ARI Online Public lecture “Economic management, aid dependency and state failure in Afghanistan”
Online
Date
17 October 2024
Time
17:00 Bishkek
This lecture draws on recently completed research to explore a contradiction within the liberal approach to state-building. Central to this discussion are issues of state economic management, aid dependency, and state failure. In post-war liberal state-building efforts, a market economy is often expected to generate sufficient revenue through private sector taxes. However, these tax revenues typically fall short, and tax institutions are frequently overlooked in reconstruction. Consequently, states become heavily reliant on foreign aid (Official Development Assistance, or ODA), managed by external agencies, ultimately undermining the development of the state's bureaucracy. The lecture introduces the concept of a "deferred revenue regime," arguing that this reliance on ODA encapsulates the inherent contradictions of the state-building model. Using Afghanistan (2002–2021) as a case study, it traces key policy decisions over time to illustrate how economic management exacerbated ODA dependency.
About the speaker:
Kambaiz Rafi is a political economist with research interests in institutions and economic development, the political economy of development, economic resource allocation, and state-building challenges. He served as a Teaching Fellow in the Comparative Politics of Development at the School of Government and International Affairs (SGIA), Durham University, during the 2023-2024 academic year. Before this, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Kambaiz holds a PhD from the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London. His book Patriarchal Hierarchy: Market Capitalism and Production in Afghanistan (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2022) examines the economy of post-conflict internationalised state-building with a focus on the reconstruction of Afghanistan's economy during the US-led international intervention.
Format: Online
Language: English
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83985569675?pwd=tr45u497bz9w7KeLP1EQlT9wgdbYgK.1
Passcode: 350702