... why would a strong central government be appropriate for Afghanistan? Their history is one of repelling invaders by independent action of many tribes. There is no history of the country being united under a single leader to repel invaders or invade others [am I correct in asserting this?]. The borders get redrawn in Afghanistan, but the people do not seem to care all that much, as they treat borders in the same way that Americans treat speed limits. It seems that the only people in favor of a strong central government are the outsiders, who want to create a state and to achieve their own national security objectives. Even if there were some yearning within Afghanistan to form a coherent political body that could meet the major characteristics of a state, this does not lead to the conclusion that the preferred form of that state would include a strong executive or even a strong central/federal government. It seems that a tribal confederation might be more appropriate or more appealing [note: I'm not advocating this, just citing an example].
One way to build a nation is to build a state and use it to create a national identity (who was it that said, “I’ve made Italy, now I need to make Italians”?). But Afghanistan already seems to have common characteristics sufficient be a nation: common religion, attachment to the same piece of land, ability to communicate with one another, even if the dialects vary, common history, identification with one another as significantly less foreign than those who live outside the internationally recognized borders, et cetera. Is nation-building necessary? Given that there seems no grass roots desire to build a strong central government, is nation-building likely to succeed if attempted by way of the state? Is building the state even likely to succeed?
The weakness of Afghanistan's tribal system, in terms of deterring or thwarting invasion, is that it does not function well if only a few tribes feel threatened. There is no incentive for the other tribes to fight against the invader. Perhaps some kind of government is necessary to prevent the country from becoming a haven to threaten others - some kind of mechanism whereby if a handful of tribes are overpowered by an organization then others will come to their aid. But beyond that, it seems that we may be imposing something upon them that they will refuse to accept.
Bookmarks