The EU's Afghanistan Policy: What Went Wrong — Oz Hassan

12. 11. 2024

This episode of The IR thinker examines the European Union’s role in Afghanistan with Dr Oz Hassan, focusing on the adoption and limitations of the Bonn Model, the tension between ambitious democratisation goals and basic security needs, and the EU’s assumptions about Afghanistan as a post conflict state. The conversation also considers corruption and aid management, engagement with Afghanistan’s neighbours, and what this experience reveals about the EU’s capacity to support political order and governance in fragile contexts.

Oz Hassan

Oz Hassan is Reader in National Security in the Politics and International Studies Department at the University of Warwick. His research centres on transatlantic relations with the Greater Middle East, and he is the author of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs study Afghanistan: Lessons learnt from 20 years of supporting democracy, development and security, the EU’s only official lessons learned report on Afghanistan, which sets out thirty two recommendations to guide future parliamentary resolutions and European Commission policy.

Publications:

The rise and fall of American’s freedom agenda in Afghanistan: counter-terrorism, nation-building and democracy

Political security: from the 1990s to the Arab Spring

Undermining the transatlantic democracy agenda? The Arab Spring and Saudi Arabia’s counteracting democracy strategy

Trump, Islamophobia and US–Middle East relations

The evolution of the European Union’s failed approach to Afghanistan

Why the European Union failed in Afghanistan: Transatlantic relations and the return of the Taliban

Content

00:00 - Introduction
02:06 - EU’s Misjudgement of Afghanistan’s Political and Social Complexities Through the ‘Bonn Model’
05:07 - Why the ‘Bonn Model’ Was Selected
08:26 - EU’s Focus on Democratisation Over Security in Afghanistan
12:01 - Afghanistan as a Post-Conflict Territory: A Flawed Assumption
14:47 - Unity Among EU Member States in Afghan Policy
19:00 - EU’s Strategic Interests in Afghanistan
23:19 - EU’s Historical Experience with Imposing Governance in Afghanistan
29:32 - EU’s Approach to Establishing Political Order in Afghanistan
36:52 - Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund vs Corruption Challenges
42:55 - EU’s Engagement with Afghanistan’s Neighbouring Countries
46:59 - Narcotics and Drug Trade in Afghanistan
50:10 - Complexities of Cross-Border Emigration from Afghanistan
52:35 - Reactions from Russia, China, and the Caucasus
57:56 - Key Lessons for the EU from Afghanistan