How to Jumpstart the Afghan Economy

Jan 22, 2016 | M. Ashraf Haidari
View Original

To shore up its economy, Afghanistan and other South Asia countries need to stop playing power politics.

Afghanistan’s experience during and after the Cold War helps us see why forging results-oriented, cooperative partnerships among nations matters. The Cold War zero-sum power politics victimized Afghanistan, turning it into a proxy battlefield. At the end, the West and the former Soviet Union won and lost battles. But it was Afghanistan and its people that bore the brunt of their zero-sum games. They have yet to completely recover.