Afghanistan’s Foreign Policy and Need for a Strategic Plan

Few months of the newly inaugurated national unity government had passed, and the minister of foreign affairs also got the vote of confidence from the Lower house and officially started his duty as the minister. Though the foreign policy of the country is currently more challenging compared to any other time, and recently it needs a strategic plan compared to any other time, but it is not clear that what actions will the unity government and the minister of foreign affairs take about it.

Currently Afghanistan need such a strategic policy that can safeguard the national interests of the country, moves the foreign policy towards stability, and kept away our foreign policy from reactionary responses. Afghanistan’s foreign policy faced many challenges, especially in last decade, and in many aspects, it faced failure.

 

The Weaknesses of Foreign Policy (2001-2014)

If we briefly identify the failure of foreign policy in last 13 years, the failures are noticeable are:

• Reactionary Responses;
• The bad relations with the neighboring countries;
• The unbalanced policies among the neighboring, regional, and international forces;
• Lack of strategic plan;

The main reason of not keeping balance between various countries was the existence of reactionary response of our foreign policy, and the second reason was the reliance on the short-term resolutions of conflicts.

We built relations with China and Russia after the destruction of relations with the U.S. in 2008 and 2009; these two countries were important in the foreign policies of the country in the last decade, and we should built good relations with them from the beginning. Though Russia and China were interested to build good relations with Afghanistan, after 2001; as they saw Afghanistan extremely influenced by the U.S. so their relations decreased with Afghanistan.

Later on, when the relations of Karzai, Obama and Holbrook was destroyed, by a single attempt Karzai turned towards Russia and sent a letter to Medvedove, then he had visits to China and Russia, and the relations moved towards construction.  While in 2009, there was a special conference invited by Shanghai Organization, Russia forgiven all its former debts to Afghanistan and both the countries expressed themselves ready for investment for the completion of the former uncompleted projects and programs in Afghanistan. In 2012, the second in hierarchy of Chinese Communist Party came to Afghanistan, and at the same year, China has given chance to Afghanistan to be observer in Shanghai Organization.

On the other hand, within the last one decade instead of construction of relations with the neighboring countries, especially Pakistan, our relations moved towards destruction, and sometimes the officials of these countries were giving speech against each other; therefore there was not balance in our foreign policy regarding the neighboring and regional countries.

In addition, the lack of strategic plan for the foreign policy of the country caused many challenges for the foreign policy of the country; the CEO of the national unity government also confirmed, during the inauguration ceremony of the minister of foreign affairs, that yet Afghanistan does not have any strategic plan for its foreign policy, and he was hopeful that such a plan will be made as soon as possible.

What Does Strategic Plan Mean?

Strategic plan means defining strategy, choosing tools for following the strategy, and the control and approval of strategy. Strategy and strategic plan is extremely important in the foreign policy; because, while policy is defined, as “saving national interest”, so they need to find ways for saving the same national interest, to save the national interest in reality, and these ways are called strategy. Strategy can change with the passage of time and changes in conditions; therefore, there are short term, midterm, and long-term plans in strategic plans.

The former Secretary of State of United States Dean Acheson has written about strategic plan in his memoirs as ‘to look ahead, not into distant future, but beyond the vision of the operating officers caught in the smoke and crises of current battle; far enough ahead to see the emerging form of things to come and outline what should be done to meet or anticipate them’. In addition, he emphasizes that the existing policies should also be ‘constantly reappraise’[1].

 

Foreign Affairs and Strategic Plan:

While making strategic plan, the following points should also be considered:

1. Foreign challenges;
2. Domestic challenges;
3. And Afghan culture;

The conflicts in the interests of the countries that are involved in the New Great Game, which are going on in Afghanistan and the region, are the challenges that Afghanistan faces from foreign countries. For example, Afghanistan should save its own national interests in pipelinization, the Silk Road, and giving transit way, and in these fields, the interests of other countries should not be in clashes with each other. In addition, Afghanistan should try to give weight to its words and accept it by other countries.

Similarly, the domestic challenges of the foreign affairs are instability, lack of peace and negotiation with the armed opponents, corruptions, and so on. As we counted the mentioned challenges as the domestic challenges of the foreign affairs, therefore the investment of other countries in Afghanistan is also a part of the national interest of the country. While Afghanistan is not capable of demining its natural resources and implement projects; so there is need of foreign investments, and foreign investors relate their investment to stability, peace, bright future, and lack of corruption in a country.

Moreover, while making strategic plan the Afghan values should be also be considered, especially the former ways that are built based on culture and customs and that had influence on the foreign affairs of the country; for example, we can mention Afghanistan’s neutrality. As the current world is neither mono-polar nor bipolar, but it is moving towards multipolar, so Afghanistan should not tie itself only to a single direction.

Currently Afghanistan does not only need the assistance and diplomatic support of the West, but also needs the investment of China. Afghanistan also needs the attention of Russia, which has gained a special place in the global politics, and needs high-tech products and economic cooperation of India, even with all these conditions, Afghanistan should not ignore its national sovereignty and neutrality.

The most important part of the foreign affairs is not signing great agreements ignorantly. For example, B.S.A. was signed ignorantly for gaining economic cooperation and bringing peace and stability to the country; but the last few months show that it will not be only unable to fulfill those goals, but it also has shown that the country will be the spot of the upcoming global game.

The national unity government has given the document for the foreign forces to stay in Afghanistan for long term; but the ideas of the candidate foreign minister of the U.S. Ashtyn Carter[2] destroys our ambitions, he says: if the condition in Afghanistan get worse, they will withdraw their forces. However, on one hand signing B.S.A. caused obstacle for peace, on the other hand, it concerned regional countries. [3]

 

Suggestions:

• The strategic plan of Afghanistan should have; short term, midterm, and long-term strategies, so on one hand we will move our diplomacy towards stability, and on the other hand, we will be able to safeguard our national interest.
• The strategic plan should be built in the light of foreign and domestic challenges and the issues that the country is faced with.
• In the strategic plan of the foreign affairs, it should be also mentioned that the Afghan Diplomats should be chosen through a competitive exam, and the details of the exam should be mentioned in it.
• Based on the plan, the ability and knowledge of a normal diplomat should be increased compared to the earlier times.
• Afghan policy makers should not ignore the rivalry of Pakistan and India, and they should sense the values of both the countries in Afghanistan. The policy should be made in such a way that instead of proxy war both the countries will cooperate with each other in Afghanistan[4].
• The economic diplomacy should be increased and strengthened with other countries, especially with the neighboring countries.

The End

[1] Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation (New York: W.W. Norton, 1969), p. 214.

[2] While answering one of the questions of the military committee of congress, Ashtyn Carter said; if the conditions in Afghanistan get worse, he will rethink about the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan: see the Veesa Newspaper 4^th of February of 2015 first page.

[3]The U.S. declared that it will give its equipment to Ukraine, against the declaration Russia has shown an extreme reaction. China and Russia are concerned about the existence of the U.S., and they have doubt about it, therefore sometimes their attempts are failed against terrorism and narcotics.  

[4] The friendship fields of India and Pakistan can increase in Afghanistan, and to know that which fields should increase for their friendship read the article:

Sadika Hameed, Prospects for Indian-Pakistani Cooperation in Afghanistan, CSIS, 2012. See it online in the following link:

< http://csis.org/files/publication/120821_Hameed_ProspectsIndianPakistan_Web.pdf>