Afghanistan

Geoffrey Hayes is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Waterloo and is the associate director of the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research focuses on the First and Second World Wars and Canada's role in current international conflicts.Mark Sedra is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the Leader of CIGI's Global and Human Security Program. He also teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. His current research focuses on the topic of post-conflict state building with an emphasis on the security issues.

• Afghanistan: Transition under Threat, edited by Geoffrey Hayes and Mark SedraForeword Christopher AlexanderIntroduction Mark Sedra and Geoffrey Hayes Section I: The Political TransitionLooking Back at the Bonn Process William MaleyAfghanistan: The Challenge of State Building Ali A. JalaliPoppy, Politics, and State Building Jonathan GoodhandSection II: The Economic TransitionResponding to Afghanistan's Development Challenge: An Assessment of Experience and Priorities for the Future William A. ByrdLaying Economic Foundations for a New Afghanistan Seema Patel Section III: The Security TransitionThe Neo-Taliban Insurgency: From Village Islam to International Jihad Antonio GiustozziSecurity Sector Reform and State Building in Afghanistan Mark SedraInsecurity along the Durand Line Husain HaqqaniSection IV: The Canadian CasePeace Building and Development in the Fragile State of Afghanistan: A Practitioner's Perspective Nipa Banerjee Establishing Security in Afghanistan: Strategic and Operational Perspectives M.D. Capstick Canada in Afghanistan: Assessing the Numbers Geoffrey HayesContributorsIndexContributors' BiosNipa Banerjee worked for thirty-three years for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), serving both at the headquarters level and in the field. She represented CIDA in Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Afghanistan. Her most recent posting, in Kabul (2003-2006), was as CIDA's head of aid for Afghanistan. In July 2008, she joined the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, where she lectures on international development. Her research interests include development in post-conflict countries and aid coordination and aid effectiveness, with a focus on Afghanistan. William A. Byrd is currently serving in the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC, as adviser in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit of the South Asia Region. Until recently he was the bank's senior economic adviser in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he helped to develop the World Bank's strategy for Afghanistan's reconstruction effort. He led the team that produced the first World Bank economic report on Afghanistan in a quarter-century. He has been with the World Bank for more than twenty years, during which time he has worked on China, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. His publications include six books on China and numerous articles, including several on Afghanistan. He has been responsible for reports on Afghanistan's public finance management, economic co-operation in the wider Central Asia region, and Afghanistan's drug industry. Most recently he co-authored a joint report of the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development titled Afghanistan: Economic Incentives and Development Initiatives to Reduce Opium Production. Colonel Mike Capstick retired from the Canadian Armed Forces (Regular) in late 2006 after thirty-two years of service. His final appointment was as Commander of the first deployment of the CF Strategic Advisory Team Afghanistan from August 2005 until August 2006. This unique unit, a mixed military civilian team, provided strategic planning advice and capacity building to development-related agencies of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his leadership of this team and is currently an associate at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary.Antonio Giustozzi is a research fellow at the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics, where he runs a research project on contemporary Afghanistan. He is the author of War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (2000) and Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan (2007) as well as several papers and articles on Afghanistan.Jonathan Goodhand teaches in the development studies department of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. His involvement with Afghanistan dates back to the late 1980s, when he was an aid worker based in Peshawar, Pakistan. Since then he has conducted research and published widely on issues related to civil wars, war economies, international aid, and post-conflict peacebuilding. His most recent publication is Aiding Peace? The Role of NGOs in Armed Conflict (2006).Husain Haqqani is Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. Prior to taking this post he was the Director of Boston University's Center for International Relations and co-chair of the Islam and Democracy Project at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as an adviser to Pakistani prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto and as Pakistan's ambassador to Sri Lanka. His most recent book is Pakistan between Mosque and Military (2005).Geoffrey Hayes is an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Waterloo and is the associate director of the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, both of which are based in Waterloo, Canada. His work on contemporary defence issues has appeared in such journals as War and Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal and Behind the Headlines. Most recently he co-edited, with Mike Bechthold and Andrew Iarocci, Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007). Ali A. Jalali was the interior minister of Afghanistan from January 2003 to September 2005. He is currently serving as both a distinguished professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies and a researcher at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, both of which are based at the National Defence University in Washington, DC. His areas of interest include reconstruction, stabilization, and peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and regional issues affecting Afghanistan, Central Asia, and South Asia. He has published widely on Afghanistan.William Maley is a professor and the director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. He has served as a visiting professor at the Russian Diplomatic Academy, a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, and a visiting research fellow in the refugee-studies program at Oxford University. A regular visitor to Afghanistan, he is the author of numerous books on Afghanistan, including Rescuing Afghanistan (2006) and The Afghanistan Wars (2002).Seema Patel is an independent consultant whose focus is on market-led economic development in fragile environments. She is currently a consultant to the AfghanAmerican chamber of commerce and the Global Development Alliance at USAID. She recently left the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she served as a business development advisor for the project. From 2006 to 2007 she led a comprehensive CSIS field-based study on reconstruction in Afghanistan. The final report for the project was titled Breaking Point: Measuring Progress in Afghanistan.Mark Sedra is a research assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, both of which are based in Waterloo, Canada. He currently leads CIGI's research program on global and human security. He has regularly served as a consultant to governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs on security issues in Afghanistan and has published widely on the country. His most recent publications are: The Search for Security in Post-Taliban Afghanistan (2007), co-authored with Cyrus Hodes, and Afghanistan, Arms, and Conflict Armed Groups, Disarmament and Security in a Post-War Society (2008), co-authored with Michael Vinay Bhatia.

``Though originating in the context of Canadian political debates, the volume's center of gravity is not Canada in Afghanistan, but Afghanistan itself, objectively considered, as a genuine national policy dilemma. For that reason, it is of immediate relevance to decision-making processes presently confronting the United States and those nations whose soldiers and national coffers will provide the means for proceeding in this key theater of 'The Long War.'... Development studies, area studies, South Asian history, international relations, national security studies, post-conflict peace studies, are the principal academic audiences for this text. Many others employed in government, international organizations, NGO's, and the relevant private sector, are also likely beneficiaries. It is important for academics outside of Canada to learn how Canadians, who GDP and armed forces are a small fraction of America's, view the magnitude of the challenges, sacrifices, and dilemmas facing Afghanistan c. 2006. Jargon-free in general, well-edited, with a very satisfactory index, the volume is suitable as a supplemental text for advanced undergraduates and above.'' -- Paul Kamolnick, East Tennessee State University -- Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, 200912