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PEACE IN AFGHANISTAN: ROLE OF REGIONAL COUNTRIES AND UNITED STATES

Abstract

he year-2019, marked the 40 years of instability and chaos in Afghanistan, ever sinceit was invaded by former Soviet Union in December 1979. In the last forty years, the Afghan instability and conflict has been so transmissiblethat any peace plan, initiated even with sincerity got entombed into visciddomestic ambiguities, undesired regional rivalriesand geopolitical interests of great powers. Owing to internal instability and frequent foreign invasions, there could not develop a cohesive national character within Afghanistan. Besides, there has been noinstitutional build-up and development which could have provided a strong base for the establishment of good governance system. In the absence of domestic peace and a unanimously acceptable leadership, the invaders and regional players have been exploiting Afghan geopoliticsand its diverse societal makeup. Above all, the poor economic system, lack of needed resourcebase and massive unemployment constrained the flexibility, the Kabul regimes could have utilized for the minimum economic management at the domestic level. Furthermore, the post 2014 drawdown of US and NATO forces did notprovide conduciveenvironment where Afghans could have taken independent decisionsto determine their future course of actionfor the larger national interest of the state and masses. The paper takes a critical analysis of the above-mentioned factors, which impeded peace processfrom taking firm roots in Afghanistan. The paper also puts into debate the US strategic interestsin and around Afghanistanand diverginginterests of regional countrieswhich further impede peace process in Afghanistan.

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