Latest in Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Pakistan can do more to push the Taliban to dial back violence in Afghanistan. Washington should pressure Islamabad to act on its leverage—and prepare to make big concessions for this ask.
Pakistan’s two newest political disrupters could not be more different. Here’s why that matters.
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: Radical Islam is not a monolith. The Lebanese Hizballah fights the Islamic State in Syria, Hamas has crushed al-Qaeda sympathizers in Gaza, and—most importantly from a U.S. perspective—al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are bitter rivals. This tension shows up in Afghanistan, one of the most important U.S. theaters of war. Seth Jones of the RAND Corporation details how a surprising source contains the Islamic State there—the Taliban.
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Earlier this week, a suicide bomber outside a crowded hospital in Quetta, Pakistan killed at least 74 people, most of them judges or lawyers, and wounded dozens more. Yesterday, another blast in Quetta wounded an additional 13 people. The provincial interior minister told Reuters that the bombing targeted police escorting a judge, who was not killed in the attack.
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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This episode features part 2 of Aaron’s conversation with Don Rassler. If you haven’t heard part 1 you can find it here. This two part series is based on Don’s article, “Situating the Emergence of the Islamic State of Khorasan,” in the CTC Sentinel. This episode covers a variety of topics related to the Islamic State in the AfPak region, including: