Analyzing the Underlying Causes of the Afghan Intrastate Armed Conflict through the Lens of three Insurrection Approaches <Article>

This article looks at the question what lies at the root of insurrection under the context of state-in-decline? Three significant explanations emerges from the literature; in unmet human needs and surmounting fears which derive from perception of social and psychological conditions; in lingering grievances which emerge from political actions and prevailing cultural reality; and from uncontrollable greed and the motivations to loot through appropriative activities. Although the underlying theoretical foundations may dictate different conclusion for each of the provided explanations, we argue in a favor of an analytical framework which incorporates all three perspectives into a single paradigm. The logic is simple; engaging larger analytical framework provides safety in diagnosing underlying causes of intrastate armed conflicts in a holistic and precise manner. I have a high opinion of the conclusion of this article as follows: intrastate conflict becomes reality when local political situation fails to resolve highly salient issues of human needs, grievances and greed, whereby local political actors lose the balance of internal power-struggle and the effects of external political interactions on local political atmosphere (constituency). A classic example is the case of communist regime proximity with that of the Soviet Union back in late 1970s amid caught upon in two prone-struggles to resolve silent issues as well as survival of regime in internal political battle which ultimately sparked the intrastate armed conflict in Afghanistan.