Afghan paid a high price to history and the future holds a great promise for them. The geographic and geostrategic experience provided a national apprehension, and downfall of the Taliban regime further provided an unprecedented opportunity to its leaders to install a democratic and stable government. The Afghan nation must have learnt a lesson of stabilizing Afghanistan from the decades ‘Great Powers warfare’ on their land. Now it is a dire need of time to activate every individual spirit of political proficiency to rebuild this shattered state which has been exploited by using various ideologies for their political purposes by many regional and great powers.

After 2014 elections there is improvement in the structural reforms and national and foreign policies but still this nascent democratic government has multiple challenges to head-on in the future. For stabilization, more comprehensive approaches are required with regional players to form a strong democratic state based on organized national army, nation-wide political parties and stable economy.

The economy of Afghanistan is not strong enough to sustain and support its own security forces without foreign aids now. Despite the donors at the Tokyo conference pledged an additional $16 billion in civilian aid through 2015; the Government of Afghanistan will need to overcome a number of challenges, including low revenue collection, job creation, high levels of corruption, weak government capacity. It could no longer depend on aids and financial support unless take advantage of its own resources and provide a room of opportunity to international investment and enhance its economic ties in the region.

The sustainability of a peaceful state is concerned with the economic and security policies. How the New Afghan Government design foreign policies towards the changing polarity of the world? The traditional peace approaches of polycentric foreign policy towards its neighbors and a peaceful settlement with Taliban is required to sustain political apparatus in the long run. Only polycentric approaches would add up more to peace in the region and policies of the strategic interests could be better transformed into economic interests by understanding with regional players. The regional great powers like Russia and China are wisely remaking regional security landscape in Asia to contain the US geopolitical strategies. The China Strategic-economic policy in South Asia and Central Asia provides a chance of more stable and peaceful Afghanistan. The government could better utilize these options to enhance its security and develop economic ties with regional countries to keep away the rival states of playing politics of proxy in Afghanistan.

Another challenge for the government is elements of internal instability which includes the warlord’s influence and the religious fundamentalism present in the roots of society. They reject the political and democratic process in the country. The new government steps indicate that significant progress has been made towards democratization. As more Afghans now understand democracy in terms of fundamental political rights, feel politically proficient, and believe that democracy is compatible with cultural-tribal system.  So far these positive gains provide hope to transport public confidence in democracy however government institutions do not provide effective responses to people’s needs for security and economic and social development. Therefore, state functionality needs strong democratic nation-wide political parties to play a vital role in the next election.

Bolstering government legitimacy in Afghanistan requires processes that could address corruption, elite control over government, political exclusion of women and minorities, and the need for significant structural reforms. In doing so, the role of media cannot be ignored which is an important tool to mobilize the mass for government legitimization in the country. It must focus its energies to utilize media for a social and political purpose which could shape conciliatory psyche of the coming generation. The active participation of youth was very positive during the 2014 presidential election campaigns but still needs to enhance their energies for political awareness especially democracy and building of national character. For instance, Afghanistan has one of the highest proportions of youth in the world which has the potential to absorb itself into strong political framework. This younger generation would transform a war-torn country into more secure and prosperous place to live. Now it is the responsibility of the government to keep aware the coming educated generation of the past political experiences so that they could unhurriedly replace the old power of warlords and religious conservatives. But this power transformation needs time and political mobilization to fully engage youth by providing opportunities of participation in the state affairs. This could build better generation engaged with the 21st Century world politics so that the next decade power in Afghanistan will shift from aging generation of warlordism and conservative fundamentalism to more tolerant younger Afghan. The best option for the government is to induct youth into the state machinery to regulate and implement comprehensive measures in the future.

As rejectionists of Democracy spans various theological and political strains. The religious members are reluctant about democracy in general and elections in particular. The denunciation against democracy and modern electoral politics is a well-known characteristic of the ideology of the religious groups in the country. They have become increasingly visible, with activists systematically preaching against election and women participation in the state affairs. The women rights are an addressable challenge for the coming generation to provide equal space in the political and social affairs of the country. The tragedies like Farkhunda by a mob raise serious questions for the new government. It is important to avoid such tragedies in the future and needs to provide equal rights to women that are widely accepted across all segments of society. The development of institutional arrangements to promote the increased participation of women in social and political affairs has moved far ahead of social attitudes that still restrict the choices and involvement of women in many spheres of life. Much progress is still needed to move beyond headcounts and achieve meaningful participation of women in Afghanistan’s economic, social and political processes.

Now this is a high time for a nation to learn a lesson of stabilization and put national energies in the welfare and building of the country. The challenges of insurgency and economy have to be resolved through better channelization of state policies. Every citizen is responsible to guard and contribute for the betterment of this nation. There is need of structural reforms internally and devising rational approaches towards the regional politics to avoid further chaos and devastation.