Book review: Afghanistan works best in a federal structurewith a large amount of power devolved to theoutlying regions

Author Thomas Barfield introduces readers to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan and ultimately finds governance was relatively easy in the country when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but this delicate political order broke down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Afghanistan’s rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Matthew Partridge reviews. Afghanistan: A Political and Cultural History. Thomas Barfield. Princeton University Press. 2012.