Speaker Profile: Dr. Ahmad Shayeq Qassem

Dr. Ahmad Shayeq Qasem is a Master’s of Arts from Pune University, India and Ph.D. from Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University, Canberra. His book Afghanistan’s Political Stability: Dream Unrealised was published by Ashgate, London in 2009. He has written on Afghanistan in various international refereed journals and has presented papers in international conferences. He has taught at the Australian National University. He was former First Secretary at the Afghan Embassy in Canberra. At present he is a Current Affairs Analyst (Iran and Afghanistan) based in London.

ABSTRACT

Afghanistan's Conundrum: Can There Be a Regional Approach?

In the wake of the September 2001 attacks in the United States, Afghanistan became a centre of world focus and cooperation in an unprecedented way. Regional powers such as India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Central Asia and China all took part in the enterprise. To affect regional cooperation and transform itself into a “land-bridge” between Central and South Asia, the Afghan government amended its laws and signed numerous agreements with the neighbouring countries. Yet Afghanistan’s stability has eluded the Afghans and the regional powers alike. There are a range of intertwined reasons for Afghanistan’s conundrum. Misunderstanding terrorism as the symptom of ethno-nationalism in Afghanistan has been unhelpful. A narrow definition of political stability as a security-centric concept premised on a notion that an over-centralized political system would best serve the interests of stability is misleading.

Afghanistan should act to confront concerns on the part of the Pakistani core power-structures in an honest way. Pakistan’s interests would be better served in Afghanistan if it desisted from patronising Afghan Taliban as a proxy force. As two sovereign independent states, Afghanistan and India have every right to decide for themselves as to how they conduct their relations in pursuit of their national interests, and in accordance with the principles of international law. However, some aspects of the bilateral relationship need to be revisited for greater peace.