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Afghanistan: The Making and Unmaking of a Modern State
- Journal of Global South Studies
- University Press of Florida
- Volume 39, Number 1, Spring 2022
- pp. 1-32
- 10.1353/gss.2022.0002
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
After nearly twenty years of occupation and reconstruction, Afghanistan lacks a modern state. The dominant discourse absolves failures in the neoliberal approach to nation-building attributing Afghanistan's weak state to its inherent tribalism, a culture of corruption, and a historical absence of modern state institutions. Contrary to the dominant discourse, this paper provides a history of Afghan state formation and political modernization in the twentieth century. Afghanistan's modernization was internally contested, but by the 1970s the country had the features of a modern, secular state. It has been foreign intervention over the last forty years, in support of anti-modern, reactionary forces, that unmade the modern Afghan state. The neoliberal approach post-9/11, adopting the language of good governance and capacity-building, has made Afghanistan perpetually dependent on foreign assistance, rendering it a phantom state while erasing its history and undermining the political and institutional structures for a united, independent, and peaceful Afghanistan.