After the Taliban regime fell in late 2001, Afghan state building significantly depended on external military and financial support – this dependence was greater than during any other period since 1747 – and the “war on terror” dominated the nature of foreign donors’ engagement. Between 2002 and 2009, foreign aid constituted an average of approximately 71 per cent of GDP and financed more than 90 per cent of public expenditures through on- and off-budget mechanisms. Four-fifths of the expenditures, however, bypassed the Afghan state through off-budget mechanisms.