Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace [Paperback]

Chris Johnson (Author), Jolyon Leslie (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1842773771 | ISBN-13: 978-1842773772 | Publication Date: February 10, 2005

With the re-building of the failed Afghan state now at the center of the new international intervention, this book explores how the perceptions of outsiders have been at odds with Afghans' own understandings of their country. It shows how the lack of understanding that characterized past policies remains highly problematical. By continuing to indulge in a superficial, selective portrayal of the country, the international community risks manufacturing a state that does not exist, and policies that will not work.

Editorial Reviews

Review

''A vivid, intelligent journey through post 9/11 Afghanistan and the wider region. Thoughtful, intelligent and deeply moving - this account of the post-war crisis in Afghanistan addresses all the major issues of our disturbed world today. The clarity and intellectual forthrightness of this book will help us all understand the violent and confused world we all live in now. This is a deeply sincere and intelligent book in which the voices of ordinary Afghans describe their past and their future. The most powerful book on post 9/11 Afghanistan that you will be likely to read. '' - Ahmed Rashid, author: 'Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace provides a devastating critique of US and UN post-conflict policies in Afghanistan. Writing out of more than fifteen years experience in the country and a deep empathy for the Afghan people, the authors dissect the flawed assumptions, misunderstanding, errors and--in some cases--lack of good faith than have stalled progress in rebuilding this shattered country. It should be required reading for all those interested in why post-conflict peace operations can fail--despite good intentions.' - Andrew Mack, The Liu Centre, University of British Columbia in Vancouver . 'Amidst a burgeoning literature on Afghanistan, two seasoned observers have treated readers to a trenchant review of decades of international toying with the Afghan people and state. Their outrage is palpable -- and contagious.' - Larry Minear, Director Humanitarianism and War Project, Tufts University 'This is a refreshing new look at the layers of complexity that characterize assistance to Afghanistan. The style is blessedly free of academic jargon and bureaucratic rhetoric - and occasionally enlivened by wry asides. The often blunt analyses of ground realities gain credibility from the many years Johnson and Leslie worked within the aid delivery system, heightened by their sustained engagement with Afghans in the cities and in villages. The difficulties the international community and government have in trying to understand one another are interwoven with unusual insights into the nuances of attitudes rooted in social customs. The recommended operational changes will benefit all who care about the well being of Afghanistan.' - Nancy Hatch Dupree, Director of ARIC, The ACBAR Resource and Information Centre 'Johnson and Leslie have brought together a wealth of first hand understanding of Afghan society and its changing conditions to produce a very rich and moving book. It is informative, thoughtful and unsettling. It makes for very valuable reading'. - Amin Saikal, Professor of Political Science, the Australian National University ' Drawing upon their own experiences, as development workers in Afghanistan, the authors explain the present situation, setting this in the context of competing interests, globally, and the disastrous effects of imperialist policies. These are for us to challenge, here in Britain and in the USA - Afghanistan is very much our business too. This book is essential reading for us all'. - Professor Marjorie Mayo, Professor of Community Development Goldsmiths, University of London

About the Author

Chris Johnson worked in Afghanistan from 1996 to April 2004, after which she left to work as Head of Office for UNDP in South Sudan. Jolyon Leslie is an architect who managed UN rehabilitation programmes in Afghanistan betweeen 1989 and 1995. Between 1997 and 2000, he was the UN regional coordinator in Kabul.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Zed Books (February 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842773771
• ISBN-13: 978-1842773772
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful study of how not to build a nation, February 21, 2005

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace (Paperback)

This absorbing book is written by two people who between them have worked for 20 years in aid agencies in Afghanistan. They criticise the post-war policies imposed by the US state. Even the UN Secretary-General decries `premature elections' and `cosmetic democracies'. Security in Afghanistan is now worse than for years. Opposition to the US/UN occupation is growing.

The US-dominated World Bank insisted that all Afghanistan's pre-1979 debts be paid. The Bank says privatisation is the answer to government inefficiency and corruption, so they privatised the inefficiency and corruption! They even privatised the health service, despite the universal failures of health markets.

Privatisation means governments spending our money to prop up private companies. Across the world, the evidence proves that privatisation grows private fortunes, not public services or economies, and that market liberalisation destroys societies and states.

Nor is foreign aid the answer. In 2003, the US state allocated $1.6 billion for rebuilding Afghanistan, but most went to outside, mostly US, `consultants'. Only 10% resulted in finished projects. 83% of a $150 million Asian Development Bank loan for roads, power and gas went to foreign contractors. By 2002, 350 Non-Governmental Organisations, up from 46 in 1999, were competing for foreign aid funds.

The authors rightly describe as `hopelessly idealistic' their own proposal that "the various international players [ugh!] have to leave their own agendas behind and start concentrating on Afghanistan." The UN's failures in Kosovo, East Timor and now Afghanistan prove that the failures are systemic: UN intervention is part of the problem. The authors' contradictory ideal of `participatory intervention' mirrors Blair's imperial claim of `humanitarian intervention'.

The authors are right to say, "Fundamentally it is not donor money that Afghanistan needs but a working economy." But how? Not through the `new form of international engagement' that they suggest.

The Afghan people need to get the foreign occupiers out so that they can freely decide their own future. But the authors, good little empire-building missionaries that they are, argue that withdrawal would be premature, always premature. Countries need sovereignty, not foreign patronage, democracy not foreign despotism.