Blick zurück nach vorn: Entwicklungszusammenarbeit mit Afghanistan

Abstract

As part of the US neoconservative "forward strategy of freedom" for the Greater Middle East, Afghanistan has become a first test of regime change. During the second Afghanistan conference in Berlin, donors committed US$ 8.2 billion "to establish a democratic and market-oriented government in an Islamic country". However, lessons learnt from development assistance dating back to the 1970s may still be noteworthy. Very long time horizons will be necessary to rebuild physical infrastructure and human capital, and to establish the rule of law, mutual trust and cooperation as opposed to rivalling clan agendas.
Foreign finance and foreign troops alone will not eliminate the lack of basic institutions, the shortage of feasible projects ("project gap"), and the  weaknesses of policy formulation and implementation. A paper written in 1976 may shed some light on similar donor insights three decades ago.