Dr. Fishel:

Ambassador Holbrooke is the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP). If asked the Special Representative of whom? I assume (although am not 100 percent sure) that the answer is the President of the United States. Regardless, it is clear to everyone that I have talked to at the State Department (and the NSC) that Ambassador Holbrooke is in charge of civilian decisionmaking regarding Afghanistan and Pakistan. As far as I know, the only persons that Ambassador Holbrooke answers to are Secretary Clinton and President Obama.

In the case of Afghanistan, I think there is an explicit line of authority from POTUS to Ambassador Eikenberry and to GEN McChrystal. As Chief of Mission, Ambassador Eikenberry has a direct line to the President (at least theoretically) as the President's representative to the Government of Afghanistan and has authority over all USG executive branch civilians in Afghanistan (except those directly assigned to CENTCOM). And when wearing his Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan hat GEN McChrystal's chain of command goes up through GEN Petraeus and Secretary Gates to POTUS.

What I find interesting is the new "Integrated Civilian-Military Decisionmaking Structure" in Afghanistan. This structure has five levels and at the top is the "Principals Group" which consists of two persons, Ambassador Eikenberry and GEN McChrystal. (This group seems to me to be an effort to institutionalize the relationship enjoyed by GEN Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker in Iraq.) In addition, the middle level of this structure is the "Regional Integrated Team" (IT-R). This IT-R now exists in RC-East and RC-South and consists of the ISAF Commander and the Senior Civilian Representative. I do not think that it has registered with a lot of people that the RC-East and RC-South Commanders now have civilian U.S. counterparts.