Peacebuilding: Lessons for Afghanistan? - CMI

Preface to this edition
From October 2001 major changes were taking place in Afghanistan resulting in the
defeat of the Taliban regime and the eventual establishment of a new interim
government with international support. Reflecting the importance of these events and
the dearth of readily available background material for decision making, the
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on short notice commissioned the Chr.
Michelsen Institute to produce two reports that would provide insights relevant to the
extremely complicated peacebuilding process facing Afghanistan.
The first report, submitted in January 2002, reviewed previous efforts by the
international community within Afghanistan to address issues central to
peacebuilding. On this basis, the report made several strong recommendations for
international support to the present phase of transition to peaceful reconstruction and
development. The report became available just in time for the Tokyo conference on
international assistance to Afghanistan.
The second report, submitted in April 2002, reviewed a range of experiences in other
countries relevant to the tasks of reconstructing the state and the economy in
Afghanistan. Emphasis was put on the political framework for peacebuilding, security
sector reforms, and early economic recovery.
While both reports have been circulated openly as Commissioned Reports and have
been accessible at the CMI website, the two papers are joined here more conveniently
as one CMI Report. The original text has not been changed, but the executive
summaries and the bibliographies have been merged. Part I refers to the first report,
while Part II refers to the second report. Some references in text may nevertheless still
refer to the “first” and “second” report, rather that Part I and II.
The first report (Part I) was prepared by Astri Suhrke, Kristian Berg Harpviken and
Arne Strand, while the second report (Part II) was written by Astri Suhrke, Are
Knudsen and Arve Ofstad. Astri Suhrke has also been overall responsible for these
reports. We would like to thank the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the
opportunity to work on these extremely important and challenging issues, and hope
that the reports have been useful.
Bergen, August 2002
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