Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 9/5/2007
Afghanistan’s Uncertain Transition From Turmoil to Normalcy
March 2006
Abstract
Before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and all that followed, Afghans and the handful of internationals working on Afghanistan could hardly have imagined being fortunate enough to confront today’s problems. The Bonn Agreement of December 2001 providing for the “reestablishment of permanent government institutions” in Afghanistan was fully completed with the adoption of a constitution in January 2004, the election of President Hamid Karzai in October 2004, and the formation of the National Assembly in December 2005.
From January 31 to February 1, 2006, President Karzai, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair presided over a conference in London of about sixty states and international organizations that issued the Afghanistan Compact, setting forth both the international community’s commitment to Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s commitment to state-building and reform over the next five years. The compact supports the Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS), an interim version of which (I-ANDS) the Afghan government presented at the conference.1 The compact provides a strategy for building an effective, accountable state in Afghanistan, with targets for improvements in security, governance, and development, including measures for reducing the narcotics economy and promoting regional cooperation.2 The compact also prescribes ways for the Afghan government and donors to make aid more effective and establishes a mechanism to monitor adherence to the timelines and benchmarks. The compact places responsibility for meeting these goals on the government of Afghanistan, which can easily be held accountable, and the “international community,” which cannot be. The United States, United Kingdom, and other donors strongly opposed language in the compact that would have held those present at the London conference (listed in a compact annex), rather than an abstract entity, responsible for implementation.
