Book Notes
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234330604300214 |
| Author | Kristian Berg Harpviken |
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
BOOK NOTES 231
with the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) or with other post-
conflict reconstruction efforts in some way, take
on the task of describing and analysing the nuts
and bolts of building a viable peace in cases where
‘reconstruction’ is not sufficient, but where
‘conflict transformation’ is necessary. Authored by
practitioners, and being ‘primarily intended for
practitioners and policymakers’, it provides a
fascinating testimony to the methods and
thinking of the craftsmen of peace. Some reser-
vations are in order. First, it aims to develop
measures for the transformation of internal
conflict ‘wherever’ it is necessary, yet it is largely
left to the reader to map the lessons of Kosovo on
to other postwar cases. Second, it is written on the
tacit assumption that if only the international
community gets it right, then all will be well, in
a display of perhaps undue optimism about the
possibilities of external interventions. Last, this is
no critical assessment of interventions as such.
The need for interventions, be they humanitarian
or pre-emptive, is accepted a priori. The question
herein is what to do when the international com-
munity rolls in.
Martin Austvoll
Dorronsoro, Gilles, 2005, Revolution
Unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the Present. New
York: Columbia University Press. 370 pp. ISBN
0231136269.
Johnson, Chris & Jolyon Lesley, 2004.
Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace. London: Zed.
256 pp. ISBN 1842773771 (paperback);
1842773763 (hardback).
These two books should be prominently placed in
any library that aims to have a decent collection
on Afghanistan’s recent political history. Dor-
ronsoro’s book is a revised and expanded version
of a book that came out in French in 2000 (La
revolution afghane: Des communists aux tâlebân,
Paris: Éditions Karthala). Dorronsoro is a sharp
analyst who is widely travelled in Afghanistan. He
is preoccupied with understanding the social
dynamics underlying the Afghan wars, bridging
his understanding of the legitimacy problems of
the Afghan state with an analysis of the solidary
networks at the root of the various political
groups. Dorronsoro’s study encompasses the
various resistance parties of the 1980s (including
the Islamist ones), the so-called communist regime
(1978–92), and the Taliban movement
(1994–2001). The discussion of how the United
States and the international community con-
tributed to the radicalization of the Taliban in the
late 1990s is extremely interesting. In the post-
Taliban era, Dorronsoro sees a return to fragmen-
tation, rather than the political stabilization
suggested by many other observers. He issues a
stern warning that the constructive engagement of
Afghanistan’s neighbors, Pakistan in particular, is
a decisive factor. Militant opponents of the US-
imposed peace continue to operate rather freely,
have adjusted their tactics, and operate with a long
time-horizon. In the book by Johnson & Lesley,
the post-Taliban developments take centre stage.
Between them, the two authors have spent some
twenty years in various positions within the aid
apparatus, combining first-hand observation with
a fundamentally critical stance. In this book, most
components of the international engagement
receive short shift, being held against a perceptive
analysis of Afghan society. International aid
follows the neo-liberalist paradigm, such as when
the health system is made subject to competitive
bidding, cementing inefficient and corrupt struc-
tures, while undermining the legitimacy of the
embryonic state. Politically, a hurried but
uninformed democratization drive has proved
counterproductive, allowing radicals and former
warlords a role disproportionate to their popular
support. The need to call war perpetrators to
justice has been neglected, as key actors, including
the UN, have seen this as a fundamental threat to
stability. A continued international military
presence is necessary, but should have an exclusive
peacekeeping/security mandate, excluding the
continued war-making of the US-led Operation
Enduring Freedom. While Johnson & Lesley see
progress on certain fronts, such as a moderate
expansion of opportunities for political
expression, their reading of the narrow self-
interests pursued by the main international actors
implies overall pessimism. The two books share a
fundamental critique of the role of the inter-
national community in Afghanistan. Their
thematic focus and the analytical angle, however,
make them complementary. This reviewer would
recommend the combination of the two books for
anybody who wants to understand the founda-
tions and current dynamics of the Afghan situ-
ation.
Kristian Berg Harpviken
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