ABSTRACT
A recent study ranked Afghanistan as the least peaceful country in the world. Its future is likely to be shaped by a combination of internal and external factors, and there are many imponderable considerations that will in all probability play some role. Some look to a peace process to solve Afghanistan’s problems, but it is important to recognise the limitations of what can be achieved, as well as the difficult problems of implementation that tend to surround peace agreements between antagonists separated by major gulfs of values. The future of Afghanistan will increasingly be in the hands of a younger generation of globalised Afghans with very different ways of seeing the world from their elders. This is not without risk: young people who have grounds to feel that the world has abandoned them can easily become embittered or even radicalised. Nonetheless, it might offer Afghanistan an escape route, of sorts, from decades of sorrow and misery.
