Re-assessing the Anti-Corruption Programs in Post-Conflict Afghanistan

Abstract

Corruption has been widely accepted among the key problems of the current Afghan government. Many have argued corruption as the key factor behind the failure of the government and international missions in Afghanistan. Thus, the thesis evaluates and analyzes the anti-corruption measures and the reasons behind its failure. To provide a deep study of the reasons leading to corruption, the thesis gives a detailed evaluation of Afghanistan’s economic dependence of rentier financial resources. The dependence has led to the emergence of rentier rulers and politicians, which account among the basic reasons leading to corruption and corrupt behavior. The thesis evaluates and describes the role of international community in supporting the rentier leaders to re-emerge after 2001. The thesis gives a detailed explanation of the anti-corruption measures of the Afghan government after 2002, and the reasons behind its failure. In order to provide key analysis, the theory uses Post-Conflict Peacebuilding theory and the importance of anti-corruption programs in post-conflict societies. The theory will provide the logical explanation for the failure of the anti-corruption programs in Afghanistan. Furthermore, a comparative study of the Indonesian anti-corruption agency (KPK) has been given to further analyze the weakness and reasons leading to the failure of the Afghan counter-corruption measures. Towards the end, the thesis provides a detailed analysis of some of the key reasons leading to the failure of Afghan anti-corruption programs and provides with some possible recommendation based on KPK and its performance.