The Afghan president‘s push to delay a security pact with the U.S. has undermined confidence in Afghanistan’s future, testing international support for the country at a crucial moment, the U.S.-led coalition’s top commander said. Read Here – WSJ
With our guns and money, we have suspended the feuds of Afghanistan. When we truly pack up our gear, the hard truth of that country will win out. The warlords and the vultures will take what they can and leave the place to darkness and ruin, writes Fouad Ajami Read Here – Bloomberg
As American troops prepare to leave Afghanistan, the country and its current rulers prepare to face a new reality: the return of the Taliban. Read Here – Der Spiegel
Kabul is not kind to drivers. It’s a city still expanding between mountains from which rival warlords used to lob ordnance at one another, and the legacy of those men who once laid waste to what was below remains here, on the streets, in the craters they left behind. Read here – The Atlantic
India‘s emphasis on the Karzai government, while principally sound, is problematic on the ground. While remaining dedicated to the strengthening of the central government of Afghanistan, India must constructively engage political groups outside the government. This will be key to safeguarding its material and strategic interests in Afghanistan, regardless of how things unravel post 2014. […]
India’s early engagement with post-Taliban Afghanistan was considered by the United States, Pakistan and the Afghan government to be a strategy to undermine Pakistan. While this may have been true at first, in recent years India has come to accept that Pakistan has a ‘special interest’ in Afghanistan that overshadows its own. The main driver […]
Iran has positioned itself as an important regional actor in Central Asia and is committed to playing a role in neighboring Afghanistan. As U.S. troops draw down their numbers in Afghanistan, Washington should consider how improved U.S.-Iranian relations could further long-term U.S. policy goals in Afghanistan and in the region. Read Here – Carnegie Endowment […]
As NATO forces continue the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan, the People’s Republic of China finds itself in a conundrum. With tensions flaring throughout the Asia-Pacific, in part because of a more aggressive Chinese foreign policy, the last thing Beijing wants is to face a security risk along its western border. Read Here – The DIplomat
Iran’s strategic ambitions are not limited to looking West into the Arab world and the war in Syria. It is also looking East, where it has an active alliance with China and a working relationship with India, but closer to its borders, Iran is working hard to build its influence in Afghanistan. Read Here – […]
In March 1898, a 23-year-old Winston Churchill published his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force. In it, he advanced the best advice yet given on how an outside imperial power should deal with a country like Afghanistan. Read Here – RealClearWorld
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