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India's engagement with Afghanistan readily became multi-dimensional after the defeat of the Taliban and the installation of an Interim Authority in 2001. This was reflected in an immediate upgradation of Indian representation in Afghanistan from Liaison Office to full-fledged Embassy in 2002. India actively participated in the Bonn Conference and was instrumental in the emergence of post-Taliban governing and political authority in Afghanistan. Since then, India's main focus has been to support the Afghan government and the political process in the country as mandated under the Bonn agreement of 2001. It has continued to pursue a policy of high-level engagement with Afghanistan through extensive and wide-ranging humanitarian, financial, and project assistance, and participation in international efforts aimed at political reconciliation and economic rebuilding of Afghanistan.

The Corona Pandemic, also known as the COVID-19, which gripped the entire world from the beginning of 2020, has been hitting Afghanistan, which has already been facing socio-economic, health, educational, and safety problems starting in the pre-pandemic period, very hard. The number of people who were contracted by the virus and perished in this regard reached biblical proportions. Due to the insufficiency in the practice of family physician and in the coverage of social security in addition to the economic problems, all of which had been present in the pre-pandemic period, many Afghani citizens are having challenges in accessing main foodstuff, medicine and drinkable water. On top of that, the state offered no practice in terms of supporting its citizens financially even during the pandemic. In this study, in line with the information and reports, provided by the Afghani State and the international institutions, the experiences that Afghanistan has been living through this pandemic as well as the economic and, therefore, social events that the country shall face in the upcoming period is analysed. Furthermore, in this work, the actions and the impact of the foreign imperialists that invaded the country in addition to the state and the terrorist organisations, which pose a great threat against the security of this nation, are discussed.

For over three decades, Afghanistan has been a battleground in which many of the states of the wider neighbourhood have been involved. The importance of fostering a concerted effort for Afghan peace and stability is widely agreed upon, yet such a process remains difficult to bring about. Some analysts emphasize states and their security relationships, seeing Afghanistan as an ‘insulator’ caught between different regional state systems, each with a strong dynamic of its own. Other analysts emphasize various transnational networks and see Afghanistan as the ‘core’ of a larger conflict formation. This chapter takes as its starting point the former perspective, which has been codified by Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver (2003) as the regional security complex (RSC) approach. The chapter examines the security dynamics of each of the regions surrounding Afghanistan – South Asia, the Persian Gulf and South Asia – adopting a comparative and historical perspective, with an emphasis on the period since the late 1970s. It concludes that each of Afghanistan's three surrounding regions is characterized by deep security concerns of its own. These concerns nonetheless inform the engagement of neighbouring countries in Afghanistan, which then comes to reflect conflicts and cleavages specific to the respective regions. One central implication is that a more promising strategy for Afghanistan might be to seek a unilateral non-offensive or neutral status, rather than full security integration with its neighbours. Although such a strategy would necessitate the creation of a forum for Afghanistan's neighbours to foster understanding for the Afghan position, it represents a dramatic departure from mainstream policy proposals with their emphasis on an integrated regional approach.

The purpose of this chapter is to create awareness and provide practical solution for the diversity conflicts and challenges facing people in Afghanistan.

The content comes from the literature and personal observations of living in Afghanistan, while also meeting several ministers and the former president of the country.

While most people around the globe might perceive Afghanistan as a homogeneous society made up of people with similar beliefs and goal, the reality is far from it due to the heterogeneity of ethnicities, values, and languages spoken in the country. Of course, heterogeneity can make a society much more complex when diversity is not managed effectively, and this is certainly the case in Afghanistan’s divided population. When a heterogeneous society is not inclusive and not managed well, its consequences can be high levels of discrimination, distrust, violence, and animosity among diverse people groups. Afghanistan is an Asian collective culture, which has suffered from many negative consequences caused by mismanagement of diversity, low levels of education, and political acrimony among different people groups based on tribalism.

There was no funding to conduct primary research. As such, the literature and conclusions are based on personal experiences of the author, interviews with the current and former political leaders, and previously published materials.

This chapter suggests that inclusion, education and diversity management are especially crucial for Afghanistan. A review of the Afghan cultural diversity is provided along with suggestions for creating a more inclusive country for all citizens.

The chapter is an original writing based on the author’s socialization, education and interaction with the Afghan culture. As an expert trainer and researcher, the author provides practical content for education, application, and policy development in Afghanistan.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of hawala in supporting Afghanistan’s business climate. It illustrates the use of hawala as credit and its importance for the local merchant community.

The empirical data presented in this article draws from more than 83 semi-structured interviews with Afghan merchants, business leaders, hawaladars and judicial officials, conducted between March and August 2017 in five major provinces of Afghanistan, namely, Kabul, Herat, Balkh, Nangarhar and Kandahar. These five provinces collectively represent half of Afghanistan’s economy, one-third of Afghanistan’s total population and more than four-fifth of Afghanistan’s urban population. The commercial courts that sit in these five provinces hear more than 90% of total commercial disputes in the country.

In Afghanistan, despite their reputation for being the bankers of terrorists and criminals, hawaladars primarily serve Afghan merchants – the overwhelming majority of their customers – helping them cope with an uncertain business climate. Within supply chains, Afghan importers rely on credit-hawala to protect themselves from the interruptions of cash flow that are prevalent throughout the Afghan economy.

Drawing on extensive field research, this article highlights how hawala stabilizes financing and markets in Afghanistan, arguing that while hawala regulations are necessary to counter abuse of hawala, regulators must be cognizant of how hawala is used in financing of legitimate businesses, or they will exacerbate the problems of access to credit.

While the historical studies of hawala reveal its inextricable link with trade financing, the current hawala literature completely neglects hawala systems’ contemporary financing role. Instead, the literature is completely dominated by the globalization trend of terrorism, money laundering and worker migration. Neglecting the trade financing role of hawala causes policymakers not to appreciate the impacts of hawala regulations on the trade fully. Overlooking hawalas’ role in financing transnational trade also results in the exclusion of an important group of stakeholders – namely, merchant-users of hawala services who are the main beneficiaries of hawaladars’ financing services – from the process of regulation of hawala systems. The main reason that hawala regulations have failed to gain tractions in countries such as Afghanistan is that these regulations have not been cognizant of the multifaceted functions of hawala markets and do not include all stakeholders in the regulation process.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the major public–private partnership (PPP) risks in infrastructure projects in Afghanistan and explain the extent to which extent the identified risks can shed light on the PPP implementation study in general.

Initially, 78 risks were identified through considering international laws and regulations, criteria for using PPP in developing and underdeveloped countries, and case studies. Later, 23 of the more important risks were determined, ranked and classified into five main groups.

Finally, these risks were adapted with some investigations conducted in the PPP field. Although some of the risks identified in this survey are unique to Afghanistan, this research can be used to develop the application of PPP generally.

PPP is one possible solution to finance infrastructure projects. However, there are a lot of risks, which make this method inefficient in Afghanistan. Therefore, identifying the risks of PPP can play an important role in improving the infrastructures of Afghanistan.

Rejecting building information modeling (BIM) can negatively impact the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industries. While BIM is trending globally, its implementation in post-conflict low-income economies is still limited. The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors for implementing BIM in a post-conflict low-income economy, using Afghanistan as a case study.

This study identifies potential affecting factors for BIM implementation through reviewing existing literature and interviewing AEC professionals in Afghanistan. Then, the factors are inserted into a questionnaire survey and disseminated with Afghanistan’s AEC practitioners. The collected data was analyzed to determine the critical factors. Also, the underlying relationships between the critical factors were established through factor analysis.

A total of 11 critical factors are affecting BIM implementation in Afghanistan. From those, nine factors can be grouped into the following three components: technological, environmental and organizational. Two factors, “cost-benefit of implementing BIM” and “market demand for BIM,” are recurring in low- and middle-income economies. Conversely, the “presence of appropriate projects to implement BIM” is the unique critical factor for Afghanistan that might affect other post-conflict low-income economies.

This study focuses on affecting factors for BIM implementation in post-conflict low-income economies, using Afghanistan as a reference rather than other types of economies that have been widely studied.

Afghanistan is an ethnically diverse country which has suffered from many negative consequences caused by mismanagement of diversity, low levels of education, and political acrimony among different groups. The paper seeks to discuss how cultural and ethnic diversity can lead to civil unrest and make management of a country more complex. When diversity is not managed well, its consequences can be high levels of conflict, animosity, discrimination, corruption, and distrust among different ethnic groups.

This is a conceptual paper. It covers the realities of ethnic, religious and language diversity in Afghanistan based on first hand observations and experience along with findings from the literature.

The paper suggests that diversity education along with an ethical climate is especially crucial for Afghanistan if the aim is to create an inclusive culture where everyone's voice is heard, understood and integrated for implementation. A diversity continuum model for inclusivity is created for managers, expatriates, diversity officers, government officials, and educators so they can use it for their training and development programs in their efforts to create a fair work climate in Afghanistan.

This paper is limited to personal observations and experiences along with a review of literature from experts who write about diversity and corruption.

Managers, employers, and employees can use this material for training to create diversity awareness, provide diversity management skills, and to reduce unfair, discriminatory, and corrupt practices.

Employees of all ethnicities should know their rights and work toward the creation of an inclusive culture in Afghanistan.

This is an original paper and the inclusivity model is created by the author for this study.

Analyses the emergence of dialogue and dissent in Soviet society due to its decade‐long war in Afghanistan (1979‐89); the longest war in Soviet history. Included in the analysis are defence military posture in view of the military brutality, transfer of Soviet military practices to the occupation forces inside Afghanistan, ethnic tensions, racism and treatment of young conscripts. Perpetrations of atrocities against the Afghan population in violation of conventions of war are documented and tested against glasnost. Analyses exposure of the war in the Soviet media and through public debate.