Latest Articles about Afghanistan
NATO Supply Routes to Afghanistan Under Threat
“Issue ignored is a crisis invited,” Henry Kissinger once famously said writing on US foreign policy. This sums up the predicament in which the US may find itself if it fails to address the risks stemming from Pakistan’s decision to close NATO supply routes in... MORE
Uzbekistan Considers the Strategic Implications of NATO’s Drawdown In Afghanistan
US President Barack Obama has set 2014 as a deadline for the withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan. The future of the country and its neighbors following the withdrawal by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is unclear, even though the US government pledges its... MORE
Is Tajikistan Capable of Defending Its Own Borders?
After a year of media speculation and contradictory remarks by Tajik and Russian officials, the authorities in Dushanbe have finally made it clear that Tajikistan does not want Russian troops to return to defend the country’s southern border with Afghanistan.Tajikistan and Russia are expected to... MORE
September 2011 Briefs
FORMER AFGHAN MUJAHIDEEN LEADER KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMBING Former major mujahideen figure, one-time Afghan president, and current head of Hamid Karzai’s High Council for Peace Ustad (Professor) Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed in a suicide bombing at his home in Kabul’s relatively posh Wazir Akbar Khan... MORE
Pakistan Seeks Administrative Solution to Terrorism on the Northwest Frontier
Although new changes to colonial-era laws known as the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) are aimed at giving more political freedom to the people living in the lawless Pakistani tribal areas, one of the unstated objectives of the government seems to be defeating the militants with... MORE
Quadripartite Summit On Afghanistan Falls Short of Russian Expectations
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, and Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan held a quadripartite meeting on September 2 in Dushanbe. The presidents gave preliminary consideration to possible security and cooperation arrangements for the region, in anticipation of... MORE
A Threat to the Khyber Pass: An Extended Portrait of Mangal Bagh Afridi
Coming from obscurity, Mangal Bagh Afridi rose to power and notoriety by controlling Lashkar-e-Islam (LI- the Army of Islam), the biggest and most influential militant group in Pakistan’s Khyber Agency. Khyber Agency is the most strategically important of the seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in... MORE
China or the SCO: Who will supervise Afghanistan?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit at Astana on June 15, 2011 signalled Asia’s regional security order is slowly shifting as Afghanistan appears to be angling to become a new observer member in this decade-old Central Asian body (Ria Novosti, May 16). The Sino-Afghan relationship... MORE
Militants Striking Both Sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Border to Disrupt Security Cooperation
Eleven cross-border incursions over the last four months in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region have taken place despite several army operations in Pakistan and the NATO presence across the border in Afghanistan, demonstrating the continued strength of militants in the border region. The incursions, allegedly carried... MORE
From Islamic Emirate to Nationalist Insurgency: Reckoning with Afghanistan’s Taliban Irreconcilables
Though the concept of Afghan and Western reconciliation with the Mullah Mohammad Omar-led Taliban has gained much momentum, the consequences of some kind of ad hoc settlement between the Islamists and the government of President Hamid Karzai have not been clearly defined. Opposition is growing... MORE