Publication

This report analyzes the roles Afghan provincial governors played during Hamid Karzai’s presidency, which lasted from 2004 to 2014. More specifically, the text’s author draws on the interviews she conducted in Kabul in the spring of 2014 to describe Afghanistan's subnational politics and why they have sabotaged the hope for a radically new and improved brand of governance within the country. Last, the author assesses the attempts by Karzai's successor, Ashraf Ghani, to reform the provincial governor system that’s still in place.