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The 'tribe' is a notion intimately related to the study of Afghanistan, used as a generic signifier for all things Afghan, it is through this notion that the co-constitution of coloniser and colonised is crystallised and foregrounded in Afghanistan. By tracing the way in which the term 'tribe' has been deployed in the Afghan context, the article performs two kinds of intellectual labour. First, by following the evolution of a concept from its use in the early 19th century to the literature on Afghanistan in the 21st century, wherein the 'tribes' seem to have acquired a newfound importance, it undertakes a genealogy or intellectual history of the term. The Afghan 'tribes' as an object of study, follow an interesting trajectory: initially likened to Scottish clans, they were soon seen as brave and loyal men but fundamentally different from their British interlocutors, to a 'problem' that needed to be managed and finally, as indispensable to a long-term 'Afghan strategy'. And second, it endeavours to describe how that intellectual history is intimately connected to the exigencies of imperialism and the colonial politics of knowledge production.

In anthropological and legal literature, the phenomenon termed 'legal pluralism' has been interpreted as a co-presence of legal orders which act in relation to their own 'levels' of referring 'fields'. The Afghan normative network is generally described in terms of pluralism, where different normative systems coexist: such as customs, shari'a (Islamic law), state laws and principles deriving from international standard of rights (e.g., human rights). In this article I abandon the neutral category of legal pluralism in order to bring forward a hypothesis of an inaccessible normative pluralism as a key concept in order to capture the structural injustices, of which Afghans are victims. Globally, the debates concerning the diffusion and application of human rights develop at the same time ideologically, politically and pragmatically. Today in Afghanistan these levels are expressed in all their complexity and ambivalence; it is therefore particularly significant to closely observe the work done by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Starting with my research fieldwork in Afghanistan (2005-2012) - where I studied judicial practices in the courts of Kabul, developing a reflection which weaves the spread of human rights with the themes of injustice and inaccessibility - I argue in this article the urgency and the necessity to concentrate on the contingent dimension of (in)justice. ; L'inaccessible pluralisme normatif et les droits de l'homme en Afghanistan Dans la littérature anthropologique et juridique le phénomène appelé " pluralisme juridique " est interprété comme une co-présence des ordres juridique qui agissent dans le même contexte social. Le système juridique afghan est généralement décrit comme un pluralisme juridique dans lequel différents systèmes de réglementation cohabitent : les pratiques coutumières, la charia (loi islamique), les lois de l'état et les principes dérivés à partir de normes internationales du droit (par exemple les droits de l'homme). Dans cet article, je renonce à la ...

After 15 years of military interventions since 2003, the current situation in Afghanistan is highly ambivalent and partially contradictory - especially regarding the interplay of development, peace, security, education, and economics. Despite numerous development initiatives, Afghanistan is still confronted with a poor security and economic condition. At the same time, enrollment numbers in schools and universities as well as the rate of academics reached a historical peak. This volume investigates the tension between these ambivalent developments. Sociologists, political and cultural scientists along with development workers, educators, and artists from Germany and Afghanistan discuss the idea that education is primary for rebuilding a stable Afghan state and government

Tenuous political and economic times call for increased oversight and improved results from military counterinsurgency programs in Afghanistan, programs that provide agile non-kinetic weapons, critical for commanders fighting in today's asymmetric battle space. This paper proposes a decision tool for construction projects executed under the Commanders Emergency Response Program, designed to meet the changing demands of fighting an amorphous insurgency among dynamic systems of stakeholders. The research first conducted a system analysis of the CERP project execution process identifying key findings addressing value adding inputs. The research then applies a Causal Chain, borrowed from the Emergency Management field to identify contributions of early system inputs and expand the aperture on project outcomes to include their long-term impacts. The research suggests that the Commanders Emergency Response Program can improve outcomes by considering a broader perspective of the system using the Causal Chain, delaying project outcome determination, expanding the pool and increasing the meaningful involvement of stakeholders, driving outcome focused decision making. The research hopes to contribute to improving the outcomes of the Commanders Emergency Response Program and provide a useful framework to describe the system during future policy decisions for the program.

"In this article the authors question whether and how far development cooperation and peacebuilding in crisis areas can contribute to the prevention or reduction of violence. They provide an overview of different approaches which aim to integrate conflict sensitivity as a crosscutting issue into the planning, implementation and evaluation of development projects and programs. It has become widely accepted that even if humanitarian aid and development cooperation contribute to the improvement of the socio-economic situation of target groups, they might, at the same time, (unintentionally) lead to increased tensions and the escalation of conflicts. Likewise, common components of peacebuilding - such as the reintegration of refugees or the demobilization of militias - might have a negative impact on individuals and groups. Using Afghanistan as an example, it is investigated whether and how methods of civil crisis management and conflict transformation are applied in practice and how civil-military cooperation is organized. The authors argue that development cooperation and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan have, so far, been largely conflict-insensitive and - contrary to numerous programmatic claims - there have been no systematic attempts to use instruments of civil conflict transformation and peacebuilding." (author's abstract)

"After 15 years of military interventions since 2003, the current situation in Afghanistan is highly ambivalent and partially contradictory - especially regarding the interplay of development, peace, security, education, and economics. Despite numerous development initiatives, Afghanistan is still confronted with a poor security and economic condition. At the same time, enrollment numbers in schools and universities as well as the rate of academics reached a historical peak. This volume investigates the tension between these ambivalent developments. Sociologists, political and cultural scientists along with development workers, educators, and artists from Germany and Afghanistan discuss the idea that education is primary for rebuilding a stable Afghan state and government." (Publisher's description)