ABSTRACT
This chapter deploys the model of the triadic nexus to direct the spotlight on the complex and relational interplay of actors and structures that directed the conflict primarily along an ethno-political trajectory. Rogers Brubaker's model sharply focuses on the state as an actor in the larger social and political interplay in which it operates. The chapter engages with the question concerning the particular timing of the pronounced ethno-political salience in Afghanistan by drawing upon interventions of Lewis Coser and Klaus Schilchte. In the case of Afghanistan, undeniably the effectiveness of the state machinery was seriously undermined as a consequence of prolonged conflict, saddling people in the urban areas in particular with the responsibility to provide for their own security. The constitution as a symbol of legitimacy gingerly grew in strength, gauged from the fact that one of the first acts of every Afghan government since 1923 was enactment of a new constitution.
