When Afghan pilots begin training on Black Hawk helicopters at Fort Rucker, Alabama, this year, the U.S. military will have two concerns: that they can fly and that they don’t fly the coop. More than 1 in 10 Afghan military personnel training in the United States last year went absent without leave, according to a report […]
The problem of absent quality control has plagued U.S. infrastructure projectsin Afghanistan from the start. The Kabul-to-Kandahar road, due to the multiplicity of subcontracting agencies with no one actually accountable, initially omitted the many bridges and overpasses along the way, which meant that cars and trucks had to veer off the paved road and chart […]
The security situation in Afghanistan has continued to worsen. The Taliban has been regaining control of areas in northern and southern Afghanistan since 2006, and the group frequently launches attacks on both Afghan armed forces as well as coalition forces. This poses a threat to the survival of the Afghan government. Read Here – CEIP
While a secure Kabul rarely means a stable Afghanistan, an insecure Kabul inevitably signals a deeply unstable nation. Kabul’s violent summer pales compared to the surrounding provinces, especially in the south. As Western nations increasingly focus elsewhere, the battle for Afghanistan rages on. Read Here – Quartz
The arrival of Hamid Karzai, on the heels of the U.S. invasion in 2001, promised Afghans a break from the recent bloody past. Karzai’s lack of involvement in the long, brutal civil war that followed the Soviet retreat in 1989 raised the possibility of a unified country after a decade of battling fiefs. Read Here […]
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
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 […]
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan‘s new prime minister, faces important challenges if he is to improve his country’s economic and security situation, as well as make progress in relationships with Kabul, New Delhi and Washington. His first priority, however, will be to forge a good working relationship with the military. Read Here – IISS
Hopes could hardly be lower for the talks between U.S. and Taliban representatives that are scheduled to begin this week in Doha. A day after announcing they would enter negotiations, the Taliban killed four coalition soldiers in a rocket attack outside Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, worried that the U.S.-sponsored talks will legitimize his enemies, abruptly cut off […]
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