AFGHANISTAN CIVIL WAR AND ETHNIC CONFLICTS: 1992-2018

Abstract

This study aims, to investigate and explore the key factors and causes of civil war and ethnic conflicts in general and the relevancy of these factors to Afghanistan civil war and ethnic conflicts within the period of 1992-2018. Despite, civil war in Afghanistan has longer history than the mentioned period of 1992 to present, but prior to Mujahidin’s victory against the communist Soviet backed regime, during the kingdom of Mohammad Zahir Shah, Afghanistan have experienced at least half of a century of peace, security, stability and some progresses in state building and good governance. Following to the victory of Mujahidin against communist regime on 1992, Afghanistan faced the worst civil war and ethnic conflicts ever that still is going on. While studying the research, external causes of civil war such as; foreign intervention, migration and remittances, external financial support to the war factions and different ethnic groups, and Internal factors such as; ethno-linguistic diversity, youth bulges, Poverty, illiteracy, urbanization and its impact on young generation motivation of joining rebellions, political system, geography, and history will be analyzed. The thesis also discusses the role of neighboring countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Russia in fueling the civil conflicts in Afghanistan, and their intervention in Afghanistan’s internal affairs to facilitate the ethnic conflicts and civil war. The study also seeks to uncover the research questions of; what are the main causes and factors of Afghanistan’s civil war and ethnic conflicts, and why there is no resolution for it so far. What are the challenges for solving the conflict situations? As already mentioned, Afghanistan’s neighboring countries intervention is one of the major causes of civil war in Afghanistan. The neighbors of Afghanistan including the former Soviet Union, the present Russia have their own specific interests, and have always intervening in Afghanistan since centuries. Each one of these countries, particularly the neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Iran has their own interests, and support particular war factions to guarantee their interests and influence in the region. The abovementioned countries’s intervention caused Afghanistan civil war to be continuing for decades, which, will be discussed in chapter three and four of this thesis in details.