ABSTRACT
A month after the US-led coalition toppled the Taliban government in Kabul in 2001, the international community met in Bonn, Germany to lay out a path for stability and development. Now, more than a decade later, the same community is withdrawing its combat forces whilst preserving the fragile political and development gains that it has made. Despite having made some progress in certain areas, after 30 years of warfare, civil unrest, foreign occupation and recurring natural disasters, many Afghans continue to be mired in severe poverty in a crumbling infrastructure, experience poor government and governance, and face an uncertain future. The international community is right to ask whether its efforts at stabilization worked, or not.
