Pashtun Traditions versus Western Perceptions
Cross-Cultural Negotiations in Afghanistan
Cross-cultural interactions take place every day in contemporary Afghanistan between locals and the thousands of foreigners working in the country as diplomats, officials from international organisations and humanitarian aid workers. As their work requires them to interact with Afghans in manifold ways, all foreigners are, at least indirectly, required to negotiate. Karrer’s ePaper sheds light on the cross-cultural issues likely to contribute to the difficulties encountered by the internationa...
Note de l’éditeur
Cover An Afghan man passes by a body building center's billboard depicting hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kabul, 28 February 2003. Since the fall of the Taliban regime, during which the representation of humans was outlawed, commercial bilboards are mushrooming in the Afghan capital. Photo: AFP / Jewel Samad.
Éditeur : Graduate Institute Publications
Lieu d’édition : Genève
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 4 décembre 2012
ISBN numérique : 978-2-940503-11-7
DOI : 10.4000/books.iheid.536
Collection : eCahiers de l’Institut | 16
Année d’édition : 2012
ISBN (Édition imprimée) : 978-2-940503-10-0
Cross-cultural interactions take place every day in contemporary Afghanistan between locals and the thousands of foreigners working in the country as diplomats, officials from international organisations and humanitarian aid workers. As their work requires them to interact with Afghans in manifold ways, all foreigners are, at least indirectly, required to negotiate. Karrer’s ePaper sheds light on the cross-cultural issues likely to contribute to the difficulties encountered by the international community in negotiating with Afghans, as well as for Afghans negotiating with foreigners. Through an analysis of academic literature, Karrer broadly outlines selected elements of Pashtun, in contrast to Western, negotiation culture, discusses the extent to which this negotiation culture may be attributed to Pashtun tradition, and attempts to highlight the complexity of Afghan negotiation behaviour against the binary indexing predominant in the preconceived cluster of Western cross-cultural negotiation and communication theories. Karrer’s research yields some significant insights into the impacts of cross-cultural issues on negotiation. Largely, he finds that current cross-cultural theories fail to provide a solid basis upon which to interpret the reality that exists on the ground in Afghanistan.
This Paper draws on a final research work submitted to fulfil the requirements of the Executive Master in International Negotiation and Policy-Making (INP). The views and opinions expressed in this ePaper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position position of Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).
Dr. Leo Karrer has worked as a physician in the surgical departments of Geneva University Hospital as well as at the Hospital of La Chaux-de-Fonds. After spending twelve months as a detention physician with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan, he obtained an Executive Master in International Negotiation and Policy-Making from the Graduate Institute, while again working as a physician at Lausanne University Hospital. After passing the "diplomatic concours", he joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 2012 and is currently undergoing a one-year training, as an Attaché in the Political and Legal Affairs section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. Leo is married and he is the father of a daughter born in 2011.
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Creative Commons - Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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