Post-2001 Ethnic Politics and Re-Emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan

Abstract

Ethnic conflict is a serious and outstanding issue for stability and security in Afghanistan. The existence of ethnic politics in multi-ethnic societies like Afghanistan where the allowance for every ethnic group to have their own legitimate demands is partially blocked is the main obstacle to peacebuilding and the end of the war. Since the 2001 Bonn conference, governance in Afghanistan has experienced inefficiencies and unable to mobilize all ethnic groups in the framework of one national identity. Every ethnic group is attempting to obtain more political and economic power often at the cost of other ethnicities. Whenever the ethnic groups are unsatisfied with their influence in the government, they use threats against the central government. Taliban and other insurgents have considerably exploited the ethnic issue and used this opportunity to gain the support dissatisfied ethnics. Due to the importance of the theme, this MA Thesis will explore the impact of ethnic conflict on the prolongation of the war and a potential re-emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. I use Ashutosh Varshney’s (2009) “instrumentalism theory” as my theoretical framework. For collection and analysis of data, I will use both qualitative and quantitative methods, in addition to content analysis of speeches of presidents and political elites for the period of 2001-2016, in addition to conducting a number of expert and specialized interviews with the political elites, tribal leaders, experts on Afghanistan and the civilian population.