Abstract
One month after the attacks of September 11, 2001, in October 2001, the United States decided to invade Afghanistan in order to capture AlQaeda mastermind Ossama Ben Laden and to withdraw the Taliban regime. The "operation enduring freedom" was led by the US, with a majority of forces provided by the Afghan Northern Alliance and supported by NATO members United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, Italy and Germany. This operation went particularly quick: on November 12, Taliban forces fled from Kabul and the Northern Alliance entered the city on the 13th. Then, ousting the Taliban was finally easy. The hardest occurred to be providing a satisfying reconstruction of the state, with the built of efficient institutions in a democratic frame. Taking into account the troubled Afghan political past, this task would be a lot tougher. Indeed, when the delegates of the coalition met Afghan representatives in Bonn in December 2001 to decide a political process to restore stability and governance to the country, they understood the complexity of the situation. Afghanistan is religiously homogeneous with 80% of Sunni Muslims and 20% of Shia'as. Conversely, the country is ethnically divided. Seven different ethnic groups have been counted, event though there is very little reliable statistics to show the composition of the population.
