The Economic Roots of the Afghan Debacle
Afghanistan experienced rapid economic growth in the decade following the US invasion and the ouster of the Taliban. But the subsequent stagnation of living standards – rooted in the failure to build a self-sustaining domestic economy – made unrest all but inevitable.
BRUSSELS – Nation-building has manifestly failed in Afghanistan. MIT’s Daron Acemoglu has elucidated an important reason why: the West took a top-down approach to establishing state institutions, even though Afghanistan is a “deeply heterogeneous society organized around local customs and norms.” But economic factors also played a key role.