Statebuilding in Afghanistan

318 Pages·2017·1.56 MB·English

Statebuilding in Afghanistan: A Case Study of Empire in Denial

by

Adam Edward Simpson

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Social Sciences

Royal Roads University
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Supervisor: Dr. Kenneth Christie
April, 2017

Adam Edward Simpson, 2017
Statebuilding in Afghanistan

COMMITTEE APPROVAL

The members of Adam Simpson’s Dissertation Committee certify that they have read the
dissertation titled Statebuilding in Afghanistan: A Case Study of Empire in Denial and
recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Social Sciences:

Dr. Jan Mattsson [signature on file]
Dr. Lauryn Oates [signature on file]

Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon submission of the final copy
of the dissertation to Royal Roads University. The dissertation supervisor confirms to have read
this dissertation and recommends that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirements:

Dr. Kenneth Christie [signature on file]

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Statebuilding in Afghanistan

Abstract
This dissertation provides an assessment of statebuilding practices in Afghanistan, focusing on
practitioner experiences in infrastructure and rural development projects. After numerous
interventions and decades of international development, Afghanistan remains a failed state. This
dissertation uses Afghanistan as a case study to address reasons why internationalized
statebuilding projects in the post-Cold War period remain problematic and fraught with
difficulty. Due to a Western denial of real responsibility, which casts international intervention
as neutral assistance to nation states who must ultimately take responsibility for the success or
failure of the policies implemented, Afghanistan’s post-2001 transition into a standalone
democracy has suffered considerable perverse effects and setbacks.
This research is stimulated by scholars like Michael Ignatieff, David Chandler and others, who
have developed a theory of post-Cold war empire-building and associated forms of intervention.
Chandler, in his eponymous book, suggests that these new forms are ‘Empire in Denial’, where
external regulations are driven less by the desire to extend and enforce Western power than they
are by the desire to deny it (2006, p. 18). Empire in Denial explains the maintenance of the
facade of sovereign equality in post-Cold War statebuilding, and the interplay between the desire
of Western actors to create strong democratic states with the concomitant diminution of actual
sovereign rights and domestic control over a state’s political system (Chandler, 2006, p. 78). This
theoretical approach does not subscribe to the idea that simple narcissism is what is driving
modern statebuilding projects. Rather, the desire of Western actors to ‘deny’ aspects of classical
statebuilding is indicative of their lack of confidence in designing or co-designing effective
statebuilding models. This leads to internationally-led efforts that prioritize administrative,
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Statebuilding in Afghanistan

social, and technical elements of building a state, and deprioritize the overarching political
components required to effectively govern a democratic state. In doing so, post-Cold War
projects such as Afghanistan have leveled the normative focus of statebuilding to address social
and individual concerns. Concepts of democracy and governance are considered largely as social
concerns; individuals of the state are viewed first and foremost as products of their social
environments, not as key actors in an overarching political initiative. Statebuilding efforts
therefore become primarily social projects, not political ones, where people and communities are
viewed as subjects in need of transformation via external assistance, in order to build their
individual social capacities.
The dissertation’s broad-based case study approach applies a practitioner-focused, constructivist
lens to analyze the Empire in Denial concept in the Afghan context, focusing on key societal and
political variables that impact development efforts and influence governance structures,
including the continuation of Afghanistan’s ‘Great Game’. The findings, extracted through
practitioner and expert interviews, observation, document analysis, review of development
project methodologies, and a comparison against key elements of the Bosnia statebuilding
project, point to the problematic adoption and application of stagnant international development
norms as reasons why statebuilding efforts in Afghanistan in the post-2001 era are failing to
meet their intended political objectives.
Key words: Statebuilding, International Relations, Case Study, Constructivism, Empire
in Denial

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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Kenneth Christie, who has tirelessly supported
the development of this dissertation, and encouraged me to think beyond the limits of a
conventional research paper. I would also like to thank the other members of my doctoral
committee: Dr. Jan Mattsson and Dr. Lauryn Oates, for their experiential wisdom and guidance.
I am grateful to my peers, colleagues, interview subjects, new friends and connections that
I made while completing the dissertation. Throughout the informal discussions, the formal
conversations, the videoconference and the semi-structured interviews, there was a feeling of a
common, constant unifying principle and shared experience with the subject matter that brought
depth and richness to my overall findings.
I would like to thank the several organizations that have supported my research by granting
interviews and access to data, including the United Nations Offices for Project Services (UNOPS),
UN Women (UNW), the Aga Khan Foundation Afghanistan (AFK-A), the World Bank Group
(WB), and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GOIRA).
I would also like to thank Dr. Bernard Schissel and Dr. Siommon Pulla for their valuable
teachings, generosity and encouragement.
Finally, I would like to thank, with the deepest of gratitude, my family and loved ones for
their unwavering support, humor, and grace.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein

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Abbreviations
9/11 September 11, 2001
AEMO RO Asia, Middle East, and Europe Regional Office
AIA Afghan Interim Authority
AFK Aga Khan Foundation
AFK-A Aga Khan Foundation Afghanistan
AGOC Afghanistan Operations Centre
AKDN Aga Khan Development Network
ANDS Afghanistan National Development Strategy
ARTF Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund
BiH Bosnia and Herzegovina
BPHS Basic Package of Health Services
CBD Community-based development
CBR Capacity Building for Results Facility
CDD Community-driven development
CPA Coalition Provisional Authority
COIN Counterinsurgency
DFID British Government's Department for International Development
DPA Dayton Peace Accords
EU European Union
FIDIC International Federation of Consulting Engineers
GOIRA Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
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INGO International Non-Governmental Organization
IR International Relations
ISI Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan)
ISO International Organization for Standardization
KAC Keeping Afghans Connected
KfW Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau
MNF-I Multi-National Force – Iraq
MoPH Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health
MoPW Afghanistan Ministry of Public Works
MRRD Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development
MSP Managing Successful Programmes
NAP National Action Plan
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NERAP National Emergency Rural Access Project-
NPP National Priority Programmes
NSP National Solidarity Programme
NSP-IE National Solidarity Programme - Impact Evaluation
O&M Operations and Maintenance
OEF Operation Enduring Freedom
OHR Office of the High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina
P3M3 Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model
PIC Peace Implementation Council
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PMI Project Management Institute
PMP Project Management Professional
PRINCE2 Projects in Controlled Environments
PRT Provincial Reconstruction Teams
R2P Responsibility to Protect
RS Republika Srpksa
SSA Stabilization and Association Agreement
UN United Nations
UNCHR United Nations Commission for Human Rights
UNICEF The United Nations Children’s Fund
UNODC United Nations on Drugs and Crime
UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Services
UNSC United Nations Security Council
USAID United States Agency for International Development
US United States
VAW Violence Against Women
WHO World Health Organization

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