Afghanistan in 2007

On January 14th we were fortunate to host an event with the Asia Foundation on the report "2007 Afghan Public Opinion Poll." Mr. George Varughese briefly went through the results of the poll, followed by Seth Jones, a RAND Afghanistan specialist, with PCR Project Co-Director Rick Barton moderating. Dr. Varughese explained that one of the major reasons for the poll, which is the third undertaken by the Asia Foundation since 2004, is to inform and build capacity in Afghanistan. The Asia Foundation elaborates:

The 2007 survey captures the Afghan public’s perceptions of reconstruction, security, governance, and poppy cultivation -- as well as attitudes towards government and informal institutions, the role of women and Islam in society, and the impact of media. The fieldwork for the survey was conducted in June 2007, and consists of a random sample of 6,263 in-person interviews with Afghan men and women 18 years of age and above, from different social, economic, and ethnic communities in rural and urban areas in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.

To read more about the survey please click here for the online version. Seth Jones applauded the concrete findings of the poll, and utilizing his expertise on the country, decided to put the survey into some perspective. He explained that the economy from 2005 to 2007 increased, while inflation subsided (to an extent). On the democratic front, 63% of Afghans offer positive views of Karzai, which he notes is higher than presidents in some western countries. Nonetheless, other metrics show reason for concern, for example, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from 2005 to 2006, suicide bombing quadrupled, albeit mostly in the Helmand-Kandahar southern areas. Jones also took some time to highlight the history of the rise of an insurgency, arguing that few occur because of ideological reasons but instead due to governance issues, such as services (i.e. electric) and/or corruption, and local level security (or the lack thereof). Jones also pointed out the influence of outsiders on governance, therefore highlighting the importance of looking at Afghanistan in a regional context, such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan front. In our Breaking Point and Perilous Course reports, we also emphasize the importance of looking at Afghanistan through a regional lens. Jones concluded with insisting on the integral task of international contributors to help, especially in the south, the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) clear and HOLD a territory.