S4: Afghan Civil war & Taliban (1990s)

Question 1

Why were Afghan warlords not able to prevent the Taliban from taking power after SU regime?

Answer 1

Three levels:
-Macro level:
Cold war and regional environment

-Meso-level:
Fall of the communist regime, state collapse

-Micro-level:
Power struggles, ethnic politics

Question 2

Why did Afghan resistance get fragmented?

Answer 2

-Communist Coup d’etat (1978)
Spontaneous and decentralized resistance

-Soviet invasion (1979)
Foreign aid and fragmentation of the resistance: Pakistan and sunni parties, Iran and shia parties influence

-Micro level
Political patchwork

Question 3

What happened after the war against the SU?

Answer 3

• ‘Neo-medieval war’: the jihad ended against communism and a civil war started

Question 4

What are the main differences between the Mujahideen and the Taliban?

Answer 4

• Mujahideen were a loose coalition of groups that formed to fight against the SU. After the SU was defeated a civil war started between these groups.

-Taliban emerged mid 1990s as a group of religious students whose sole objective was to establish sharia law.

Key difference: Mujahideen were decentralized and lots of groups. The Taliban were more ‘centralized’ and ideology driven

Question 5

Why did the Taliban regime become succesfull?

Answer 5

1. When they took power of Kabul they excluded the ruling educated class from political and administrative decisions.
2. Power became centralized in Kandahar because the Taliban leaders lived there.

Question 6

What is a Warlord?

Answer 6

-Leader of armed group that can hold territory and at the same time act financially and politically in the international system with interferrence from the state in which he is based (Duffield)

-Warlord plays critical role in access to the political arena and economics, sometimes acts as the supplier of governance in the region which he controls.

!Warlords trive in weawk and failed states

Question 7

What was the influence of Pakistan on warlords in Afghanistan?

Answer 7

-The USA rooted weapons to Mujahideen leaders through Pakistan, this gave Pakistan a lot of power in deciding who whould recieve the weapons. This lead to strong Mujahideen leaders such as Gulbodin Hekmatyar who got pushed into power by USA funding. In the end Massoud liberated Kabul not Hekmatyar.

Question 8

What factors were in play during the Rise of the Taliban?

Answer 8

• Product of chaos in civil war and lack of centralized state succes
  -Power vacuum
  1. Disintegration of communist structures
  2. Elimination of traditional leadership.
  3. Failure of mujahidin to concentrate power in the South (tribal structures)

Question 9

Taliban ideology:

Answer 9

-Politics is reduced to orthodox application of the Shariah
-Opposition to the west based on rejection of a cultural model.
-‘Pashtunwali’: (code of conduct of taliban) honor, revenge, hospitality, asylum etc.

Question 10

Goals of Taliban:

Answer 10

-Secular goal: capture the state
-Impose shariah law, their own Islamic order.

Question 11

Myths and reality about Taliban:

Answer 11

2 myths:
1. Anarchy and chaos
2. Popular adulation and no fighting

Reality:
-Taliban is mostly a military organization, cheap flexible and efficient organization.
-Also richer organization, through support of business and pakistani support.