ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the place leadership roles in a general analytic framework, one which will help explain the evolution of Afghan leadership patterns. Journalists, academics and "old Afghan hands" have all contributed the assessment of their leaders. The evident staying power of the resistance seems to indicate a more robust political process than previously assumed. For better or worse the war has forced Afghans into an unenviable role. The resultant absence of consensually based leadership merely reflects the complex dynamics of political and social realignments that are taking place in Afghan society. Political leadership has been the domain of Pushtuns in Afghanistan, in part because Pushtuns formed the largest segment of the population and also exercised the monopoly of political power. The precarious mission of the Afghan state to promote modernity in Afghanistan always has been judged by its ability to mitigate and presumably extirpate hostilities.
