Afghan Crisis Research Articles

UNHCR and the Afghan Refugees in the Early 1980s: Between Humanitarian Action and Cold War Politics

This article examines the UNHCR operation in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a case study for the tension between UNHCR's strictly humanitarian mandate and the diverging interests of states. After situating the Afghan refugee crisis in the broader historical context of the Cold War, it analyses a number of documents from the UNHCR archives with a focus on the humanitarian principles that guide UNHCR's work on the one hand, and the influence of states and their political, economic, or military objectives on the UNHCR's operation on the other. It concludes that UNHCR was aware of the negative impact of states’ policies and actions on the humanitarian nature of its operation. However, due to the power difference between UNHCR and its members states as well as states hosting its operations, UNHCR had to accept these negative effects in order to assure minimum assistance and protection for the Afghan refugees in need.

An Elusive Quest: Integration in the Response to the Afghan Crisis

The UN humanitarian response in Afghanistan spans fifteen years during which humanitarianism has waxed and waned. A retrospective look at this period provides insights on an interesting range of approaches and respect/disrespect for basic humanitarian principles. Afghanistan shows, for example, that definitions of what was “humanitarian” have expanded and contracted to suit particular political contexts. During the Taliban period the definition of humanitarian action was extremely wide and covered rehabilitation and even development activities; post-September 11 we see a dangerous level of contraction that compromises the application of its basic principles for the sake of pursuing nation-building activities in the service of political agendas.

Collateral coverage: media images of Afghan refugees, 2001

The paper is concerned with media coverage of the on-going refugee crisis in Afghanistan. It begins by looking at how the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center of 11 September 2001 had the result of stimulating renewed media interest in Afghan refugees. Paying special regard to the role of visual images in the reporting of disasters, the paper reviews the narrative strategies adopted by television news. It considers the factors that have instigated media response by examining some general issues arising from the media coverage of disasters. While the central focus of the study is BBC Television News Special Reports on the Afghan refugee crisis, selective comparisons are made with other television broadcast channels, Sky News and Euronews. Based on the Afghan case study, I propose three main constituent factors contributing to the likelihood of effective media coverage of a refugee crisis. Firstly, in order to attract Western press coverage it is necessary for the crisis to be of such a magnitude that it cannot be ignored; or else it is necessary for it to be perceived as having some obvious connection with Western concerns. Secondly, the story will gain airtime if the nature of the crisis is such that it produces dramatic imagery – pictures with impact. Finally, if the style of the media coverage is sufficiently innovative it will stimulate interest in the viewers. The paper concludes with a critical review of media examples that break away from conventional news formulae.

Editors' Notes: Notai na nEeagarthoiri

After the shock of 9/11, world events both military and political call to mind how necessary are the patient processes of world diplomacy in the United Nations, where a small nation like Ireland can exercise a guiding influence. Presiding over the Security Council for the third time in 2001, Ireland was represented by Ambassador Richard Ryan at the height of the Afghan crisis. Recalling analytically his long experience in Irish diplomacy and, particularly, his intense engagements with United Nations efforts regarding Angola, the "Great Lakes" region of Africa, and Iraq, Ryan eloquently argues both the practical and ideal effects of multilateralism on the world's peoples and their hopes. His remarks here were delivered at the University of St. Thomas, October 31, 2003, when he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree recognizing his contributions to world diplomacy. In 1970-71, Richard Ryan was poet-in residence at St. Thomas and taught in the university's Department of English. From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s Ryan was a well-noted Dublin literary figure, a Dolmen poet, and friend to such writers as John Montague and Francis Stuart.

Aiding violence or building peace? The role of international aid in Afghanistan

The political and military landscape in Afghanistan has been transformed since 11 September. Whether the fall of the Taliban and the transition to an Afghan Interim Administration signify the emergence of a new peaceful order or a dangerous disorder it is too early to tell. The underlying dynamics of the Afghan crisis have yet to be addressed and it will be argued in this article that the main challenge for the newly installed interim administration and the international community will be one of 'winning the peace'. Military and diplomatic measures, though important, are unlikely by themselves to secure a transition towards a stable peace. Over two decades of war a regional conflict complex has developed which has transformed institutions, incentives systems and livelihoods. War cannot simply be declared over. It is recognised that a substantial aid package or 'Marshall Plan' for Afghanistan will be necessary to transform the war economy into a peace economy, and already significant pledges of aid have been made by donor countries. This represents an important departure from policies of the previous decade, in which the international response was one of disengagement and containment and Afghanistan became an orphaned conflict. Whether this aid will materialise and whether it will be used to good effect in 'winning the peace' is another matter. This article will focus on the historical and contemporary role of aid in relation to the Afghan crisis. It will ask how international assistance has interacted with the dynamics of conflict and peace in the past. What lessons should be learned (and unlearned) to inform current policy and practice? What will be the likely challenges facing assistance actors aiming to build peace?

L'Iran des réformes : la société face au pouvoir

Reforms in Iran: When Society Faces the State, by Delphine Minoui If there is a country that will profit from the Afghan crisis, it is Iran. Rid of a troublesome neighbour, which portrayed the image of a radical Islam, Iran is celebrating the return of stability to Kabul. Twenty-three years after the revolution that ended the Shah's regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran is developing its relations with the West, and hopes to represent the face of moderate Islam. The reforming president Khatami, who was re-elected last August, finds himself once again confronting the obstacles that have been put in place by the conservative clergy in recent years. The followers of the supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who remains the dominating force in the regime, still control the police, the army and the judiciary. But how can they keep control of a society that is becoming more and more active, 50% of which is under the age of 20 and which rejects the uneasy combination of religion and politics? This is the principle problem that those in power are trying to face. Today in Iranian society, three large groups represent real forces that favour a transition to democracy: intellectuals, women and youth.

État, Islam et Tribus Face aux Organisations Internationales

État, islam et tribus en Afghanistan entretiennent des relations étroites que la littérature anthropologique a souvent décrites, soit sous l'angle du « Confiict of Tribe and State », pour reprendre le titre d'un ouvrage édité par Richard Tapper (1983), soit sous celui des relations historiques de la monarchie durrani avec les tribus (Noëlle 1997) ou avec les minorités non pachtounes (Shahrani 1998), pour ne citer que quelques titres.Dans un ouvrage récent, Heroes of the Age. Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier (1996), David B. Edwards voit dans l'incompatibilité des systèmes de valeurs de ces trois entités, l'État, l'islam et les tribus, l'origine même des déchirures qui sont à la base de la culture politique afghane. L'opposition semble irréductible entre les normes de l'État, particulièrement celles de l'État-nation empruntées à l'Europe, celles universalistes de l'islam, et celles des tribus avec leur exaltation de l'honneur et de l'autonomie de l'individu. On trouverait là, selon l'auteur, les causes mêmes du conflit afghan, conflit sans solution dans la mesure où « the fault lines dividing the Afghan nation cannot finally be mended » (Edwards 1996 : 234).

Education Patterns in the Context of an Emergency1

Education in Afghanistan is in crisis. This discussion examines the context that structures the Afghan crisis. Amongst the vast plentitude of challenges confronting Afghanistan today, those in education are the most paradoxical. On the one hand, one is told that education forms the foundation upon which all reconstruction rests. On the other hand, education remains the most severely underfunded sector in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan in 1991: A Glimmer of Hope

Research Article| February 01 1992 Afghanistan in 1991: A Glimmer of Hope Shah M. Tarzi Shah M. Tarzi Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Asian Survey (1992) 32 (2): 189–196. https://doi.org/10.2307/2645218 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Shah M. Tarzi; Afghanistan in 1991: A Glimmer of Hope. Asian Survey 1 February 1992; 32 (2): 189–196. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2645218 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAsian Survey Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1992 The Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Afghan Refugee in Pakistan: An Ambiguous Identity

Since the Afghan crisis and the Soviet intervention of December 1979, more than three million Afghans have sought refuge in Pakistan. During fieldwork (1986-87), we tried to find out how the exile situation has affected their identity. The Afghan refugees seem to define themselves along three ideological models. The most familiar to us is the one of 'refugee' as defmed and governed by the Convention of the United Nations of 1951. The second is related to the norms of the tribal code of honour as practised by the Afghalls, where tribal groups seek temporary shelter among kin. The third model, that of mohajer, and perhaps the most important, refers to Muhammad's flight from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD and has a religious significance. The second and the third models are more significant than the first. To the outsider, each of the three types of identity may seem to contradict the others. To the Afghan refugees, however, these diverse constituents of a new and complex identity are not contradictory; instead, they coexist in the consciousness the refugees have of their situation and are used in different ways, according to the context.

The Conceding of Afghanistan

Abstract Rarely has a U.S. administration acted in such stark contradiction with a stated policy as in the U.S. response to the Afghan crisis, which, after the initial uproar, has faded into obscurity.

The Afghanistan Crisis and Pakistan's Security Dilemma

THE REVOLUTION IN IRAN, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the ongoing Iraq-Iran war have not only invoked fears of an uncertain future in Southwest Asia but have also injected urgency into Pakistani discussions of an old problem: the question of security in the area. The spotlight, however, was quickly focused on Afghanistan by Pakistan's security planners as the Afghan crisis profoundly and directly threatened Pakistan's security. From its inception, Pakistan has never really enjoyed what can be termed friendly or even correct relations with Afghanistan, mainly because of the Afghani irredentist claim to Pakhtoonistan-the adjoining areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan inhabited by the Pakhtoon community. Before 1976 the Pakhtoonistan issue had reached a crescendo more than once, and Pak-Afghan relations had deteriorated to the point where border closure seemed the only option. However, there was a significant rapprochement between Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1976-78, with President Daud visiting Pakistan twice and Pakistani leaders paying return visits. The outcome was that Kabul dropped its insistence on Pakhtoon self-determination, hostile propaganda in both countries ceased, and an active search for an amiable solution of the Pakhtoonistan dispute was well underway when the Marxist coup took place in Afghanistan in April 1978. Not only did the Marxist takeover immediately reverse the trend, but the birth of a resistance movement and the subsequent violent clashes between the leftist Afghan forces and the resistance groups led to a large-scale influx of refugees into Pakistan. The refugee flow increased rapidly with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Because Pakistan is sandwiched between Soviet-supported Afghanistan and the Soviets' friend India and is faced with a difficult

Hot and Cold Diplomacy in Indo-Pakistani Relations

Research Article| March 01 1983 Hot and Cold Diplomacy in Indo-Pakistani Relations Jyotirmoy Banerjee Jyotirmoy Banerjee Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Far Eastern Survey (1954) 23 (3): 280–301. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644274 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Jyotirmoy Banerjee; Hot and Cold Diplomacy in Indo-Pakistani Relations. Far Eastern Survey 1 March 1954; 23 (3): 280–301. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2644274 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAsian Survey Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1983 Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

China and Afghanistan

strategic analysts of contemporary Afghan crisis have only discussed in detail three of these frontiers: those with USSR, Pakistan, and Iran. What of fourth, with People's Republic of China (PRC)? How does Beijing perceive events in Afghanistan and how important is China to continuing crisis between USSR and Afghanistan? In 19th century's Great Game, control of Pamir Knot was a crucial concern. The Pamir mountain range, where Chinese, Russian, and British empires intersected, was focus of intense great power maneuvers and, in Owen Lattimore's words, was the pivot of Asia. Today Soviet Union, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India are all drawn into this same knot against a background of Indo-Pakistan dispute over Jammu and Kashmir, Sino-Indian and Sino-Soviet border quarrels, and now a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. China has been a major power in area in past, but how important is it at present?

Super Power Rivalry in South West Asia: The Afghan Crisis 1979

Super Power Rivalry in South West Asia: The Afghan Crisis 1979

Afghanistan, Poland and Peaceful Coexistence

Abstract The recent Afghan crisis has jolted the Western world. Many in the West fear an irreversible Soviet turn away from peaceful coexistence and toward expansionism in which Angola and Ethiopia were the logical prelude to actions of direct annexation. Several observers have emphasized growing Soviet difficulty with oil supplies, which could become serious by 1985. It is difficult to determine the extent of bad faith in this obsession with Soviet aggression, but it is clear that it is a patent case of what Fromm called “political double think,” where the adversary's behavior appears aggressive, although the same behavior on the part of the West appears logical and natural.

India and the Afghan Crisis

India and the Afghan Crisis

The Afghan Crisis and Super Power Strategies: Implications for India's Foreign Policy

The Afghan Crisis and Super Power Strategies: Implications for India's Foreign Policy

Les musulmans de l'URSS et la crise afghane

The Muslims of the USSR and the Afghan crisis, by Alexandre Bennigsen Does the large Muslim minority in the USSR represent an advantage or a disadvantage to Soviet expansion in Afghanistan? Heirs to a brilliant civilisation, the Muslims of the USSR possess an intellectual elite free of inferiority complex in respect of the Russians. Relations between the Muslim community and the Soviet Establishment are strained. They are marked by a basic visceral hostility, absence of ethnical mixing, persistency in a traditional way of life, religious revival, rediscovery of the past, latent nationalism, and more particularly by a feeling among the Muslim elite that time is playing in their favour. The aid brought by Muslim religious leaders in Central Asia and in the Caucasus to Soviet propaganda abroad and the use Muslim executives in Afghanistan were certainly an asset to Soviet political expansion. Finally, however, the semi-failure or the incomplete success of the USSR in Afghanistan could cast doubts on the position of the USSR in the rest of the Muslim world. The risk is even greater in Central Asia, if the Soviet "Big Brother" proves that he is not invincible.