A Guide to Government in Afghanistan has three objectives: i) to provide newcomers to the administrative and political scene in Afghanistan with a basic guide to the structures and processes of government; ii) to provide reformers with some understanding of how to work 'with the grain' of the existing institutional arrangements; and iii) to pay tribute to the remarkable people who have kept the system running and who are now reforming it. In pursuing these objectives, this guide attempts to set out the underlying strengths of the public sector, describing the evolution of the Afghan state,...