Who dares wins: Afghanistan’s triple challenge

Notes internacionals CIDOB, núm. 6

Whoever is the winner of the Afghanistan Presidential elections, the new President will have his work cut out to meet the very considerable political and development challenges facing his country - in addition to coping with the ongoing security situation (others will talk more openlyabout war) - and conflict-related concerns.

The presidential challenge lies in the fact that the three issues are strongly interlinked in a self-reinforcing vicious cycle, which represents perhaps the most important single barrier to change for the new incumbent to tackle. Without development benefits that reach the bulk of the population, there is little incentive to move away from revenue-generating activities linked to the conflict economy, including war. Without a stable, legal economic base at community level, and unless there is an extension of the writ of authority of the central government to the entire country, levels of conflict and violence will not decrease. (...)