Latest in Afghanistan/Pakistan
The protection that terrorist sanctuaries afford allow leaders to cement their ideologies and preferred tactics in their groups.
The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan will have significant consequences for Pakistan. Some of them might be dangerous.
The United States has choices to respond to the Russian bounty program in Afghanistan, but it's best options might be the ones people won't hear about.
Shahab al-Muhajir inherits a weakened organization, but may benefit from a background that sets him outside of some local disputes.
Editor’s Note: Pakistan and the United States are not the only important outside actors in Afghanistan. India has long courted the government in Kabul, and Islamabad views this potential relationship with alarm. Avinash Paliwal of SOAS explains India’s policies regarding Afghanistan and discusses how this might shift in the years to come.
Daniel Byman
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Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos.
Editor’s Note: Pakistan is where good policy options go to die. U.S. administrations have struggled to develop a coherent and effective policy toward Islamabad, trying to coerce and co-opt it, with limited success at best. Daniel Markey of SAIS offers a readout of Prime Minister Khan’s visit to Washington. He points out mistakes the Trump administration made and argues that a continued tough approach is necessary.
Daniel Byman
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Editor’s Note: The armed drone has become the emblem of U.S. counterterrorism, but critics charge that it leads to high numbers of civilian casualties and a popular backlash in places like Pakistan. Asfandyar Mir, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, argues that the drone campaign has proven highly effective at degrading (though not ending) al-Qaeda and other groups in Pakistan. He lays out conditions under which a drone campaign would be effective elsewhere, noting the importance of intelligence and the need for a rapid-response capacity.
Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on Order from Chaos.
Editor's Note: In the latest entry in our ongoing dialogue on the future of Afghanistan, Stephen Watts and Sean Mann respond to Gary Owen's critique of their piece on the future of Afghanistan, arguing that although things may not be going "great" in Afghanistan, the picture is not quite as bleak as Owen makes it out to be.
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