Introduction 1. Aid and State Building 2. Reliance on External Revenue: Afghanistan from 1747 to 2000 3. Rebuilding an Aid-based Rentier State 4. Reforms and Setbacks: Rebuilding the Revenue System 5. Budget Spending: Fiscal Fragmentation and Patronage 6. Interactions between the State and Society Conclusion
Nematullah Bizhan is a Research Fellow at the Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the Oxford University’s Global Economic Governance Program and a Fellow of Asia Pacific College of Diplomacy and Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He has a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the Australian National University and was previously a high-level participant in the post-2001 government of Afghanistan.
"For a state to function effectively it has to be properly funded.
This is the starting point for Nematullah Bizhan's masterly
analysis of Afghanistan's post-2001 transition, which demonstrates
with great clarity how complications in this sphere can have vast
ramifications for state building. This is truly a book to
treasure." William Maley, Professor at Asia Pacific College of
Diplomacy, The Australian National University"Impressive and well
written. Aid Paradoxes in Afghanistan unpacks the challenges
associated with the process of state building in situations of
fragility. Building on his experience in international development,
public policy, and reforms in post-2001 Afghanistan, Nematullah
Bizhan persuasively explains paradoxes arising from
well-intentioned foreign aid. Sometimes donor policies contribute
to state building while in others aid undermines these gains. This
book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of
public policy, international development and political
economy."Ngaire Woods, Professor of Global Economic Governance and
Dean of Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, UK"A
fascinating, insightful and balanced exploration of the post-9/11
surge in aid to Afghanistan. Nematullah Bizhan undertakes extensive
historical and comparative research, and also draws on his
experience as a senior Afghan government official. Contrary to much
state-building rhetoric, his study shows that in fact the ability
of aid to strengthen domestic institutions is severely limited, and
explains why this is."
Stephen Howes, Professor of Economics and Director of Development
Policy Centre at Australian National University"This book is an
exceptional and unique contribution to examine the role of foreign
aid on state building process in Afghanistan. The goal, process,
administration and effects of the substantial aid that flowed to
Afghanistan since 9/11 are examined carefully and many useful and
important lessons are drawn for effective use of foreign aid in the
recipient countries."M. Ishaq Nadiri, Jay Gould Professor of
Economics at New York University and Former Chief Economic Advisor
to the President of Afghanistan"How can it be that, after the US
appropriated more than US$ 100 billion in aid to Afghanistan, its
government remains fragile and the country insecure?To be sure,
twenty years of Soviet invasion, civil war, and Taliban rule had
left the state in shatters. But in this pioneering study,
Nematullah Bizhan moves beyond this obvious truth to explore the
sensitive question: did aid promote state building or hinder it?
Focusing on reform plans, the resulting structure of aid, fiscal
management in Kabul, and the relation between state and society, he
shows how the best intentions can go awry. Rigorously analytic and
meticulous in his research, Bizhan offers an unsettling perspective
on US policy in Afghanistan and, no less, deep insights on foreign
aid to weak states everywhere. This brilliant study should be a
"must read" everyone involved with state building worldwide,
whether as donor or recipient."S. Frederick Starr, Chairman of
Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at American Foreign Policy Council
and author of Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from
the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane"This is an excellent work, a clearly
written revelatory study on a highly complex subject- effects of
aid on state building in situations of fragility that has long
concerned those of us seeking answers to the question why billions
of dollars of foreign aid to Afghanistan failed to build Afghan
state institutions effectively. Nematullah Bizhan makes compelling
arguments in support of his conclusions that the nature and
modality of foreign aid, along with donor and Afghan government
policies, were at the root of this failure and that foreign aid, in
fact, reinforced building of a fragmented-aid based-rentier state.
The book is a must-read for scholars and development practitioners
specializing in state fragility and foreign aid."Nipa Banerjee,
Senior Fellow at University of Ottawa and Former Head of Canadian
International Development Agency in Afghanistan
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