2013

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

Adil Riaz
GEL/9262040/Jul13/2
8/26/2013

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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 Talibans office in Doha, Qatar, was a paving step to end the Afghan war. Pakistans military played a vital role in convincing Talibans 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 dont 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 Obamas 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 Talibans 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 its 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-visitpakistan-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-talibanpakistan-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-torelocate-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-Qataroffice-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 doesnt 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 doesnt 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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