About the Report

In March 2015, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Chatham House, and Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law held a two-day conference on “State-Strengthening in Afghanistan 2001–2014: Learning from the Past to Inform the Future.” CDDRL's Erik Jensen and Karl Eikenberry represented CDDRL at this event. This report comprises a selection of papers presented at the conference. One of the papers entitled, "Rule of Law and Statebuilding in Afghanistan: Testing Theory with Practice" was co-authored by CDDRL's Erik Jensen. The papers look back critically at thirteen years of international intervention in Afghanistan, focusing on the impact of state-strengthening exercises on security, democratization, governance, the economy, rule of law, infrastructure, civil society participation, youth development, and women’s empowerment. They describe, from the perspective of Afghan and international policy makers and experts, the immense and often unforseen challenges in rebuilding the Afghan state.