The 9th Heart of Asia summit recently occurred, with focus by the United States towards peace and security in Afghanistan. The U.S. and other powers proposed ideas for a new transitional government in an attempt to promote this. The Taliban would be involved in the format of this new transitional government. However, Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, has his own plans for peace in the country. He opposed the inclusion of the Taliban, and wants elections to be held as soon as possible after which he will step down as president of the country. He says that after this election he will pass his authority to his successor and an Afghan assembly, Loya Jirga, will endorse the settlement resulting in a ceasefire and international monitoring.
The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, has a lot of power in this situation. As the president he has key control over Afghanistan’s entrance into or actions within the peace proposal by the United States and other countries. Without Afghanistan’s cooperation, the peace proposal cannot begin to be put into action. With Ghani’s new proposals, and call for new elections, it puts a lot of pressure on the U.S. to act soon if they plan to act. Since the U.S. is supposed to pull their troops out of Afghanistan by May 1, they won’t have much weight in the country once their troops leave. This puts more pressure on other countries involved in Afghanistan as the main power, the U.S., is no longer involved, therefore some other power will have to step up. With all of these changes occurring, combined with the potential for a new leader in Afghanistan, political turmoil could be on the horizon.
When analyzed from a global level, this situation can be looked at through the other powers that must now get involved after the U.S. exits Afghanistan and how this will affect the global economy and such. When analyzed from a state level, one can more look at the actions of the U.S. and Afghanistan, such as the U.S.’s reasoning behind leaving Afghanistan. When analyzed from an individual level, one looks at the actions of Donald Trump and President Ghani. Donald Trump decided to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by May 1, which has led to these peace talks and therefore President Ghani’s decision to make a different proposal.