The swift fall of Kabul recalls the ignominious fall of Saigon in 1975. Beyond the local consequences – widespread reprisals, harsh repression of women and girls, and massive refugee flows – America’s strategic and moral failure in Afghanistan will reinforce questions about US reliability among friends and foes alike. Read More Here
Afghans are entering a new stage in their country’s troubled history, with many of them fearing for their lives and their freedoms, as the government of President Ashraf Ghani collapsed Sunday and Taliban fighters entered Kabul and took over the presidential palace. Read More Here
Not only is the endgame of the armed conflict in Afghanistan undetermined. There are also questions about how moderate the Taliban will ever be, which has a tremendous impact on Chinese officials’ perception of, and policy toward, the organization. Read More Here
Two of Afghanistan’s major cities are in danger of imminent collapse as the government struggles to contain a war that is splintering out of control. A Taliban advance on Herat in the west has cut the city off from the rest of the country. Read More Here
Shared concern about China is the core driver of the U.S.-India partnership, but in recent months, other priorities have intervened. When Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Washington in May, COVID-19 cooperation was the main focus. Now, it’s Afghanistan. Read More Here.
India, traditionally reluctant to engage with the Taliban, recently hedged its bets by initiating contact—with Qatar’s support. But unlike many in the West, India’s leadership is not buying into the narrative of Kabul’s impending fall and the Taliban’s immediate and inevitable return to power. Read More Here
The U.S. military exit from Afghanistan has predictably escalated internal turmoil and increased regional security concerns in neighboring countries like China. In the United States, though, there have been fears that China will step in to fill the gap left by Washington. Read More Here
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan today also reinforces the strongly held conviction in Beijing that the US is in terminal decline. Coming at a time when China is offering an alternative to the Western model of domestic and international governance, the US defeat in Afghanistan will be seen in Beijing as a great ideological victory. […]
As US and British forces pull out of Afghanistan, further victims of the ‘grave of empires’, Russia is experiencing a mix of satisfaction, exasperation and trepidation. It has its own bitter memories of the country, after all. Read More Here
As US and NATO forces withdraw faster than previously planned from Afghanistan, violence is escalating in what could be a foretaste of a wider war to come. Many believe the Taliban aims to exploit the vacuum left by the US-NATO troop withdrawal to seize control of the capital Kabul and re-establish an Islamic Emirate, similar […]
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