Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan: Nation-building and combating Al-Qaeda¿s ideology

Matthew Bugeja is a dual American-Maltese citizen, residing in Malta. He completed his Bachelor s degree - with Honors - in International Relations from the University of Malta, with his dissertation being focused on the Iraqi insurgency. He then went on to complete his Master s degree in International Relations, with the focus again being on conflict and irregular warfare.
The author currently is a full-time Research Analyst with the Maltese Government. He also is a Visiting Assistant Lecturer at the University of Malta, lecturing on relations between India & Pakistan, and a Security Analyst with a private intelligence company.

Extract:
Chapter 2, Terrorism & Failed States - A review of literature: No challenge in international relations today is more pressing or more difficult than that of supporting weak states (Kofi Annan, Former U.N. Secretary General).
The link between al Qaeda as a terror entity and Afghanistan's current instability as a nation-state had often been cited by both Western states and scholars as a reason for continued foreign presence in Afghanistan. With the onset of a global recession in 2008, and a drawn out war which has not delivered satisfactory results, that view has been altered somewhat. An increasingly loud chorus are questioning the benefit of the war effort both in Afghanistan as well as the efforts against al Qaeda and calling for the immediate withdrawal of forces there as a result of the lack of progress made. However, it seems as though the relation between al Qaeda as a terror entity, and subsequently, the threat it may pose in the future, has been tied to Afghanistan's own future prospects as a viable nation state. However, it is an issue which is worthy of scrutiny, in order to ascertain whether al Qaeda poses a threat from Afghanistan and what is necessary in order to stabilize the latter, with particular emphasis on whether a link truly exists between them. Until a linkage between an elusive, transnational terrorist entity and an impoverished war-torn nation is either proven or broken, the tangled yarn that Afghanistan has come to exemplify as a mixture of contemporary international security, transnational terrorism and nation-building in a globalized world will continue to confound and frustrate researchers.
It may well be that the failings are not due simply to the complexity and breadth of the task at hand, as a number of scholars have been saying for a number of years - but also failing to realize that the hazards posed by both al Qaeda and Afghanistan are still significant, but unlike in Western analysis and government rhetoric, they are separate issues with their own causations. As a result, each should with its own specific, targeted strategy, detached from one another. In essence, the strategic trajectories for tackling al Qaeda and dealing with Afghanistan's issues should be separate.
The purpose of this literature review is to analyze, and subsequently analyze the works which have been published on the area of al Qaeda and its relationship with Afghanistan over the last several years, in order to establish a foundation for the book s own analysis.
Al Qaeda as a specimen of transnational terrorism:
Al Qaeda is a phenomenon that is a familiar topic in the field of international relations in the last several years. Since 2001, a plethora of articles, books, reports and dissertations have been written about the group, which was first established by Osama bin Laden in the twilight years of the occupation of Afghanistan, as will be outlined in the third chapter of this book. As of the mid-1990 s, the group s professed aim was to attack U.S. interests around the globe in order to ensure that the Americans withdraw its support for Israel and apostate Arab regimes in the Middle East amongst others. Al Qaeda s international agenda has come to change the way in which terrorism is viewed in the realm of international relations, as its ambitions and rhetoric pose a direct threat to not only to established governments in the Muslim world, but Western interests there as well.
Conceptualizing al Qaeda as a terrorist entity within a concept as ambiguous as terrorism has proved to be no mean feat for researchers and governments alike since September 11th 2001. As noted by Brown, nearly every act of terrorism has been both defined and criminalized by the U.N, such as hijacking or hostage taking, and yet an agreeable definition remains elusive. The international community has yet to establish a working definition that can be agreed upon by nation states, a point which has been long lamented by long standing terro