Neutrality and Vulnerable States An Analysis of Afghanistan’s Permanent Neutrality

This book offers a timely and concise academic and historical background to the concept and practice of neutrality, a relatively new phenomenon in foreign and security policy.

It approaches two key questions: under what circumstances can permanent neutrality be applied, and what are the main ingredients of success and the causes of failure in applying permanent neutrality? By evaluating, comparing, and contrasting the two successful European case studies of Austria and Switzerland and the two challenging Asian case studies of Afghanistan and Laos, the author creates a new framework of analysis to explore the feasibility of reframing, adopting, and applying a policy of neutrality and jump start debates on the feasibility of the idea of ?new neutrality?. He opens the debate by asking whether, as neutrality successfully functioned as a conflict resolution tool during the Cold War, a reframed and adopted version of neutrality could also serve the needs of the twenty-first-century world order.

This is an insightful book for all scholars, students, and policymakers workingin international relations, security studies, the history of neutrality, and Afghanistan studies.

Introduction Chapter One: Definitions, Types and Evolution of the Concept and Practice of Neutrality Chapter Two: A Framework for Analysis Chapter Three: Prominent Cases of Permanent Neutrality— Switzerland, Austria and Laos Chapter Four: Neutrality in Afghanistan’s Foreign Policy: Past and Future Chapter Five: Analysis of the feasibility and desirability of Afghanistan’s permanent neutrality

Nasir A. Andisha is a diplomat and academic. His research interests include international relations, regional security, politics, and governance in South and Central Asia. He received a doctoral degree in diplomatic studies from the Australian National University in 2015. Andisha was a Fulbright fellow at the Bush School of Government in Texas A&M University (2007–2009), a fellow at the Marshall Centre for European Studies in Garmisch, Germany and the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, USA, and attended the Executive Education Program for Leaders from South Asia at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2012. He worked with the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) as a field officer (1998–2001) and taught international relations at the Institute of Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan and Al-Beroni University in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan.