Afghanistan –country situated between the Middle East and the Indian-Pakistani Space

Afghanistan –country situated between the Middle East and the Indian-Pakistani Space and named by Arnold Toynbee ‘crossroads of the ancient world’ thanks to its geopolitical position in the Greater Middle East.

 To its east lies the great Muslim neighbor Pakistan, where many Taliban afghan leaders took refuge, permanent source of Islamic fundamentalism. West of Afghanistan lies the Iran of Shia faith and north of it, the former soviet republics, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

A narrow territorial corridor called Wakhan assures an isolated and odd connection with China, just like the Namibian Caprivi Strip, both of them being inherited colonial creations which amplify the ethnic tensions more then they fix them, (see Namibia).

Afghanistan is shattered by numerous interethnic wars, especially after proclaiming its independence in 1919 when it becomes a monarchy. After 1973 when it declares itself a republic under the leadership of Muhammad Daud, Afghanistan becomes the scene of struggles for power between the Islamic conservatory parties and the reformatory ones backed up by the two great military powers (USSR and USA) from the 1980’s.

In 1979, the new president, Babrak Karmal solicits the intervention of the soviet army in order to fix the political situation in this country which was powerfully divided between tribes. The soviets’ involvement results in more chaos. They lose until 1988 (the year of their retreat) over 15 thousand troops and their ideological influence which they would have wanted to use in the region.

The civil war generates a race for arming the over 20 ethnical and religious groups in the region: Tajiks as well as Uzbeks and Turkmens in the north, Pashtuns and Hazara in the center, Baloch in the south and Hindus. These are helped by the US, which also support the Mujahedeen and Taliban. Hundreds of millions of dollars from CIA accounts went to the Tajik tribes from the further north and to the Pashtun, because they were the ones that fought with determination and success against the soviet troops.

 At the same time, the USSR supported the communist government, which has as consequences loss of human lives (1.5 million civils), 5 million refugees at the end of the soviet occupation spread all around Pakistan and Iran and huge material damage.

After the numerous peace treaties and the UN intervening end the war, power goes to the Mujahedeen and the radical Taliban that proclaim an Islamic republic with a harsh internal policy, which hinder fundamental rights and liberties.

The retreat of the soviets was the moment when things complicated because Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel started funding various ethnic groups. This allowed for the creation of small armies which proved to be hard to defeat in the USA’s war with the Taliban.

The association of the Taliban government with the Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden and the help given in the terrorist attacks in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in 1998 and the WTC in 2001 gave birth to the USA’s violent answer and the foundation of a coalition against terrorism whose members span countries all over the world.

Nowadays, the government’s and the president’s authority (Hamid Karzai, the first one democratically elected followed by Ashraf Ghani in 2014) barely exceeds the Kabul’s margins. In other parts of the country, self-proclaimed regional rulers and members of the feared Panjshiri mafia (opium business, domain where the country is the world leader) have control over more than 80% of the territory.

The medium life expectancy in Afghanistan is 44 years, the urbanization rate is below 30% and in the UN’s Human Development Index this country is somewhere near the last places. Only a fifth of the population has access to potable water and the alphabetization rate is only 28%. All these elements signify a collapsing state because of the continuous wars in the last century.

According to the classification by Robert Cooper, Afghanistan is a pre-modern state, a kind of ‘terra nullius’ where the different ethnic and religious groups (see the Hazara people’s situation from the country’s center, religiously persecuted because of their belonging to the Sunni current) organize the land based on feudal principles.

This state’s conflict’s situation is an extremely volatile one, the Taliban insurgency still being very active (the last terrorist attacks from January 2018 with booby-trapped cars destabilize the country), the opium mafia being very strong and the Iran’s and Pakistan’s influence growing amongst the poor population.

President Ashraf Ghani is making constant appeals to the Taliban leader, Maulvi Haibatullah Akhunzadah regarding truces or peace negotiations, however they desire direct conversations with US officials, who they consider “foreign occupation’’. The civil war continues despite the timid democratic evolutions regarding free will and the creation of powerful institutions with the help of the coalition against terrorism  

The positive results of the measures taken by the aforementioned coalition lead by the United States are also visible. The medical and education systems look better now. Nearly 6 million refugees from the neighboring countries have returned to their homes; there exists a pretty strong, well-trained and equipped army and over 8 million children who go to school including 3 million girls.