ABSTRACT
Afghanistan is entering its fourth decade of nearly incessant conflict. Even before this sustained violence, Afghanistan was among the world’s least developed countries with few roads and no railway, a poorly developed economy, and an abysmal state of human development by most indicators. It remains so today.1 The most recent cycle of conflict began in October 2001, when the United States and its coalition partners initiated Operation Enduring Freedom to oust the Taliban and destroy al-Qaeda following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on Washington D.C. and New York. In December 2001, the United Nations (UN) issued United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1386 which authorized the deployment of a multinational force (International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)) in and around Kabul to help stabilize Afghanistan and create conditions for peace. ISAF’s mandate was extended to all of Afghanistan in October 2003, under UNSCR 1510.2
Since the rout of the Taliban in late 2001, the United States, NATO, and the United Nations have pursued a process of state building along with the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai. In the intervening years, the Afghan government and the international community can lay claim to several important achievements including a new constitution, the direct election of Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan’s president in the fall of 2004, and the 2005 elections which produced a new parliament and provincial councils.3 There have been important economic and fiscal developments as well. The International Monetary Fund reports that inflation, despite some volatility, has largely declined from 13.2 percent in 2004 to 7.6 percent in 2008.4 While the real value of non-drug gross domestic product rose by 20 percent in 2002, it has fluctuated unevenly since and the World Bank cautions that “sources of growth are largely temporary and are running into their limits,” as reflected in the diminishing growth since 2002.5 Businesses have been revived; construction is booming; international banks dot Kabul; cell phones and several other technologies and media enterprises have proliferated.6
