Description
This thesis investigates as to why and how did various Afghan diaspora groups, especially Rome and Peshawar groups, and individuals gain uneven influence during the Bonn process, and how did these disparities shape Afghanistan’s post-2001 state- and peacebuilding efforts. This thesis seeks to delineate the different ways and resources utilised by diaspora groups for gaining influence; how competitions and exclusion shape state- and peacebuilding efforts, the causal pathways through which these asymmetries contribute to state fragility and what does this reveal about conceptual blind spots of the liberal peacebuilding initiatives, especially given it pays little attention to the agentic aspect of the non-state actors as an increasingly significant actors within the world politics (Adamson, 2007; Shain and Barth, 2003; Vanderbush, 2014). As such, the thesis aims at offering a more in-depth understanding of diaspora engagement in liberal peacebuilding, inform a more contextualised peacebuilding approach that account for, rather than exacerbate divisions. This research compares two key diaspora groups: the Rome-based, whose symbolic and political capital was validated during the Bonn Process in 2001, and the Peshawar-based, whose NGO networks, technocratic expertise, jihadi background/affiliations and embedded social capital empowered them to rise to prominence more gradually in post-2001 Afghanistan. Drawing on interviews with former senior Afghan officials, diaspora elites, prominent civil society members, scholars, members of parliament, and experts, as well as document analysis, the thesis employs Bourdieu’s theory of practice and a relational approach, to analyse how various types of capital and habitus contributed to diaspora’s access to power (Adamson, 2013; Bourdieu, 1977; Emirbayer and Mische, 1998; Josselin and Wallace, 2001) and how did these disparities shape the state- and peacebuilding efforts in Afghanistan. The thesis seeks to contribute to broader debates on diaspora politics and the post-intervention state- and peacebuilding efforts.
