Strategic Outlook of Afghanistan: Political Structure, Economy, and Key Challenges

This report discusses the strategic outlook of Afghanistan with its political structure, economy, history and geography. It identifies key strategic challenges and means available to respond.

Running head: AFGHANISTAN
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Executive summary
This report has discussed the strategic outlook of Afghanistan with its political structure,
economy, history and geography. There are huge political, administrative, social and religious
issues that dominate the country but have several scopes so that the government can identify
these opportunities and utilize them in the development of the country.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Background of the country:.............................................................................................................3
Key strategic challenges:.................................................................................................................4
Means available to that country to respond:....................................................................................4
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................5
References:......................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction:
The aim of this report is to discuss the strategic outlook of a South Asian country
Afghanistan. This report will discuss the country’s history, geography, political structure,
economy, identify its key strategic challenges and the key means available in Afghanistan to
respond these issues.
Background of the country:
Afghanistan is an Islamic state bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
and Tajikistan. This country is located along the important trade routes that connect south and
east Asia with Europe. This country has a rich history as this has been important for the empire
builders who have left traces of great monuments. Afghanistan has a forbidding landscape full of
desserts as well as mountains supporting some ethnic factions along with ever-shifting alliances.
Modern Afghanistan has become a pawn of struggles over the political ideologies as well as
commercial influences (Nojumi 2016). Towards the end of the 20th century, this country has
suffered disastrous effects of civil war exacerbated by the military invention of Soviet Union.
Later the surviving afghan communists had a great conflict against the Islamic insurgents. This
led to the rule of Mujahideen groups and Taliban rose up against the governing parties of the
country to establish a theocratic regime. This regime however, collapsed in the rise of the
sustained US dominated military campaign aiding the Taliban and al-Qaeda organization led by
Osama Bin Laden. Soon thereafter, the anti-Taliban forces agreed to the era of transitional
leadership which led to the new constitution as well as establishment of democratically elected
government.

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The political structure is headed by the president of the country who has a council of
ministers, national assembly and provincial governors. The democracy has been established in
2004 after the intervention of NATO. The economy of Afghanistan has been changing and
turning to have a significant improvement due to the infusion of huge amount of dollars by the
Afghan expatriates and international remittances and financial assistances. The country’s GDP
stands at about more than 64 billion dollars with an exchange rate of 18 billion dollar. With the
GDP per capita $2000, the country imports 6-billion-dollar worth of goods but exports only 650
million which insists only the fruits, opium, nuts and gold (Callen et al 2014). Despite the fact
that it has 1 trillion-dollar untapped mineral deposits in the region, Afghanistan remains one
among all the least developed countries in the world.
Key strategic challenges:
Rising insurgency has been a constant threat for the county to be faced. The political and
cultural differences in different region have been affecting the political consistence of the
country. This is increasing the loss of lives and assets and fueling the robust technical as well as
financial support from other foreign countries including the USA.
In addition to this, the country has a strained connection with the neighboring countries.
These countries are not ready to discuss any matter with Afghanistan as they do not have
economic, administrative or social interest served by Afghanistan. In this aspect the terrorist
groups are planning, recruiting, fundraising and conducting unethical operations from their safe
havens from the neighboring countries (Bakewell 2015).

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Means available to that country to respond:
Afghanistan has been enjoying an economic recovery with rising GDP. The government
of the country has been empowering the private sector, increasing exports and creating jobs. This
government is enabling the economic growth that is quite critical for the long-term security of
the country and its socio-economic stability (Arnold 2017). Despite the fact the number of
refugees in the country is increasing, the government can handle this issue quite intelligently.
These workforces can be provided scopes for learning skills which will help the country to create
a killed yet cheap labor force. The garment industry is this region can be encouraged though
investment as this country has a promising future in this industry. Afghanistan Small and
Medium Enterprise Development along with the government of the country can help the
development of the country.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that Afghanistan is one of the least developed and poorest
countries. The political and religious insurgence have been affecting the smooth running of the
government which are supported by the foreign powers both technically as well as financially.
However, after the democracy is restored, the government of the country has initiated change in
the policies so that the private and public sector can work together and change the situation
entirely by facing and tacking all the challenges present.

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References:
Arnold, A., 2017. Afghanistan. In The New Insurgencies (pp. 233-258). Routledge.
Bakewell, O., 2015. Relations and agency in a transnational context: The Afghan diaspora and
its engagements for change in Afghanistan (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford).
Callen, M., Isaqzadeh, M., Long, J.D. and Sprenger, C., 2014. Violence and risk preference:
Experimental evidence from Afghanistan. American Economic Review, 104(1), pp.123-48.
Nojumi, N., 2016. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass mobilization, civil war, and the
future of the region. Springer.