Adil Riaz

GEL/9262040/Jul13/2

8/26/2013

2013Blog and Essay on Piece Talk B/W Taliban, Karzai and US

GEL/9262040/Jul13/2

PART1: BLOG

Peace Talk between United States and Taliban over the war in Afghanistan will benefit

the world to create harmony, if Taliban promise to renounce international terrorism.

After months of international political

efforts, on 18th of June 2013, the opening of a

Taliban’s office in Doha, Qatar, was a paving step

to end the Afghan war. Pakistan’s military played

a vital role in convincing Taliban’s officials to

hold talk with US and Afghanistan (Reuters,

2013). Obama said to CNN (2013) at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel

“We don’t expect it will be easy… but we do think ultimately we're going to need to see

Afghans talking to Afghans about how they can move forward and end the cycle of violence so

they can start actually building their country”. During a process of negotiation Taliban refused

to hold their military campaigns and wave their own white flag on office with a notion

displaying “Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan”, which they used during their reign in Afghanistan

(CNN US, 2013).

Despite the Karzai government was

lauded behind the process of peace talk, Taliban

refused to meet any Afghan government official.

Karzai government was already not happy with a

contradictory statement of Taliban about not

stopping violence during negotiation so after

refusal of Taliban, not to meet any Afghan government official and waving of their white flag,

Karzai refused to send any official of “Afghan High Peace Council” to Qatar (PRI, 2013).

Afghan forces are fully in charge of all the operations so due to this, Karzai also suspended to

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keep the long term security deal with US to protect Afghanistan even after NATO will leave the

territory in 2014(theguardian, 2013). After this situation Obama’s Official, John Kerry pushed

Qatar government to remove the white moniker flag of Taliban and agreed Karazai to negotiate

but Karzai showed willingness for dialogue inside Afghanistan (theguardian, 2013). When Qatar

government removed the flag from Taliban’s office then Taliban close their office in protest of

flag removal on Jul 9, 2013 (Telegraph,2013) and since then Obama government is trying to

establish a peace dialogue with Taliban and asking Pakistan to use its resources for same. Karzai

also planned a visit to Pakistan on Aug 26, 2013 and peace process of Afghanistan will be the

top agenda (Globalpost, 2013).

Taliban official told to ‘The Express Tribune (2013)’, they have established contacts

with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, many of their official representatives visited the countries and

thinking about to open a new office in any of these locations. Previously Afghan government

was thinking that if Taliban will not be allowed or willingly will not participate in the elections

then they will spoil the election facilities by attacking but the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad

Omar addressed on Eid ul Fitr that they will try to understand the motto of Afghan people and

would only support a fully Islamic government and will not participate in elections (The New

York Times, 2013). Mullah Omar also embraced education and said that it’s essential for all the

individuals to get Islamic and modern education as this is a fundamental need of society.

Neighboring countries and world is having an eye at stability in Afghanistan and

seeking opportunities in reconstruction, agriculture, energy, education, manufacturing and many

other sectors. Karzai government is also offering incentives to international companies with

significant tax breaks and offering loans from two state owned banks (the National Bank of

Afghanistan and the Pashtani Tujrati Bank) to the investors with very low rates (AzerNews,

2013). Afghanistan is full of natural resources and its geographical location provides a great

investment potential with its trading partners Pakistan, India, Korea, UAE, Japan, US. It has

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transit agreements with Iran, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey (Embassy of Afghanistan,

2013). Turkmenistan already invested in the rail project and gas pipeline construction between

Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India. There is a potential of investment in Afghanistan but

it depends upon dilemma of peace talk.

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REFERENCES

AZERNEWS. 2013. Neighbors aim at stability and growth in Afghanistan. Available

at:http://www.azernews.az/analysis/51141.html (Accessed: 22 August 13).

CNN News. (2013) Talks between U.S., Taliban on Afghan war expected 'in the next

few days'. Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/19/world/asia/afghanistan-security-talks

(Accessed: 24 August 2013).

CNN News. (2013) Trust low, but U.S. says talks with Taliban will go on . Available at:

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/20/trust-low-but-u-s-says-talks-with-taliban-will-go-on/

(Accessed: 24 August 13).

globalpost. (2013) Karzai to visit Pakistan to discuss Afghan peace process. Available

at:http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/130822/karzai-visit-

pakistan-discuss-afghan-peace-process (Accessed: 24 August 13).

Reuters. (2013) Insight: Pakistan influence on Taliban commanders helped Afghan

breakthrough. Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-afghanistan-taliban-

pakistan-insight-idUSBRE95J0ER20130620 (Accessed: 24 August 13).

theguardian. (2013) US-Taliban Afghanistan peace talks in Qatar cancelled. Available

at:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/20/afghanistan-talks-taliban-qatar-cancelled

(Accessed: 23 August 13).

The Embassy of Afghanistan, Washington. DC. (2013) Embassy of Afghanistan: Role in

Promoting Business and Investment in Afghanistan. [ONLINE] Available

at:http://www.aisa.org.af/presentations/UsEconomicTradeInvestmentDepartmentOverview.pdf

(Accessed: 23 August 13).

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The Express Tribune. (2013) Peace process: Taliban ponder options to relocate Qatar

office. Available at:http://tribune.com.pk/story/592081/peace-process-taliban-ponder-options-to-

relocate-qatar-office/ (Accessed: 24 August 13).

The New York Times. (2013) Leader Says Taliban Will Sit Out 2014 Afghan Election.

Available at:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/world/asia/leader-says-taliban-will-sit-out-

2014-afghan-election.html?_r=1& (Accessed: 23 August 13)

The Telegraph. (2013) Taliban close Qatar office in protest at flag removal. Available

at:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10169161/Taliban-close-Qatar-

office-in-protest-at-flag-removal.html (Accessed: 23 August 13).

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PART 2: ESSAY

One of the main dilemmas that leaders are facing in a ‘peace deal’ is lack of “Trust”.

This dilemma cannot be understood with a single leadership theory. The following chart by

Hanan (2010), provides the features of two theories i.e. Transformational Leadership and

Transactional Leadership which are applied in the current scenario.

General. Kayani leadership can be best understood with transactional theory of

leadership by Rickards ,2009 cited in Bass, 1998. His approach in catalyzing the ‘peace talk’ is

‘active management by exception’ as whenever he realizes that there will be some downfall in

the process he releases some Taliban prisoners and acts as a compromiser leader to immediate

minimize the pressure (Limbare, 2012). His conflict management style is more of

‘Appeasement’, releasing of Taliban prisoners doesn’t mean that he is accepting the demands of

Taliban (Limbare, 2012) but he is just creating a temporary peace to persuade them for a talk.

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Hamid Karzai is charismatic and a born leader, his father Abdul Ahad Karzai was also a

politician during 1960s and 1970s and was a parliamentary secretary (South China Morning

Post, 2012) so he got these skills and power in dynasty. His ‘idealized influence’ is displayed

that people trust him and respect him because of his influential power he made transit

agreements with India, Iran, Pakistan and Uzbekistan and attract foreign investment even in war

of terror (Embassy of Afghanistan, 2013). His conflict management style is ‘Wedrawal style’ as

he directly says ‘No’ to talk with Taliban in Qatar when they wave their political flag.

Mullah Omar, the spiritual and charismatic leader of Taliban. He is not a born leader but

due to his good ties with Osama Bin Laden he got a leadership in dynasty. He influence people

and made his own army, he persuade them, coach them and is fighting against Afghan and US

army since 2001. He is also a situational leader; he doesn’t want other forces to come up on

Taliban and closed his office in Doha, Qatar, when Qatar government removed their political

flag, which also shows his conflict management style as 'Wedrawal'. He also has an autocratic

and bureaucratic style of leadership as he keeps the decisions and control to himself, defines his

own rules and wants them to be implemented in Afghanistan (Limbare,2012)

The last leader involved in peace process is Obama, 'two factors style theory' can be best

applied in this scenario, He is more people oriented leader than task oriented. Before taking out

troops from Afghanistan, Obama want to create harmony, and promises to support in each sector

like education, hospitality and economic development (Afghanistan Times, 2013). He is acting

as a missionary leader and want to create peace (Limbare, 2012), in his statement it was

reflected that he want to see Afghan talking to Afghan to resolve their conflicts.

The balance of the argument proves that every leader in ‘peace talk’ is having

his own role and leadership styles but their agenda is same i.e. to create peace environment in

Afghanistan and give proper rights to Afghans. The process is getting delayed because of

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'Wedrawal' conflict management styles of Taliban and Karzai, they must adopt a ‘Defusion or

Appeasement’ conflict management style and think of a situation to make peace in short run and

negotiate on table.

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REFERENCES

Afghanistan Times. (2013) Obama promises long-term cooperation. Available at:

http://www.afghanistantimes.af/news_details.php?id=3799 (Accessed: 23 August 13).

Hanan, M. T. (2010) "Gender and leadership styles in single-sex academic institutions",

International Journal of Educational Management, 4(24), pp.287 - 302.

Limbare,S. (2012) ‘Leadership Styles & Conflict Management Styles of Executives’,

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations,1(48), pp.172-180.

Rickards, T.(2009) Dilemmas of Leadership. 2nd edn. New York: Routledge.

South China Morning Post. (2012) Karzai has style of a born leader. Available

at:http://www.scmp.com/article/370921/karzai-has-style-born-leader (Accessed: 23 August 13).

The Embassy of Afghanistan, Washington. DC. (2013) Embassy of Afghanistan: Role in

Promoting Business and Investment in Afghanistan. [ONLINE] Available

at:http://www.aisa.org.af/presentations/UsEconomicTradeInvestmentDepartmentOverview.pdf

(Accessed: 23 August 13).

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