Liberal Peace and the Dialogue of the Deaf in Afghanistan
Tadjbakhsh, Shahrbanou. 2011. In Rethinking the Liberal Peace: External Models and Local Alternatives, edited by Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, 206-220. Oxon: Routledge.
This text analyzes the shortfalls of the international peacebuilding effort in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2011. It draws on survey data from studies conducted by Science Po to highlight that, contrary to popular belief, the overwhelming majority of Afghans were in favour of the liberal peacebuilding effort but grew increasingly suspicious of ulterior motives given the international community’s failure to provide tangible benefits to the Afghan people and continued instances of cultural disrespect by external actors. Thus, the article directly confronts the notion that Afghan culture is fundamentally incompatible with liberal peace and labels such arguments as forming part of a “modernity denying discourse” that allowed the West to make its exit “with the convenience of blaming Afghans”.