dr. abdullah is designated as the chief executive. so i want to ask the panel, what are the probabilities of these two processes going ahead? what are some of the obstacles? and what are some of the consequences, should they not be completed in this year? michael, would you? >> sure. there's the quick answer and there's the longer answer. >> let's all keep our answers as much -- >> sorry, it's true. sorry. here's the quick answer. the idea of holding local elections within the next few months to me would appear to be nothing short of a miracle, just for a variety of reasons. i mean, when there were presidential elections the last time around, there was much more time to prepare for them, the taliban was not as strong then as it was now, and yet, at this point you're being asked to do something in just a mere few months. the loya jerga issue, i'm not a lawyer, so i'll refrain from getting into the legalese and so forth and so on. but i think what's the crux of the matter there is that the founding agreement, the political agreement tha

dr. abdullah is designated as chief executive. i want to ask the panel what are , the possibilities of these processes going ahead? what are some of the obstacles and what are some of the consequences should they not be completed in this year? michael? mr. kugelman: there is a quick answer and a longer answer. sorry. here is the quick answer. the idea of holding local elections within the next few months to be would appear to be to be nothing short of a miracle for a variety of reasons. when there were presidential elections the last time around there was much more time to prepare for them. the taliban was not as strong as it is now. and yet, at this point, you are being asked to do something in a mere few months. the loya jirga issue -- i will refrain from getting into the legalese, but i think the crux of the matter is that the founding political agreement that form the national unity government especially says you need a loya jirga to happen in two years. but understandably it does not spell out the consequences of not holding

dr. abdullah. michael kugelman, to his right, is another familiar face -- they all are -- here in washington. with the south asia program at the the wilson center. he has organized so many panels. and as you know from his own moderating of panels, how well he is able to address afghanistan and pakistan and south asia in general. finally, ali jalali. ali has been, in the past, a long past with afghanistan, which includes military service and was, really in the karzai administration, minister of the interior but is currently a distinguished professor at the national defense university here in washington. ali is a very serious player in afghanistan. he is more than simply an observer. he is someone who participates actively in the affairs of afghanistan. i do not know that we could have a panel, honestly, about afghanistan today without having ali jalali join us. with that, as an introduction, let me start. that is to say, gentlemen, what makes this year different? what is now being posed by coming ev

dr. abdullah and dr. ghani. it has a lot of other issues. what do you see looking out at this next year? are we going to continue to see this sort of endless fussing and squabbling, or can they play better together? >> again, i think people didn't give afghanistan the credit for forming a national unity government. a country that has no precedence at sharing power. we're used to grabbing power. >> it's not a social habit. >> no. for the first time we shared power. it's of course not easy. national unity governments or coalition governments by nature are not easy. it took belgium 11 months, almost a year to form a government after their q coalition. it took germany six months. australia struggled with it for a long time where they -- every six months there was a new prime minister. those -- that's part of a national unity government and that's part of the phase that goes into trust building to build it. and also our population was not accustomed to this sort of rule. the election campaign teams that supported each of those candidates, of cour

dr. abdullah.el kugelman, to his right, is another familiar face -- they all are -- here in washington. with the south asia program at the the wilson center. he has organized so many panels. and as you know from his own moderating of panels, how well he is able to address afghanistan and pakistan and south asia in general. finally, ali jalali. ali has been, in the past, a long past with afghanistan, which includes military service and was, really in the karzai administration, minister of the interior but is currently a distinguished professor at the national defense university here in washington. ali is a very serious player in afghanistan. he is more than simply an observer. he is someone who participates actively in the affairs of afghanistan. i do not know that we could have a panel, honestly, about afghanistan today without having ali jalali join us. with that, as an introduction, let me start. that is to say, gentlemen, what makes this year different? what is now being posed by coming events,

dr. abdullah is designated as chief executive. what are the possibilities of these processes going ahead? what are some of the obstacles and what are some of the consequences, should they not be completed in this year? mr. kugelman: there is a quick answer and a longer answer. sorry. here is the quick answer. the idea of holding local elections within the next few months what appear to be nothing short of a miracle, for a variety of reasons. when there were presidential elections, there was much more time to prepare for them. the taliban was not as strong as it is now. and yet, at this point, you are being asked to do something in a mere few months. the loya jirga issue -- i will refrain from getting into the legalese, but the crux of the matter is that the founding political agreement that form the national unity government especially says you need a loya jirga to happen in two years. but it does not spell out the consequences of not holding one in two years. and is silent on the issue of how long the national unity government is