Sameer Lalwani is a research fellow at the Washington-based New America Foundation:

"I think the expectation will be for the Obama administration to leverage pressure on the Karzai government to 'clean up' his governing style but I doubt Karzai will do so, certainly not quickly," said Lalwani. 

 "He has domestic audiences and domestic coalition members to pay attention to that may be of more immediate concern, particularly since recent Afghan history provides substantial evidence of defection among domestic allies, whereas withdrawal of US/Nato forces is off the table. In other words, in order to succeed in Afghanistan, the Obama administration needs to give serious thought to how to increase leverage with credible threats – perhaps conditioning aid or military training, or even signalling a renewed credible threat of withdrawal."