Chapter 3 continues…

The same global change freed the UN Security Council to undertake multi-lateral state-building efforts, especially in the aftermath of the conflicts, but the failures to undertake any such effort in Afghanistan showed that while the end of zero-sum strategic competition made cooperation possible, it also lowered the stakes for major powers, who were content to allow some problems to fester.

The conflict-promoting structural factors have furthermore helped the conflict in Afghanistan to continue. Pursuit of armed conflict in Afghanistan is greatly facilitated by two variables: the low cost of recruiting fighters and the availability of lootable or taxable resources to finance military and other despotic activity.

Though statistics are poor, the country appears to have the highest infant, child, and maternal mortality rates, the lowest literacy rate and life expectancy, and one of the two or three lowest levels of per capita food availability in the world. It also appears to have one of the highest proportions of disabled people, among the highest rates of injury due to landmines and the highest per capita number of personal weapons.

It would be strange indeed if such a country were at peace. During the Taliban regime this trend continued where the cost of maintaining a soldier was approximately one meal per day, more than many could otherwise obtain. Though some communities in Afghanistan nonetheless resist conscription, the Taleban could easily find replacements elsewhere, including Pakistan, a country with a much larger population of impoverished, undereducated youth.

Furthermore, Afghanistan became the source of most of the world’s opium, a ready source of cash, mainly for the Taleban (as well as for peasants, who could make up their food deficit with the cash incomes from poppy, which paid for other imports).Supporters of the Taleban may also be involved in joint ventures i in heroin refining and, perhaps, marketing. The Taleban’s ban on growing opium poppy had not extended to trade, and some wholesalers have made windfall profits on overstocks although supply had dropped.

To be continued…