Authors: Stephen Biddle, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Defense Policy, Fotini Christia, and J. Alexander Thier, Assistant to the Administrator and Director, Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs, U.S. Agency for International Development
July/August 2010
Foreign Affairs
Since 2001, the West has tried to build a strong centralized government in Afghanistan. But such an approach fits poorly with the country's history and political culture. The most realistic and acceptable alternative models of governance are decentralized democracy and a system of internal mixed sovereignty.
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