Political Counselor Haidari Speaks to Syracuse University Students
Political Counselor M. Ashraf Haidari spoke to Syracuse University international affairs students at the Embassy on February 12, 2009. He discussed the current challenges to Afghanistan’s stabilization and reconstruction, as well as the way forward for the country and its nation-partners.
Haidari reminded the students of the historical context of the present conflict in Afghanistan and elaborated on the series of events leading to the collapse of state institutions following the withdrawal of the former Soviet forces and the collapse of the Afghan Communist regime in 1989 and 1992 respectively. "Afghanistan became a regional proxy battlefield soon after the United States disengaged from Afghanistan, as each neighboring country chose to support an Afghan faction to maintain influence in our already devastated country," said Haidari.
He noted that it was this destabilized environment which allowed non-state actors, such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda, to operate in the country as they pleased—launching worldwide attacks against American assets. "The negligence of stateless Afghanistan by the international community for a decade allowed the Pakistani military to create and maintain the extremist Taliban movement, which brutalized the Afghan nation until the tragedy of 9/11 that eventually reengaged the international community in Afghanistan," he added.
Haidari discussed some of the impediments to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. He noted that ineffective aid delivery and implementation have led to the squandering of valuable resources donated by the international community. The approximately 3,000 NGOs and international organizations in Afghanistan have led to a costly, multi-layered bureaucracy which siphons off approximately 70 to 80 percent of all aid before it reaches its main beneficiaries, the people. Haidari remarked that another effect of this "parallel bureaucracy" is the drain it has on Afghan intellectual and technical capacity. He explained that most highly educated Afghans earn significantly higher salaries working in unskilled labor positions—such as drivers, cooks, translators, or administrative assistants—with international organizations or military forces than they could with their own government. This leads to a dearth of skill and talent in Afghanistan’s domestic institutions and inhibits the country’s state-building and development processes.
Haidari offered recommendations for the way forward in Afghanistan, stating that "our allies have the highest chance of success in Afghanistan of all other international post-conflict interventions because the Afghan people continue to support their presence to help build peace and strengthen our democratic institutions." He argued that security in Afghanistan could dramatically improve if the international community were able to secure the sincere cooperation of the Pakistani army and intelligence establishment to end their tolerance of the Taliban's leadership and operational sanctuaries in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan provinces.
In the meantime, he stressed the need for the international community to focus their efforts and aid resources across the security, governance, and development sectors simultaneously, since improvements in one sector depends on effectiveness in another in the Afghan context. "Strategic coordination of aid efforts along with gradual 'Afghanization' of building the security, governance, and development institutions is key to deepening democracy in Afghanistan," he noted. Haidari also pointed out the need for the U.S. and European public to realize the importance of victory in Afghanistan that is crucial to their own protective and human security interests.
"We are in a world today where our interests are increasingly converging, and can no longer remain immune from unfortunate events—natural or man-made disasters—that happen outside our borders, and the tragedy of 9/11 is a reminder," Haidari noted.
