Education for Demilitarizing Youth in Post-Conflict Afghanistan

This article examines both the largely negative role that education has played historically in contributing to conflict in Afghanistan and the ways that education has been purposefully employed as a post-conflict strategy aimed at building peace and social cohesion. The growing attention among academics and policy makers to the role of youth in post-conflict contexts, and the urgent need to reintegrate ex-combatants has led to the implementation of educational programming directed at Afghan youth as a central part of the country's Demobilization, Demilitarization, Reintegration (DDR) effort. Drawing on the author's field research and experience working on literacy programming for youth and adults in Afghanistan, this article investigates how the unfulfilled aspirations and needs of a 'lost generation' of young Afghans have been addressed within DDR processes. It argues that the adoption of a more dialectic approach to the educational programming provided through DDR - one that engages with and offers alternatives to education's previously negative manifestations - may offer more potential than current programming.