This new book, by Afghan scholar Timor Shahran, describes how political networks and centers of power have engaged in clientelism, corruption and illegality. These networks effectively constituted the Afghan state and became an integral part of the US-led military intervention and the internationally-led state-building project.

Sharan argues that politics and statehood in Afghanistan, particularly over the past two decades, including the ultimate collapse of government in August 2021, are best understood in terms of the dynamics of internal political networks, through which warlords and patronage networks came to capture and control key sectors within the state and economy, including mining, banking and illicit drugs as well as elections and other processes policies.

Overall, the book offers a way to explain why the international community as well as Afghan ruling elites got it so wrong, and how Afghanistan has come full circle with the return of the Taliban to power nearly two decades later. his overthrow in the US-led intervention in 2001.

President: Torunn Wimpelmann

Sign:
Timor Shahran
Andrew Watkins

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