Public Diplomacy:
Challenges and Opportunities for
International Engagement in Afghanistan
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BLOG
OCTOBER 31, 2008
By M. Ashraf Haidari
I had heard many good things about
Wilton Park's
conferences, and was finally able to participate in one entitled "Public
Diplomacy: Meeting New Challenges" on October 7, 2008. The conference consisted
of several sessions, including one on Afghanistan that generated much discussion
by a number of publicly renowned diplomacy experts and practitioners from some
of the countries with forces in Afghanistan. We discussed challenges and
opportunities for public diplomacy in my country in the context of international
stabilization and reconstruction efforts.
In my remarks, I pointed out three key opportunities for international
engagement in Afghanistan that have been underutilized. I stated that no recent
post-conflict intervention had enjoyed as much international goodwill and
consensus as Afghanistan. Today, some 70 countries are providing assistance to
rebuild Afghanistan, while forces from 40 nations participate in the NATO/ISAF
to stabilize the country.
Secondly, our international partners understand that no peace operation is
successful without popular support. Unlike other post-conflict situations, the
international community hardly needed to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan
people upon re-engagement in the country seven years ago. In fact, the Afghan
people played a key role in helping the Coalition forces overthrow the Taliban
in less than two months. In the two years following the defeat of the Taliban,
millions of Afghan refugees optimistically returned home in a show of support
for international peace-building efforts and the new regime they helped
establish in Afghanistan.
Finally, I pointed out that significant progress had been made with less
international investment in the stabilization and reconstruction of Afghanistan
over the past seven years. We have established the key institutions of a
permanent government, and we have made considerable progress in rebuilding
infrastructure, in expanding access to basic healthcare, and in providing
education to an increasing number of Afghan girls and boys across the country.
I noted, however, that our international partners had been either unwilling
or slow to capitalize on the above three strategic opportunities. Afghanistan's
international partners have so far faltered on three key accounts to help secure
the future of Afghanistan, and thereby serve their own national security
interests.
First, they have been reluctant to provide the necessary level of aid
resources to meet Afghanistan's basic reconstruction needs. Second, they have
failed to coordinate their aid efforts with one another and with the Afghan
state to ensure aid effectiveness. Finally, they have lacked an effective public
diplomacy strategy to listen to the Afghan people and deliver on their very
basic expectations. At the same time, our partners have not done enough to
educate their own publics on how their involvement in Afghanistan ensures their
own citizens' security and prosperity in a dangerous world where security is
globalized as much as prosperity.
Unfortunately, a lack of progress in each of the above key areas over the
past seven years has allowed peace spoilers—particularly the Taliban—to fill the
gap and destabilize Afghanistan. As far as engaging the Afghan people is
concerned, I argued that the international community had so far lacked a unified
and effective public diplomacy strategy that was well connected to sound policy
and policy delivery, thus helping ensure continued popular support for
international peace-building efforts in Afghanistan.
For example, the Afghan government has been unable to keep its promises to
provide poor Afghan farmers with alternative livelihood assistance. In 2005,
poppy cultivation declined 21% as a direct result of an effective public
information campaign spearheaded by President Karzai, who persuaded poppy
farmers to give up cultivation in return for alternative livelihood assistance.
However, the farmers went back to poppy cultivation the following year when they
did not receive the necessary level of aid resources from the international
community. We are again seeing a decline in poppy cultivation – 19% over the
past year, but this success could be reversed if we do not deliver an effective
combination of carrots and sticks to aid poor farmers and to enforce law against
high value drug traffickers.
I also discussed the rebuilding priorities of the Afghan government,
stressing the importance of engaging the Afghan people and maintaining their
support for realizing long-term peace and democracy in Afghanistan. In fact, we
cannot afford to lose popular support in Afghanistan. Our partners must seize
the opportunity to regain the lost ground by involving and empowering Afghans to
take control over our country's reconstruction process. Our partners can and
must use their influence and resources to reward competence and moderation while
weakening potential peace spoilers. Such actions will ensure that Afghanistan
will stand firmly on its own feet once our partners have left.
I proposed to the Wilton Park gathering that they consider hosting a
follow-up conference, specifically focusing on the practice of public diplomacy
by some 40 countries in Afghanistan. The key purpose of the conference would be
to share best practices and lessons learned by our multinational partners, and
to work towards a unified international public diplomacy strategy to engage the
Afghan people constructively in helping them rebuild our country.
M. Ashraf Haidari is the Political Counselor of the Embassy of Afghanistan in
Washington, DC. His e-mail is
haidari@embassyofafghanistan.org
Note: Republished with permission from the author.
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