Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 08/2011

Promoting Stability and Resolving Provincial Disputes in Afghanistan

Shahmahmood Miakhel, Noah Coburn

June 2011

United States Institute of Peace

Abstract

Currently numerous disputes at the local level are unresolved in Afghanistan, leading to local instability, a growing distance between the government and people and encouraging communities to turn to the Taliban. In March 2010, USIP began working with local elders, government officials (particularly governors and officials from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs) and religious figures to address a range of disputes in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces in eastern Afghanistan.