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As international attention focuses on the rebuilding of Afghanistan, this collection looks critically at the evolution and meaning of the core concepts underpinning aims and strategies for recovery: the key role of institutional development and capacity building in establishing good governance, based on collaboration between state, civil society and market; the empirical consensus, over many decades, for best practice in development; the acknowledgement that recovery of war-torn societies is a development challenge. It is also shown that, despite this understanding, operational practice continues to contradict these principles and lessons learned from proven experience.
List of contents
Setting the Scene for Afghanistan's Reconstruction: The Challenges and Critical Dilemmas; S.Barakat Theories, Rhetoric and Practice: Recovering the Capacities of War-torn Societies; S.Barakat & M.Chard Aiding Violence or Building Peace? The Role of International Aid in Afghanistan; J.Goodhand Afghans have their Memories: A Reflection on the Recent Experience of Assistance in Afghanistan; C.Johnson & J.Leslie After Bonn: Conflictual Peace Building; A.Suhrke, K.Berg Harpviken & A.Strand The Road Ahead: Political and Institutional Reconstruction in Afghanistan; A.Thier & J.Chopra Exploited by Whom? An Alternative Perspective on Humanitarian Assistance to Afghan Women; S.Barakat & G.Wardell Breaking New Ground: Afghanistan's Response to Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance; K.Berg Harpviken Formal and Informal Disability Resources for Afghan Reconstruction; M.Miles Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration of Former Combatants in Afghanistan: Lessons Learned from a Cross-Cultural Perspective; A.Özerdem Cultural Heritage and National Identity in Afghanistan; N.Hatch Dupree The Composite Approach: Research Design in the Context of War and Armed Conflict; S.Barakat, M.Chard, T.Jacoby & W.Lume
About the author
KRISTIAN BERG HARPVIKEN Researcher, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, Univeristy of Oslo, Norway MARGARET CHARD Doctoral Candidate, PRDU, University of York, UK JARAT CHOPRA Faculty Member, Watson Institute, Brown Univeristy, USA JONATHAN GOODHAND Lecturer in Development Practice, University of London, UK NANCY HATCH DUPREE Senior Consultant, Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief in Peshwar TIM JACOBY Research Fellow, Univeristy of York, UK CHRIS JOHNSON Director of Strategic Monitoring Unit, Afghanistan JOLYON LESLEY South African architect WILLIAM LUME Director of the London-based Centre for Inter-African Relations, UK M.MILES Student of social responses to disability and disabled people in various cultural systems and historical periods ALPASLAN ÖZERDEM Lecturer in Post-Conflict Recovery, PRDU, University of York, UK ARNE STRAND Doctoral Candidate, PRDU, University of York, UK ASTRI SUHRKE Senior Research Fellow, Christian Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway ALEXANDER THIER Consultant to International Crisis Group, RAND and Governance in War-Torn Socieites Project of the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University GARETH WARDELL Research Fellow, PRDU, University of York, UK.
Summary
As international attention focuses on the rebuilding of Afghanistan, this collection looks critically at the evolution and meaning of the core concepts underpinning aims and strategies for recovery: the key role of institutional development and capacity building in establishing good governance, based on collaboration between state, civil society and market; the empirical consensus, over many decades, for best practice in development; the acknowledgement that recovery of war-torn societies is a development challenge. It is also shown that, despite this understanding, operational practice continues to contradict these principles and lessons learned from proven experience.
