The 2011 Bonn Conference needs to make clear that the Afghan government and people and their partners in the international community are united in their efforts to make tangible and sustainable progress towards a more stable Afghanistan in an equally more stable region.
A political settlement will only be possible and sustainable if both the Afghan government and the Taliban commit to it credibly and if it has broad regional and international support during its negotiation and implementation.
Osama Bin Laden’s death is a significant, if perhaps mostly symbolic, achievement in the fight against international terrorism. It does not spell the end of al-Qaeda, but it demonstrates that Western skill and determination can prevail.
The two goals of stability in, and military withdrawal from, Afghanistan are not mutually exclusive. They can and must work in careful combination, setting realistic goals and assessing progress against benchmarks agreed with the Afghan government. Then, and only then, will it be possible to end the conflict in Afghanistan and address the country’s long-standing humanitarian crisis.
What Afghanistan needs in light of of its newly found mineral wealth is a revenue-sharing framework that is fair and sustainable and a regulatory framework that gives foreign investors a sense of security so that Afghanistan’s people have a chance of reaping real benefits from their country’s mineral wealth.