Understanding Post-9/11 Afghanistan

146 Pages·2017·1.09 MB·English

i
DEEPSHIKHA SHAHI
Understanding
Post-9/11
Afghanistan
A Critical Insight into
Huntington’s Civilizational Approach
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i
Understanding
Post-9/11
Afghanistan
A Critical Insight into Huntington’s
Civilizational Approach
DEEPSHIKHA SHAHI
ii
E-International Relations
www.E-IR.info
Bristol, England
2017

ISBN 978-1-910814-25-3 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-910814-26-0 (e-book)

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iii
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iv
Abstract
9/11 and the subsequent war on terror have misleadingly reinforced the idea
of a world politics based on a ‘civilizational’ clash. While post-9/11 Afghan
society appears to be troubled with a conflict between so-called Islamic-
terrorist and secular-democratic forces, the need for an alternative
understanding to pave the way for peace has become paramount. This book
uses a critical theoretical perspective to highlight the hidden political and
economic factors underlying the so-called civilizational conflict in post-9/11
Afghanistan. It further demonstrates how a post-Islamic humanist discourse
has the potential to not only carve the way for peace amidst dangerous
entanglement between politics and religion in post-9/11 Afghanistan, but also
vindicate Islam of its unjustified denigration in the contemporary world.
---
Deepshikha Shahi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of
Delhi, India. She is set to pursue post-doctoral research at the Centre for
Global Cooperation Research (Käte Hamburger-Kolleg), University of
Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She is also affiliated with International Democracy
Watch in Italy and Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. Her recent
publications include ‘Engaging with the post-secular moment in post-9/11
Afghanistan: the search for a “humanist” political discourse’, Cambridge
Review of International Affairs and ‘Rethinking the absence of post-Western
International Relations theory in India: “Advaitic monism” as an alternative
epistemological resource’, European Journal of International Relations.
v
Acknowledgements
My first and most earnest acknowledgement goes to Professor Achin Vanaik.
Nearly six years ago, his magic in the classroom made Theory of International
Relations fascinating for me and set me on the path I travelled at Delhi
University. Professor Vanaik has been instrumental in ensuring my academic,
professional and moral wellbeing ever since. In every sense, none of this
work would have been possible without him. He has my sincere gratitude.
I also owe a huge debt of thankfulness to my friend Matilde Adduci, a Post-
Doctoral Research Fellow at University of Turin and the Coordinator of the
Summer School TOIndia at the Torino World Affairs Institute. She introduced
me to Selay Gaffar, the Director of Humanitarian Assistance for the Women
and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA), a Kabul-based NGO. I am highly
grateful to Selay and her team in Kabul who were immensely helpful in
arranging my visit to their country and in organising my numerous illuminating
interviews with Kabul-based diplomats, politicians, UN officials, American and
European volunteers associated with INGOs, activists, social-workers,
journalists, academicians and laymen. I thank Andeisha Farid, the Director of
Afghan Child Education and Care Organization (AFCECO), another Kabul-
based NGO, for providing logistical support in Kabul. Najib deserves
particular credit for rendering his services as an interpreter during the
interviews.
Besides Professor Vanaik’s personal library, the valuable resources for this
study were drawn from the Central Reference Library (CRL), Ratan Tata
Library (RTL), and library of the Department of Political Science in Delhi
University, Jawaharlal Nehru University Library, Teen Murti Library and the
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) Library. I am grateful to the
staff of these libraries for their cooperation.
Any errors and unanswered questions remain mine. I stay especially
appreciative of my friends Manashi and Vinay for patiently listening to my
ideas and offering occasional intellectual inputs. My final and deepest
acknowledgement goes to Dhiraj and my family for unconditionally trusting
and encouraging me through all my ventures. For all that I am and for all that
I am not, they have my everlasting love.
vi Understanding Post-9/11 Afghanistan
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS THESIS: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL 12
3. HUNTINGTON AMONGST THE AFGHANS: REVISITING THE CLASH
OF CIVILIZATIONS THESIS AFTER 9/11 31
4. CRITICAL INTERNATIONAL THEORY: A COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE
FRAMEWORK 51
5. AN ALTERNATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF POST-9/11 AFGHANISTAN:
THE CRITICAL-THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 68
6. CONCLUSION 94
APPENDIX I 108
APPENDIX II 114
BIBLIOGRAPHY 116
NOTE ON INDEXING 136
vii
For Achin
1 Understanding Post-9/11 Afghanistan
1
Introduction
In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western
belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is
false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous.
(Samuel P. Huntington, 1996, p. 310)
Civilization as a significant unit of analysis and locus of debate in
contemporary International Relations is largely an intellectual contribution of
Samuel P. Huntington. His celebrated and controversial article and book
about ‘civilizations’ (1993, 1996) have become some of the most widely
quoted and translated analyses of the post-Cold War international order.
Huntington had predicted a civilizational turn in post-Cold War world politics.
In his bold rendering, civilizations were primeval entities that would replace
ideology and geopolitics as the animating sources of cooperation and conflict
in the post-Cold War world.1 Huntington warned:
In the post-Cold War world flags count and so do other
symbols of cultural identity, including crosses, crescents, and
even head coverings, because culture counts, and cultural
identity is what is most meaningful to most people. People are
discovering new but often old identities and marching under
new but often old flags which lead to wars with new but often
old enemies… There can be no true friends without true
enemies. Unless we hate what we are not, we cannot love
what we are…The unfortunate truth in these old truths cannot
be ignored by statesmen and scholars. For peoples seeking
identity and reinventing ethnicity, enemies are essential, and
1 According to Huntington, civilization means ‘the highest cultural grouping of people
and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes
humans from other species.’ See Huntington, Samuel Summer 1993, “The Clash of
Civilizations?,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3, p. 24.