Anthony Hyman Memorial Lecture 2026 - The UN in Afghanistan: from state building to survival, rethinking the UN’s role

Drawing on his experience and engagement in a range of United Nations roles in and on Afghanistan from 2001 to the present day, Mark Bowden will examine how the UN’s role has been shaped—and constrained—by the political settlement forged at the Bonn Conference.

The exclusion of the Taliban and the adoption of a highly centralised presidential system limited the prospects for durable state-building from the outset and framed the UN’s subsequent role in constitutional and electoral processes, where questions of legitimacy remained unresolved. At the same time, competing approaches to reconstruction—including militarised “hearts and minds” programmes, community-driven development, and state-centric funding—produced a fragmented aid architecture, reinforced by the dominance of Provincial Reconstruction Teams and disputes over trust funds, including between the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.

As the UN’s role evolved from political architect to system manager, its involvement in elections, including the 2014 Government of National Unity, highlighted both its continuing relevance and its limits. The Taliban’s rapid takeover in 2021 placed the UN at the centre of debates over recognition, human rights, and humanitarian response, accelerating a shift toward engagement through humanitarian assistance. These tensions are now reflected in ongoing United Nations Security Council discussions, where pressure to scale back the UN mission and cuts in international aid raise fundamental questions about its future and about how long the Taliban will see value in a UN presence that cannot confer recognition but remains a key channel for international engagement and reporting.