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Building a New Afghanistan.

Article Excerpt
BUILDING A NEW AFGHANISTAN

Robert I. Rotberg, Editor

Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C. and World Peace Foundation, Cambridge, MA, 2006

242 Pages; Paper; $18.95

This collection of essays by experts with substantial reform experience on the ground, many in official capacities, provides readers with an excellent overview of the current situation in Afghanistan. It also offers both a comprehensive model of state-building and an understanding of the intricacies, vicious cycles, and practical dilemmas inherent in international development assistance.

The model, though not explicitly presented, can be gleaned from the chapters that target, in soft order; security, post-conflict recovery, transition to democracy and capitalism, and social, economic and political development.

Like other modern state-building experiments, reformers in Afghanistan address these issues simultaneously. And therein lay the essential paradox of Afghanistan's revitalization. In something akin to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, more enlightened states of "being" simply cannot be achieved while physiological and security concerns remain. Afghanistan's post-conflict recovery, transition and development cannot be realized while its security situation continues to languish. However, reformers must forge ahead with these tasks concurrently.

As such, stakeholders might expect reforms to face heavy local opposition, contain waste, overlap and gaps in service, involve an enormous amount of time, effort and money, and experience many failures before successes emerge. To address this pessimistic scenario requires strong local leadership and massive international financial, political and technical assistance. These are the costs of state-building.

The...

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