Whit Mason consults internationally on political development and directs the project on justice in peace-building and development in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney. He also works as an advisor to the United States Institute of Peace's dispute resolution programme in Afghanistan.

• 1. Introduction Whit Mason; Part I. The Scope and Nature of the Problem: 2. Approaching the rule of law Martin Krygier; 3. Deiokes and the Taliban: local governance, bottom-up state formation and the rule of law in counterinsurgency David J. Kilcullen; Part II. The Context: Where We Started: 4. The international community's failures in Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell; 5. The rule of law and the weight of politics: challenges and trajectories William Maley; 6. Human security and the rule of law: Afghanistan's experience Shahmahmood Miakhel; Part III. The Political Economy of Opium: 7. The Afghan insurgency and organised crime Gretchen Peters; 8. Afghanistan's opium strategy alternatives: a moment for masterful inactivity? Joel Hafvenstein; Part IV. Afghan Approaches to Security and the Rule of Law: 9. Engaging traditional justice mechanisms in Afghanistan: state-building opportunity or dangerous liaison? Susanne Schmeidl; 10. Casualties of myopia Michael Hartmann; 11. Land conflict in Afghanistan Colin Deschamps and Alan Roe; Part V. International Interventions: 12. Exogenous state-building: the contradictions of the international project in Afghanistan Astri Suhrke; 13. Grasping the nettle: facilitating change or more of the same? Barbara J. Stapleton; 14. Lost in translation: legal transplants without consensus-based adaptation Michael Hartmann and Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart; Part VI. Kandahar: 15. No justice, no peace: Kandahar, 2005–2009 Graeme Smith; 16. Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban Shafiullah Afghan; Part VII. Conclusion: 17. Axioms and unknowns Whit Mason.

Whit Mason consults internationally on political development and directs the project on justice in peace-building and development in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney. He also works as an advisor to the United States Institute of Peace's dispute resolution programme in Afghanistan.

• 1. Introduction Whit Mason; Part I. The Scope and Nature of the Problem: 2. Approaching the rule of law Martin Krygier; 3. Deiokes and the Taliban: local governance, bottom-up state formation and the rule of law in counterinsurgency David J. Kilcullen; Part II. The Context: Where We Started: 4. The international community's failures in Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell; 5. The rule of law and the weight of politics: challenges and trajectories William Maley; 6. Human security and the rule of law: Afghanistan's experience Shahmahmood Miakhel; Part III. The Political Economy of Opium: 7. The Afghan insurgency and organised crime Gretchen Peters; 8. Afghanistan's opium strategy alternatives: a moment for masterful inactivity? Joel Hafvenstein; Part IV. Afghan Approaches to Security and the Rule of Law: 9. Engaging traditional justice mechanisms in Afghanistan: state-building opportunity or dangerous liaison? Susanne Schmeidl; 10. Casualties of myopia Michael Hartmann; 11. Land conflict in Afghanistan Colin Deschamps and Alan Roe; Part V. International Interventions: 12. Exogenous state-building: the contradictions of the international project in Afghanistan Astri Suhrke; 13. Grasping the nettle: facilitating change or more of the same? Barbara J. Stapleton; 14. Lost in translation: legal transplants without consensus-based adaptation Michael Hartmann and Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart; Part VI. Kandahar: 15. No justice, no peace: Kandahar, 2005–2009 Graeme Smith; 16. Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban Shafiullah Afghan; Part VII. Conclusion: 17. Axioms and unknowns Whit Mason.