St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies

St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies 57 Panel Three. The General and the Specific in the Regions... This study examines the limits and failures of state-building efforts in regards to the Pashtun borderlands shared by Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan from the end of World War II to after the partition of British-India in 1947. It explores how and why select highland communities chose to stay on the margins of such state efforts. In part, the argument is that, as in other areas of the post-colonial world, overly centralized state ideologies and institutions in Kabul and Karachi faced severe limitations in efforts and achievements of “seeing like a state”, consolidating authority, and regulating complex, adaptive societies. Residents of the Pashtun borderlands retained high levels of independence amidst unresolved questions about political ideology and legitimacy, power-sharing, visions of the rule of law, religion, and control and distribution of resources. Vladimir N. Plastun (Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia) Afghanistan: the Ethnic Conflict Escalation It is a common assumption that in a multi-ethnic state ethnic conflicts emerge when every ethnic groups aspires to realize their own interests through reapportionment of political power. They sharply react to attempts of the dominant ethnic group to limit their right for political and economic autonomy, subsidies and ethnic quotas for representation in the Government. The ethnic question is amost difficult and pressing problem inAfghanistan. Pashtun ethnic group is a core factor in the Afghan statehood and it makes up the majority of the population of the IRA (42% Pashtuns, Tajiks-31%, Hazara-10%, Uzbeks-9%). The country’s leadership, which includes the state apparatus and the Army, has been traditionally dominated by the Pashtuns. The ethnic and national problem is characterized by: a) strained relations between Pashtuns and members of other ethnic groups; b) internal conflicts inside Pashtun tribes with their numerous clans and extended families. Since the bulk of Pashtuns reside in Pakistan, the tribes do not recognize the state border betweenAfghanistan and Pakistan, they often move across the border and in practice they reject the state control over themselves not only by the Afghan, but also by the Pakistani authorities. It is of paramount significance that Pashtuns’ tribal affiliation (especially during war) predominates over their formal political association. If in the past there used to be ethnic tensions along the Pashtuns-not Pashtun line, now they occur between Uzbek and Hazara, Uzbek and Tajik communities. The reasons of discontent and conflicts are as follows: impairment of the rights of ethnic and national minorities, disproportionate representation in the leadership of state institutions, dissatisfaction with the economic development of the region populated mostly by a particular ethnic group. It should be noted that the severity of inter-ethnic contradictions is exacerbated by an unsuccessful 16-year war between the USA-led and the against Taliban, the bulk of