Please welcome Tom Periello

First, apologies for the silence on the airwaves. I was traveling last week for several conferences, one of which we hosted, and had limited internet access.

Second, I would like to introduce Tom Perriello who will be guest blogging this month from Afghanistan. Longtime Afghanistan Watch readers will recall Tom's contributions from 2005 on justice, accountability, and stability. He's one of the most incisive commentators on these issues, and I'm delighted he'll be joining us with occasional dispatches from his research in Afghanistan over the next several weeks.

Tom is currently a fellow of the Century Foundation and a Partner of Res Publica, a community of public sector professionals dedicated to promoting good governance, civic virtue and deliberative democracy.

He previously served as Special Advisor to the International Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and has worked on justice issues in Afghanistan, Kosovo, India, Argentina, Chile, Sudan, Sierra   Leone, and the United States. Tom is also a co-founder of Avaaz.org, a global on-line community with over 1.1 million members, including citizens from 215 countries and territories. It operates in 12 languages and runs global campaigns on issues such as climate change, global poverty, Middle East security, and human rights.

In late 2005, Tom helped coordinate a national qualitative survey in Afghanistan investigating the relationship between accountability and stability. This survey, conducted as a consultant to the International Centre for Transitional Justice, confirmed a quantitative poll conducted earlier in the year showing that the vast majority of Afghans saw accountability as a critical factor in stabilizing the country. The interviews spanned every province and included ordinary Afghans, government officials, including the Vice President, Cabinet Ministers, regional governors and recently-elected members of Parliament, ulemas, leading human rights and women’s rights advocates, current and former combatants and “warlords” journalists, and academics. A piece summarizing the findings can be found here.

• For more on Tom's bio, click here.