Governance and corruption in Afghanistan

By Dave Anderson:

Here are three interesting quotes regarding governance in Afghanistan from three very different bloggers over the past week:

Zenpundit:

Karzai�s counterinsurgency strategy does not have much to do with
ours, and is largely antithetical to it. What we call �corruption�,
Karzai sees as buying loyalty; what we call good governance, Karzai
views as destabilizing his regime. We are not on the same page with
Hamid Karzai and perhaps not even in the same playbook.

Spencer Ackerman at Danger Room regarding a US brigade commander's assessment of governance in his area of operation during his tour:

George titled of those slides �How Locals Ranked The Enemies To
Progress.� Through the locals� eyes, the slide reported four big
challenges. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban rank dead last. A �Corrupt and
Ineffective Government� is number one....

The second and third problems roiling are the dual challenges of
�Criminal Networks and Graft� and the government�s �Lack of Inclusion of
Respected Leaders at the Local Level.� The area has natural resources �
like timber with high-grade cedar � that could serve as economic
drivers. But as the Wall Street Journal has documented, in 2006
the Karzai government instituted a ban
on logging as a questionable save-the-forests maneuver.
Unsurprisingly, logging didn�t stop. It just went underground and became
illicit, benefiting the insurgency and reinforcing what George�s slide
called a �take what you can get when you can get it� mentality that the
locals resent.

Finally Matthew Yglesias looks at US COIN cash flow practices through the lens of developmental economics.  When a firehose of cash is aimed at a poor place, corruption and capital flight ensues:

I think a lot of what�s wrong with counterinsurgency practice in the
contemporary U.S. military can be understood as a massive exercise in
repeating decades-old mistakes in development economics. For example,
what happens when you flood a very poor country with money? If you think
the answer is �it becomes rich� you ought
to think harder...:

Jabarkhel is referring to the huge amounts of money regularly being
secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases. According
to some estimates, since 2007, at least $3 billion (�2.4 billion) in
cash has left the country in this way. The preferred destination for
these funds is Dubai, the tax haven in the Persian Gulf.

None of these things are surprising.  Local actors are responding to local incentives and their own interests.  They have agency and they are willing to use it. 

Time to rethink American strategy to include the amazing insight that Afghans have agency and their own agendas.