GENERAL OVERVIEW

Viktor KORGUN

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Viktor Korgun, D.Sc. (Hist.), head of the Afghanistan Sector, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russian Federation)

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Hamid Karzai’s government and the international community supporting it spent all of last year in an untiring attempt to deal with all the problems that have accumulated during the prolonged transition from the civil war, which ended in 2001, to peace and revival on a new and democratic basis. And the main event of the year was the parliamentary election held on 18 September. It concluded yet another stage in Afghanistan’s political history defined by the Bonn agreements of December 2001, within the framework of which the process of building a new state and creating conditions for further democratization of society’s sociopolitical life unfolded. The formation of new legislative state administrative structures (the parliament and provincial councils) gave ultimate legitimacy to the entire mechanism of the ruling regime and legislatively enforced the system of central and local power bodies that has currently developed. What is more, the appearance of the parliament and councils opens up opportunities, although still limited, for involving various political and social forces, and later the broad masses, in big politics, and for their direct participation in the development of society.

Other important events of the past year were also related in part to the election. These primarily involved problems of security, the main threat to which is posed by three factors: the armed struggle waged by the Taliban and al-Qa‘eda militants against Hamid Karzai’s government and the international coalition troops; the sovereignty and tyranny of the warlords; and the production and smuggling of drugs.

As a result of the combat operations by the international antiterrorist coalition and the National Afghan Army, the Taliban and…………

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