February 05, 2021

Reimagining diplomacy in a post-Covid world

topic:	Peace and Reconciliation
located:	Afghanistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

With the presence of over 40 NATO nations, partners and the involvement of dozens of other regional proxy powers, Afghanistan has been, for decades, serving as a classic case study in both hostile as well as friendly diplomatic and strategic maneuvers.    

As the head-spinning debates over so-called ‘vaccine nationalism’ and ‘vaccine diplomacy’ once again call for reimagining morals of globalisation, the lingering crisis in Afghanistan offers a very human perspective for common understanding. 

In this scary scenario created by the coronavirus pandemic, every individual, and therefore nations, including the perceived developed and rich ones, could not hide their impulsive behaviour of trying to rush to the top of the queue for immunization. It leaves the most vulnerable individuals and states in a fix - such as war-ravaged states prone to foreign meddling like Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. 

With fragile health systems, acquiring the vaccine seems more of a luxury to many in Afghanistan who only strive to survive under all imaginable hardships of a war-torn country.  

It may sound peculiar, but even during the pandemic what the Afghan people anxiously long for is the self-serving foreign meddling to stop and be replaced with soft and cooperative diplomacy to help end the war. 

It makes sense as many of Afghanistan’s powerful neighbors continue to back selective warring factions fueling the war on one side and pledging to provide the aid and vaccine on the other.

As per Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission’s annual report, 2958 civilians lost their lives in the country in 2020 due to the raging violence. The desperate bickering over vaccines in the modern world can very well explain the miseries of the Afghans and their longing for peace for common people there and in the rest of the world, as their very survival is so severely dependent on others.

As the Taliban and Afghan government representatives make rounds of regional capitals to lobby on their behalf, it is essential for global stability - just like in the case of Covid-19 vaccine rollouts - that all of the international community’s diplomatic and strategic efforts are aimed at ensuring full peace in Afghanistan, rather than continuing to promote individualistic agendas.

Image: Asian Development Bank

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