Lost in transition: A political strategy for Afghanistan

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Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, 22 May 2012
Scott Smith and Andrew Wilder discuss Afghan election scenarios, argue (very rightly so) that ‘the international community has inherited a partial responsibility for ensuring that the next elections play the role of consensus-building and state legitimation that would be the most likely way to save the country from civil war’. Among other points, they call for a kind of ‘election conditionality’ on aid for the upcoming Tokyo conference. But they also point to issues which stand in the way: like the US’ likely continued hesitation to raise election issues with Karzai because it doesn’t want to rock the boat on course for the still open status-of-forces agreement.