Failure of state building in Afghanistan: design Flaws and major challenges

Abstract

The failure of U.S post 9/11 state building in Afghanistan and Iraq raises serious questions. Understanding the design flaws and major challenge of the post-Taliban state building agenda by U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan is very crucial. The amount of money and blood that has been spent in Afghanistan by Afghans and their international partners seemed gone in vein when the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed in 15 August 2021, even couple of weeks ahead of the complete withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Conflict affected countries lack or have less shared vision and trust among their peoples. Restoration and trust among the people and legitimacy of the government in post conflict countries are of paramount. State building agendas and mechanisms should give due consideration to such issues and not consider them secondarybecause state building is not building a physical structure. This study is an attempt to examine the design flaws and major challenges of state building in Afghanistan with an objective to provide an insight into the matter to learn lessons from the failure of the state building and expand the knowledge on the subject. Key words: State Building, Legitimacy, Fragile States, Design Flaws, Challenges.