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Publications / Afghanistan Five Years Later - The Return of the Taliban
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Afghanistan Five Years Later: The Return of the Taliban
- Five years after their removal from power: The Taliban are back
- Taliban Frontline now cuts half-way through Afghanistan
- US and UK led failed counter-narcotics policies are responsible
- Humanitarian crisis hits southern Afghanistan - extreme poverty, drought and hundreds of thousands starving in south
After five years, the United States-led international reconstruction mission has failed Afghanistan and its people. An all-military approach and aggressive poppy crop eradication strategies led by the US and the United Kingdom have triggered a hunger crisis and accelerated the return of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. The US and the UK are responsible for these humanitarian and security crises, which make Afghanistan a renewed menace for its own people and the world.
The 2001 liberation from the Taliban regime was a well-intentioned response to the threat that Afghanistan, as a failed state, posed to global security. Although the US and its partners have deployed large and costly security operations, after five years Afghanistan is again a war zone, and southern Afghanistan has become, once more, the battlefield for the control of the country.
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Preface - 2001: A Lost Window of Opportunity
In 2001, Afghanistan presented the international community two golden opportunities: the opportunity to destroy Al Qaeda’s safe haven by ousting the Taliban regime; and the opportunity to successfully rebuild the strategically critical nation of Afghanistan, creating a model of positive engagement between the West and an Islamic nation ...
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1. Afghanistan's instability and the Return of the Taliban
In the five years since international military operations began, Afghanistan’s security situation has deteriorated significantly. After a period of relative calm during the first few years that followed the removal of the Taliban, violence is spreading once again throughout this country...
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2. Hunger Crisis: Extreme Poverty in Afghanistan
After five years of intensive international involvement in Afghanistan, the country remains ravaged by severe poverty and the spreading starvation of the rural and urban poor. Despite promises from the US-led international community guaranteeing to provide the resources and assistance necessary for its reconstruction...
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3. Failed Counter-Narcotics Policies Central to Failure of Afghanistan’s Reconstruction
Misguided and badly formulated drug policy has accelerated and compounded all of Afghanistan’s problems, and has effectively hijacked the international community’s nation-building efforts in the country. Five years ago, the international community prioritised counter-narcotics as one of their top objectives for Afghanistan...
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4. International Community is Part of the Governance Crisis in Afghanistan
When the United States-led coalition invaded Afghanistan and removed the Taliban from power in 2001, expectations were high. Promises of democracy, economic development and a permanent end to the conflicts that have ravaged Afghanistan for decades generated euphoric levels of goodwill among the Afghan population...
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5. Five Years On, the US-led International Community has Failed Afghanistan
The ousting of the Taliban regime five years ago was widely believed to mark a new era for Afghanistan. Plagued by decades of violence and poverty, the arrival of the international community heralded a bright future for Afghanistan, confirmed by speeches assuring that the Afghan people...
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List of Appendices
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