Afghanistan’s Long Road to Reconstruction

Issue Date January 2003
Volume 14
Issue 1
Page Numbers 82-99
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The first post-Taliban year in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom shaped the political environment in which President Hamid Karzai’s Transitional Administration functions.  Three major challenges will determine Afghanistan’s long-term reconstruction: establishing a stable government based on the Bonn Accords, providing security through enhanced peacekeeping, and rebuilding a collapsed economy.  The long-term commitment of the United States and the international community to reconstruction will be critical to preventing a return to state failure and a resurgence of militant Islamism.  Also important will be development of a federal system that fits Afghanistan’s inherent localism without reinforcing the power of resurgent warlords.

About the Author

Larry P. Goodson is professor of Middle East Studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and author of Afghanistan’s Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban (2001). The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or U.S. Government.

View all work by Larry P. Goodson