Identity Politics - A Case Study of Afghanistan

Abstract

Identity politics is a complex concept. However, it is rarely studied in the context of weak non-Western states. This study seeks to study identity politics in Afghanistan with a focus on ethnic and sectarian identities. The central hypothesis is that the manipulation and instrumentalisation of ethnic and sectarian identities as sources of political legitimacy have significantly constrained efforts towards state-building in Afghanistan. By taking a historical perspective, it shows that identity politics is not a new phenomenon in Afghanistan and that a weak historical state and widespread culture of poverty have caused, sustained and reinforced ethnic and sectarian identity politics over time. It will also demonstrate that ethnic and sectarian identity politics have been a dominant feature of Afghanistan’s post-Taliban statebuilding. Ethnic and sectarian identity politics have seriously undermined the process of statebuilding as they have prevented, amongst other things, a meaningful national reconciliation and the development of an effective state-society relation and a national identity in Afghanistan in the past decade.