The State of Afghanistan February 27, 2008

      Afghanistan is seen to be a fairly liberal state as a result of the power and influence that the United States as well as the United Nations has on it. Afghanistan can be seen as liberal as a result of the 4 main points that encompass the foundation of a liberal state. These four points are: a process involving contending interests, a reflection of both governmental and societal interests, the repository of multiple and changing national interests, as well as the possessor of fungible sources of power. Afghanistan is moving towards a more democratic society where the majority and the people inhabiting the state have a lot of say.

     Afghanistan is a weak state which therefore leads them to focus more on internal reconstruction and affairs as opposed to externally. Afghanistan as a states needs to work on helping themselves before being able to aid other nations. Right now, the nation is working on rebuilding its government. Without a strong central government to guide the national interest Afghanistan must rely on the people to have more say as to how their future government should be assembled.

     Part of the reason of why Afghanistan is a weak state is because of their lack of natural sources of power. Their land is arid and mountainous which hampers agricultural production. Although Afghanistan has a reasonable amount of natural resources they lack the infrastructure to take full advantage of them. Additionally, Afghanistan’s population of roughly 32 million people at the lower end of the economic spectrum does not provide a large enough consumer market to garner interest from the international community. In terms of tangible sources of power, according to http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Afghanistan.pdf, “all of Afghanistan’s industrial sector had stopped producing or was producing at a substantially reduced rate” as of 2004. This was a result of the United States invasion. Consequently, Afghanistan does not have significant industrial capabilities to support itself. 

     The final area of State Power Potential comes from intangible sources of power. Afghanistan’s national image has been severely damaged by it’s acceptance of terrorist networks, most notably, Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Also, Afghanistan lacks prominent leaders to galvanize public support of the new government.

The International System February 15, 2008

The United States is the hegemonic power in the world. Afghanistan’s lack of power left a power vacuum in the nearing regions. In order to prevent other states from competing over that power, the United States being the strongest power went into fix it. Afghanistan is an anarchic state which means that no authority exists and that the state is sovereign. Since Afghanistan has no prominent governmental structure we will focus on the United States’ interaction with Afghanistan and its impact on the international system.

The United States while dealing with Afghanistan took on a realist approach in the international system. The United States proved that the current international system is one dominated by unipolarity and thus it was their responsibility to use their force in Afghanistan to increase stability. The United States continued with its realist approach by interacting with Afghanistan on a state level. In contrast, their interaction with Afghanistan through the United Nations represented a liberal approach.

Afghanistan has played a role in the international system for decades now. During the Cold War there was a bipolar system in which the Soviet Union and the United States were the two main powers. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan during the late 1970’s they were seeking to gain power in the international system. In contrast, in today’s unipolar system dominated by the United States, their invasion sought to increase global and regional stability by both removing a terrorist threat and a volatile government in the Middle East region.

Afghanistan and International Relation Theory February 7, 2008

The United States took a realist approach when invading Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. The United States was seeking to eliminate their national security threat of terrorists acts by attacking and eliminating Al Queda, who they saw responsible for the attacks on September 11. As a result, the United States, along with Britain, used decisive military force to invade and destroy the Taliban. After removing the threat, the United States removed the majority of its troops which were then transported to Iraq. The remaining troops are continuing their fight against Al Queda and trying to capture Osama Bin Laden instead of trying to establish a democratic government.

Afghanistan is located at number 8 according to the website http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=366 on the list of places most likely to become a failed state. After invading Afghanistan, the United States never made a full-hearted, prolonged attempt to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan, resulting in political turmoil. Had the United States actively sought to make Afghanistan a democracy, it could be argued that the United States was taking a liberal stance. However, the United States primary focus switched to Iraq following the completion of their main objective in Afghanistan and therefore their actions indicate a realist policy. The United States unilateral, with the exception of Britain, invasion is another indicator of a realist approach. While other nations have since joined in helping stabilize Afghanistan, their reasons for doing so are to ensure stability in the region.

While the United States had a large impact on Afghanistan from a military perspective, the United Nations has also intervened in the region to try and both aid and stabilize a fledgling Afghan government. The United Nations is taking a liberal approach,with some idealistic elements, in Afghanistan. On March 28^th, 2002 the UN Security council passed resolution 1401 establishing the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) according to http://www.unama-afg.org/about/overview.htm. According to this website, there are “six main elements” composing UNAMA. They are:

 providing political and strategic advice for the peace process; providing good offices; assisting Afghanistan’s government towards implementation of the Afghanistan Compact; promoting human rights; providing technical assistance; and continuing to manage all UN humanitarian relief, recovery, reconstruction and development activities in coordination with the government.  

The Main actor in this example is an international organization, the United Nations. It is seeking to provide aid and help rebuild Afghanistan for the benefit of all nations. This approach varies significantly from the United States approach. Firstly, it has been conducted by the United Nations, they are seeking to rebuild the country, and the action being taken is meant to be beneficial to all nations.

In sum, the United States invaded Afghanistan with military force to eliminate a national threat, suggesting a realist approach. When the United Nations intervened, they did for more moral and ethical reasons which represented a more liberal approach.