Table Of ContentInside Afghanistan
This book maps out how political networks and centres of power, engaged
in patronage, corruption, and illegality, effectively constituted the Afghan
state, often with the complicity of the U.S.-led military intervention and the
internationally directed statebuilding project. It argues that politics and statehood
in Afghanistan, in particular in the last two decades, including the ultimate
collapse of the 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 political
processes. Networked politics emerged as the dominant mode of governance that
further transformed and consolidated Afghanistan into a networked state, with
the state institutions and structures functioning as the principal “marketplace”
for political networks’ bargains and rent-seeking. The façade of state survival
and fragmented political order was a performative act, and the book contends,
sustained through massive international military spending and development aid,
obscuring the reality of resource redistribution among key networked elites and
their supporters. Overall, the book offers a way to explain what it was that the
international community and the Afghan elites in power got so wrong that brought
Afghanistan full circle and the Taliban back to power.
Timor Sharan is an Associate Fellow at IDEAS, London School of Economics
and Political Science’s foreign policy think tank, London, U.K. He was formerly
the International Crisis Group’s Policy Analyst for Afghanistan and worked as a
Senior Civil Servant for the Afghan government. He completed his doctorate at
the University of Exeter and his MPhil at the University of Cambridge, U.K.
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Political Networks, Informal Order, and State Disruption
Timor Sharan
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Inside Afghanistan
Political Networks, Informal Order, and
State Disruption
Timor Sharan
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Timor Sharan
The right of Timor Sharan to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-138-28015-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-33494-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16161-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781315161617
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
For Oktay and Keyah Mehr,
whose presence brought light at a dark and difficult time.
Contents
List of tables xi
List of figures xii
Preface xiii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 What are political networks? 3
1.2 Networked politics: a new mode of governance 7
1.3 What contributed to networked politics? 12
1.4 Post-2001 Afghanistan: a complex global assemblage 14
1.5 The post-2001 state and informal order 16
1.6 Political order in Afghanistan’s modern state formation 18
Notes 24
2 Political networks and the state: An analytical framework 28
Introduction 28
2.1 Typology of political networks 29
2.2 What holds a political network together? 31
2.3 Political networks survival and diversity of power
resources 33
2.4 Political networks and levels of engagement 36
2.5 P olitical networks and alliance formation 38
2.6 P olitical networks and institutional settings 40
2.7 T he safe state position(s) 47
2.8 I nternational aid and military presence as deterrence 48
Notes 49
3 The origins and evolution of political networks: Factionalism,
violence, and political settlements 52
Introduction 52
3.1 T he emergence of the PDPA: factionalism and violence 53
viii C ontents
3.2 I slamic jihadi tanzims, insurgency, and the 1992–2001 Civil
War 60
3.3 F ailed political settlements and consequences 65
Conclusion 67
Notes 68
4 The Bonn experiment and a flawed foundation: Re-assembling
and re-constituting the Afghan state (2001–2004) 74
Introduction 74
4.1 C apturing and re-assembling the state: a fragmented order 79
4.2 K arzai’s technocratic network flexing their muscle 102
Conclusion 108
Notes 109
5 Consolidating a political “Empire of Mud” (2004–2014) 118
Introduction 118
5.1 T he 2004 presidential elections: projecting power 120
5.2 P ower restructuring and alliance-building against
Karzai 121
5.3 R estructuring political order: capturing the Lower House and
provincial councils 123
5.4 B attling for control of provincial councils 126
5.5 T he pre-2009 presidential election dynamics, alliance-
building, and a crisis of legitimacy 129
5.6 N ew administration: new power-sharing 133
5.7 K arzai and the U.S.A.: a turbulent relationship 135
5.8 S tate institutions and patronage 136
5.9 A lliance-building in the lead-up to the 2014 elections 143
5.10 T he post-2014 election crisis: threat of coup and civil
war 146
Conclusion 148
Notes 150
6 The National Unity Government: Political order disruption
and strains 156
Introduction 156
6.1 N UG power-sharing, ethnicity, and political network
restructuring 159
6.2 T he underlying source of tension and discord 165
6.3 C oncentrating power in the palace 166
Contents ix
6.4 C entre–periphery relations: disrupting the provincial
order 168
6.5 A lost opportunity: crushing revisionist youth protest
movements 173
6.6 G hani: opposition alliances and disorder 176
6.7 T he 2019 presidential election: network dynamics and the
political settlement 178
Conclusion 180
Notes 181
7 Elections for sale: Manipulating identities and bargains 188
Introduction 188
7.1 T he U.S.A., the international community, and the veneer of
democracy 189
7.2 U nderlying sources of election disputes 191
7.3 A lliance-building, opportunism, and bargains 195
Conclusion 209
Notes 211
8 Parliament as a grand marketplace: Alliance-building,
auctions, and access 214
Introduction 214
8.1 A ssembling the house: composition, power dynamics, and
strains 216
8.2 T he 2010–2011 election and the Special Court crisis 223
Conclusion 234
Notes 235
9 International money as a “weapons system,” rent, and corruption 238
Introduction 238
9.1 W eaponising international money and its spell on the Afghan
state 240
9.2 C ustoms revenue and extortion 244
9.3 T he Kabul Bank case: a Ponzi scheme 247
9.4 C ontracting, collusion, and profiteering 252
9.5 T he extractive industry: violence and disorder 254
9.6 T aliban insurgency, illegality, and revenues 261
9.7 The façade of combating corruption 262
9.8 Resource flow: upward or downward? 265
Conclusion 267
Notes 267
