Bonn Agreement (Afghanistan)

The Bonn Agreement (officially the Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-Establishment of Permanent Government Institutions) was the initial series of agreements passed on December 5, 2001 and intended to re-create the State of Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Since no nationally agreed-upon government had existed in Afghanistan since 1979, it was felt necessary to have a transition period before a permanent government was established. A nationally agreed-upon government would require at least one loya jirga to be convened; however, in the absence of law and order in the wake of the rapid victory of American and Afghan Northern Alliance forces, immediate steps were felt to be required.

In December 2001, 25 prominent Afghans met under UN auspices in Bonn, Germany, to decide on a plan for governing the country (see list of signatories at International Conference on Afghanistan, Bonn (2001)). By inviting warlords capable enough to disrupt the state building process, a "big tent" strategy was enacted in order to incorporate, rather than alienate, these non-state actors in Afghan state centralization. As a result, the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) - made up of 30 members, headed by a chairman - was inaugurated on 22 December 2001 with a six-month mandate to be followed by a two-year Transitional Authority' (TA), after which elections are to be held.

One of the sections of the Bonn Agreement envisaged the establishment of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).Resolution 1386 of the United Nations Security Council subsequently established ISAF.

Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the Bonn Agreement laid the foundation for U.S. and NATO-backed state-building efforts in Afghanistan. The agreement sought to establish a new constitution, an independent judiciary, free and fair elections, a centralized security sector, and the protection of rights of minorities, including women and religious and ethnic groups. This model for state-building in Afghanistan was based on a ‘maximalist model of post-conflict reconstruction’ that surfaced in the 1990s, following international interventions in the Balkans, sub-Saharan Africa and East Timor.

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