The Adverse Role Of US In Afghan Peace Process After 2001

Peace and security has been a nightmare scenario for Afghanistan in last four decades.After more than nineteen years of incessant war with the Taliban and other insurgent groups,the United States was ultimately compelled to negotiate a peace deal.The Afghan national government however resented being kept at bay in this process.The US government whilst in Afghanistan has spent enormous sums of money worth billions of US dollars in counter-insurgency,strengthening of the civil society,fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda,building the economy of Afghanistan,instituting democratic norms,strengthening rule of law and the implementation of social and educational reforms.Despite the strides made in nation building by the US government,it has been wanting in the implementation of a workable and durable Afghan peace process.It is argued among other reasons that it has been unsuccessful in its pursuit of eliminating terrorism and securing peace in the region because of its face saving priorities and reputation considerations.This was particularly visible in its decision to deliberately exclude the Afghan national government and other regional stakeholders from numerous peace talks with the Taliban.This fundamentally punctured the likelihood of a generally acceptable and durable peace deal.In fact,it actually reflected the US malign tactics in bolstering spoilers of peace in Afghanistan.The Afghan national government in its effort to bring stability in the country now faces the risk of exacerbated civil strife.The role of the U.S has made reconciliation between warring parties in Afghanistan more complicated and almost impossible,thus retarding prospects for peace in the region.Its direct talks and deals with Taliban has had a negative impact overall.This has nursed the suspicion,in some quarters,that it has preference for the Taliban over Afghan government to some extent.The adverse effects on public perception in Afghanistan cannot be overemphasized.Most citizens are increasingly of the opinion that the current government is a puppet regime with no effective sovereignty.In addition,the US quick fix method of nation building in Afghanistan focused on military crackdown on ‘Taliban bases' and their affiliates,preventing the continuous use of Afghanistan territory to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.The US paradoxically seeks long-term military presence in Afghanistan while initiating the withdrawal process.It signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with the Afghan government,allowing U.S.troops to continue to station in Afghanistan's military bases.Furthermore,the support for local warlords in Afghanistan by the US has also had very negative impacts on peace,order and security.This has added to the security challenges faced by the Afghan government.Still,the Afghan government requires full assistance from the international community as it is not yet capable to fight Taliban and other hostile non-state actors.The core research question of this thesis was what is the adverse impact of the United States role on the peace process in Afghanistan,and what are the reasons for that?The thesis was divided in to five chapters.Chapter one introduces the background study,research objective,research question,literature review,theoretical framework and research methodology.Chapter two elaborates on the background of peace process in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks on Wall Street and subsequent U.S invasion in the Afghanistan.This chapter explains the US involvement in Afghanistan after 2001 and the resultant effects on the peace process.The reconciliation process has developed by leaps and bounds.The Afghan peace was initiated in the four phases.The first phase involved the overture of peace in Afghanistan at post 9/11,from 2001 to 2004.In this phase the thesis explained the new era where the US got more involved itself in Afghanistan affairs,notably advancing the peace process.The second phase was the promotion phase,from 2004 to 2012.In this phase,there was an earnest actualization of the peace process.It meant making frantic efforts at inducing the parties towards reaching a lasting peace agreement which could take the country out of the security debacle that resulted to several lives lost.In this regard,the Karzai administration really struggled toward resolving this fiasco.Furthermore,Obama administration later supported and followed the peace efforts.It attempted several peace negotiations with the Taliban.The third part is the stagnation phase,from 2012 to 2014.The last phase was a restart phase,from 2014 to present.This part specially focuses on the stagnation that has basically stalled the peace process.Here the author expatiates further on the issues surrounding the peace process.This chapter also discussed the reinstatement of this peace process negotiation program.During this period,the chances of a successful peace process have been dramatically boosted.Chapter three discusses about the main task of this research that is identifying the United States contest for dominance in the Afghan peace process.The research is cognizant of US contradictory positions with afghan government,U.S competition with other countries,US direct contact and support of Insurgent groups etc.Since the Bonn agreement,the international community has called for reconciliation as a means to achieve lasting peace in Afghanistan,but the U.S,the single dominant powerful external participant in Afghanistan reconciliation process failed to fully embrace this agreement.The U.S did not support the reconciliation between Afghan government and Taliban in the beginning.When Afghan president Karzai announced his attempts of beginning a peace process with the Taliban,he quickly withdrew the statement because of U.S opposition and eventually left it in abeyance.There were actually some factors which really retarded this process or even brought it to a halt in some respects,frustrating efforts by the Karzai administration.The US was not in favor to solve this problem through dialogue with its rival Taliban.When Obama came to power in 2009,he thought the Bush policy was wrong.Obama therefore changed US policy towards Afghanistan and promoted political reconciliation between the Taliban,the Afghan government and other insurgent groups.However,the US began direct talks with the insurgent groups without any representative from the Kabul government.The current reconciliation process in Afghanistan is actually a process of talks between America and Insurgent groups.The United State negotiation with these groups will be futile without the involvement of the Afghanistan government and other countries in the region.Chapter four explains the paradox of military intervention and national reconstruction.Since the Obama took office,his administration has adjusted US Afghan policy in a timely manner.Compared with the previous government,the Obama administration emphasized increasing civilian assistance to Afghanistan and sought the support of the international society while insisting on military methods.Although the U.S has made many efforts in this regard,it has not achieved ideal results in Afghanistan,and the situation in Afghanistan is still not optimistic.This approach of military intervention has had adverse consequences,such as the increased number of suicide bombings in Afghanistan.When the US changed its strategy and decided to take out American military from Afghanistan,it seriously affected the peace process.This chapter also discussed the U.S quick fixes method in Afghan nation-building such as seeking long-term military presence and US support of local warlords.This has fundamentally weakened the central government.This chapter also analyzes the above policies of US and how it hampered the peace process.In Chapter five,the theses present the conclusion of the above chapters and try to raise some recommendations for the peace process in Afghanistan.