Afghanistan and The Global Conference Bazaar

The situation in Afghanistan seems to have become a subject of real global concern. In a matter of less than two months, over five international conferences/summits have been devoted to discussing the Afghanistan crisis. Are such parallel and overlapping conferences justified when the scoio-economic situation in Afghanistan is going from bad to worse?

The agenda of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Summit meeting for 2009 is Afghanistan. The NATO’s Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has been invited to attend the Summit scheduled for March 27.  On March 31 an International Conference on Afghanistan is scheduled to be held in Hague. Over 70 countries and nine organizations including UN and NATO have been invited for the Conference and are expected to discuss vital issues of administration, security and future development in Afghanistan. The conference has been organized at the initiative of the U.S. but would be presided over by the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Iran’s participation in the conference has already created much news and is viewed by many as an ice-breaker in U.S. –Iran relations. The NATO Summit in Germany and France during April 3-4 is expected to be dominated by discussion on Afghanistan. The NATO Defense Ministers have already met in February and deliberated on the challenges in Afghanistan. Not to forget the special segment on “The Future of Alliance and Mission in Afghanistan” at the Munich Security Conference in February.

Hopefully this marathon of conferences will provide some tangible answers to the real problems facing Afghanistan and not be confined to mere diplomatic exchanges.