Policy Advice and Support to the International Afghanistan Conference 2011

Project context

The year 2011 saw a number of key changes in the relationship between Afghanistan and the international community. After years of debate among and within major governments, the door toward political negotiations with leading insurgent organizations was opened. A timeline and a closing date – 31 December 2014 – were attached to the previously open-ended intervention of NATO-led military forces, and the transition of full security responsibility to Afghan security forces began. Key regional and international stakeholders made a renewed diplomatic effort toward a more benign regional order.

On 5 December 2011, marking the 10th anniversary of the Petersberg Conference in 2001, Germany hosted the largest international conference on Afghanistan to date. Under Afghan chairmanship, this Bonn conference was designed to lay the groundwork for the relations between Afghanistan and the world in 2015 and beyond. After the end of the current international military engagement, Afghanistan will likely be fully responsible for its security but far from capable of maintaining it on its own. The well-being of its population will continue to depend on international assistance as well. In a bid to stabilize expectations for this crucial medium-term period, the international community was asked in Bonn to commit to an updated framework of assistance for another decade after 2014 that includes both security needs (such as helping to pay for increasingly sustainable national security forces) as well as civilian assistance (such as reconstruction and development).

Project objectives

The German Federal Foreign Office contracted GPPi to support policy development and political preparations for the International Afghanistan Conference in Bonn 2011 by assigning an expert to its conference task force from June to December 2011. Philipp Rotmann acted as an adviser to the government’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Michael Steiner, and supported the entire conference team throughout a series of bilateral and multilateral consultations that culminated in the conference itself.

The project provided drafting support for policy documents, public as well as confidential, communications as well as negotiation analytic support in a complex multiparty process involving the governments of Afghanistan, its major partners and the International Contact Group for Afghanistan and Pakistan with its more than 50 states and international organizations (which is chaired by Germany).

Project outputs

For the official documents of the International Afghanistan Conference 2011, please see the host government’s conference website, which includes the conference conclusions. 

For more information on this project, please contact Philipp Rotmann.