Tokyo has differed from similar pledging conferences of recent years in one important respect: unlike in the cases of Bosnia, or Kosovo, or even East Timor, no formal international structure is being set up to co-ordinate the reconstruction effort and to shoulder much of the burden of administering a country that, after more than 20 years of strife, has only the most rudimentary governmental mechanism of its own.

ECONOMIST: Helping Afghanistan

Both point to the fragile state of security in the country as the primary obstacle to administering any such scheme, at least for the time being.

ECONOMIST: An alternative use for opium