Creation of effective institutions is an important component of state-building. The US-led international intervention in Afghanistan initially aimed at state-building in Afghanistan because it was assumed that a failed state poses threats to both its own citizens as well as to the global security. Afghanistan under the Taliban was a haven for the world terrorists that could jeopardize the security of other countries.
In the meanwhile, the Taliban had turned Afghanistan into an Islamic Emirate without functioning institutions that could provide security and deliver services to the people. There was not any human- dignity-based judiciary to serve as the ultimate arbitrator among the citizens.
Human rights were violated on a large scale. The internal aspect of the brutality of the Taliban regime, however, did not produce any humanitarian feelings in other powerful countries that are responsible for the world security under the current international system and order and they remained silent when Afghans were being massacred, injured and displaced.
They launched a humanitarian intervention into Afghanistan when they were directly attacked and assaulted by those lunatic fringes that had sought shelter in the country under the Taliban regime. After the ruthless regime of the Taliban was driven out of power, Afghanistan was described as a prime example of liberation at the beginning of twenty first century.
State-building, which is about external efforts to influence the domestic authority structures of the country, was one of the objectives to be pursued by the international community. Democratization processes were supported by the international community to allow human rights, individual freedom, women's active presence and participation in the society, development of an effective education system and peaceful management of conflicts between individuals and groups.
This support for democratization processes did produce some tangible results in areas of education, women's rights and freedom of press and media. But at the present time international commitment to sustained support for democratic consolidation and state-building has begun to waver and their focus has shifted on paving the ground for an honorable exit.
This fatigue with the broader post-conflict democratic consolidation is understandable in that the efforts were to a large extent hampered and impeded by the Afghan leader as he followed a corrupt network of clientelism that has led to a rampant corruption, hindering good governance and generating gap between the government and people.
As a result, the public support for both the government and its international backers and allies dwindled significantly because of the people's frustration with international support for a corrupt mafia government. This is how a widely and warmly welcomed international intervention changed into a frustration. Unfortunately, it is again the Afghan people who will suffer from lack of effective state institutions and drop in international aid.