Ignoring Afghanistan doesn’t erase reality. The tangle of governance, economic, and human rights issues threatens to strangle the hopes of both the Taliban and reformers. While the Western-oriented international community ignores Afghanistan, nefarious actors like China lurk. They seek to exploit the confusion over economic, governance, and human rights concerns. Meanwhile, a hopeful community of Afghan leaders in the country, and scattered around the world, continues to strategize for Afghanistan’s success.
Members of the diaspora, current and former diplomats, policy practitioners, and advocates recently gathered in Washington, DC, for the first of a series of evening conversations on current affairs, initiatives, and the future of Afghanistan. The importance of dialogue for peacebuilding and effective policy centering around the people of Afghanistan quickly emerged as the evening’s key takeaways.
Dialogue matters.
Dialogues spanning sectors, generations, and genders have the capacity to shape political objectives in Afghanistan. There are talented, experienced, cross-sector and multi-generational Afghan leaders who are working toward the peaceful flourishing and future of their country. Political engagement with these thoughtful leaders is necessary. Through the Afghanistan Dialogue and Visioning Process initiative, they are hosting dialogues focusing on human rights, women, peacebuilding, social movements, and the economy that shape the ideas of peacebuilding providing a roadmap toward governance and diplomacy, as well. They are asking the difficult questions of “what can we live with?” and “what can we live without?” that requires political prudence, wise clarity, and nuanced understanding of societal layers. These dialogues and debates are shaping what the future of Afghanistan will be.
Policy matters.
Part of the conversation gathering centered around the past, present, and future of Washington, DC’s policies in the region. In recent years, foreign policy focus has pivoted toward other erupting world conflicts. With the exception of a cadre who remains committed and engaged, Afghanistan seems ignored, forgotten, and alone. This change in focus has serious geopolitical consequences for Central Asia and the Middle East, with China taking advantage and strengthening ties with its next-door neighbor through its Belt and Road Initiative, foreign investment, and security. Taking a cue from the dialogue initiatives, it is critical that policymakers proactively meet and find creative common ground through both hard and soft diplomacy efforts toward a peaceful future in Afghanistan. What happens in DC matters. As does what happens in Afghanistan.
People matter.
The population of Afghanistan is 42.6 million. In spite of differences, diplomats, policymakers, and advocates must not forget these are individual men, women, and children with names and futures. For their sake, dialogue that galvanizes leaders and policies is necessary. What happens policywise (or does not happen) impacts real people’s lives in Afghanistan. And it is them—Afghanistan’s people—who must be the central theme and focus of peacebuilding efforts.
Learn more:
- Afghanistan War Commission
- Articles by Aref Dostyar:What Could Shape the Conditions for Dialogue in Afghanistan? and How the United Nations Can Turn Afghanistan’s Seat Into a Path Forward
- The Afghanistan Dialogue and Visioning Process
- University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
