(Re)building Afghanistan’, 166.
52. CitationMcCauley, Afghanistan and Central Asia, 158–159, 162–163.
53. Suhrke, ‘Reconstruction as Modernisation’, 1302.
54. ‘The Truth about Dasht-i-Leili’, New York Times, 13 July 2009. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/opinion/14tue2.html. [Accessed 20 May 2010].
55. Suhrke, ‘Reconstruction as Modernisation’, 1301.
56. CitationThruelsen, ‘From Soldier to Civilians’, 34.
57. Rubin, ‘(Re)building Afghanistan’, 166.
58. Ibid., 166.
59. A. W. Wafa, ‘Former Warlord in Standoff with Police at Kabul Home’, New York Times, 4 February 2008. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/world/asia/04afghan.html. [Accessed 20 May 2010].
60. Suhrke, ‘Reconstruction as Modernisation’, 1307.
61. D. Batty, ‘Brown Announces Afghanistan Military and anti-Corruption Targets’, Observer, 28 November 2009.
62. R. Synovitz, ‘Obama Faces Reluctance from NATO Allies on More Troops for Afghanistan’, Radio Free Europe, 3 April 2009. Available at: http://www.rferl.org/content/Obama_Faces_Reluctance_From_NATO_Allies_On_More_Troops_For_Afghanistan/1601557.html. [Accessed 10 January 2010].
63. J. Boone, ‘US Pours Billions into anti-Taliban Militias in Afghanistan’, Observer, 22 November 2009.
64. H. Cooper and J. Zeleny, ‘Obama Warns Karzai to Focus on Tackling Corruption’, New York Times, 2 November 2009. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?_r = 1. [Accessed 20 May 2010].
65. L. Fox, ‘We Need to be in Afghanistan’, Ministry of Defence News, 17 May 2010. Available at: http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/LiamFoxWeNeedToBeInAfghanistan.htm. [Accessed 21 May 2010].
66. CitationMukhopadhyay, ‘Warlords as Bureaucrats’, 1.
67. CitationAkerman, ‘Democratisation in Central Asia’, 134.
68. Griffin, Reaping the Whirlwind, 379–380.
69. A. W. Wafa and C. Galla, ‘Rise in Violence in North Shows Afghanistan's Fragility’, New York Times, 29 May 2007. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/world/asia/29afghan.html. [Accessed 20 May 2010].
70. Ibid., 380.
71. CitationRossi and Giustozzi, ‘Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration’.
72. Rubin, ‘(Re)building Afghanistan’, 168.
73. Lieven, ‘War in Afghanistan’, 344.
74. CitationGoodson, Afghanistan's Endless War, 170.
75. The author is indebted to discussion with Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh for this point.
76. CitationBoås and Dunn, ‘African Guerrilla Politics’, 25–26.
77. Mukhopadhyay, ‘Warlords as Bureaucrats’; Mac Ginty, ‘Hybrid Peace’.
78. CitationCollins, ‘Afghanistan’, 11. Collins was a US former deputy assistant secretary of defence for stability operations.
