The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2008

War turbulence endured by Korea, Vietnam and Nicaragua, Afghanistan deftly managed the competing superpower interests to its advantage. More remarkably, the Afghan government balanced competing ethnic and tribal rivalries, although some minorities, notably the Hazara, suffered persistent neglect. This successful bal- ance entailed blunting the interference of neighboring powers who sought to manipulate clans and local lead- ers. It was based on appeals to nationhood and, crucial- ly, reliance on a traditional structure of governance that corresponded with local political realities. Decentralization was the key. While the central gov- ernment addressed national issues related to defense, macrodevelopment, national commerce and provision of vital services, provincial and district governance was left to local leaders whose authority was based on their trib- al or ethnic-based political power. There was corruption and in some instances, such as a disastrous drought and famine in the north in the later years of Zahir Shah’s rule, the central government failed to respond in a timely and effective manner. But generally the system worked well, allowing cultural and social differences to manifest themselves without interference by the central govern- ment. For most Afghans, the king was far away and the village walls were high. The December 2001 Bonn process, which estab- lished an internationally supported scheme for post- Taliban governance in Afghanistan, was in many ways a remarkable achievement. A broad international consen- sus that, crucially, included a U.S.-Iranian-Pakistani understanding, it created the basis for compromise among fractious Afghans aligned largely on the basis of ethnicity, tribe and party identity. But in hindsight, the Bonn plan had a key flaw. Rather than adopt the decentralized model for Afghan govern- ance that had worked well prior to the 1978 advent of the Communist Party’s centralized rule, the Bonn conference endorsed a highly centralized, powerful executive model F O C U S J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 27