Afghan Governance Report

[Entropy]

Interesting report from the Center for American Progress.

We believe the current Afghan formal government is in need of serious political and economic reforms to survive over the medium to long term. The Afghan population currently has few means of expressing dissent regarding policies carried out by the international community and the Karzai government, which operates on a highly centralized patronage model in which power and resources are channeled through Hamid Karzai’s personal and political allies. The system lacks the connection, rules, and checks and balances necessary to make leaders truly accountable to the domestic population, which invites corruption, rent-seeking, and a hemorrhaging of domestic legitimacy. Local governmental bodies are the appropriate places for representing Afghans and responding to their needs, but these currently suffer from a lack of capacity, confusion over their roles and authorities, and little legitimacy.

The system’s continued survival is also dependent on large flows of international support, and the international community has struggled to change the Afghan government’s increasing dependence, governmental weakness, and rampant corruption. In fact, in many cases it has fostered these negative dynamics.

[Jedburgh]

Military Review, Jan-Feb 11: Local Governance and COIN in Eastern Afghanistan, 2004-2008

This article examines local governance at the provincial, district, and municipal levels in the area of Afghanistan covered by Regional Command-East from 2004 to 2008. It reviews how local governance related to counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy and operations; how governance evolved at the national level, particularly with the establishment of the Independent Directorate for Local Governance in 2007; and how changes in the national laws may have an impact on counterinsurgency....