Okay, so not leaving Afghanistan—yet, anyway.
Despite suggestions-cum-threats by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week that he’d consider pulling France’s nearly 3,900 forces out of Afghanistan in response to the …
Afghanistan
Global Briefing, Jan. 23 2012: Syria, Sendai and Sarkozy
Juvenile Injustice — The Guardian examines accusations that Israel’s military justice system mistreats Palestinian children. The special report, based on interviews and affidavits given by minors to an international human …
Sarkozy Considers Withdrawal from Afghanistan After Death of French Soldiers
Is the outraged French response to the shooting death of four of its forces in Afghanistan by a suspected Afghan soldier Friday a sign that Paris may speed the pull out of its troops from the NATO-led operation? Or is the …
From Darkness to Light: How One Afghan Girl Struggled for a Better Future
Meet Nilab Nusrat, a courageous and talented teenager from Afghanistan with a powerful story to tell
Don’t Mention the War? Brits Can’t Help Themselves
Schedule clashes are inevitable during the festive season, and on the evening of Dec. 19, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, held Christmas drinks at opposite poles of the city …
A Dam Shame: What a Stalled Hydropower Project Says About Failures in Afghanistan
To be filed under: You have got to be kidding me.
One of US Aid’s biggest projects in Afghanistan, the $128 million rehabilitation of a key hydroelectric power plant launched in 2002, might never reach its potential wattage. …
Bombs Explode in Afghanistan, While Seats Go Empty in Bonn
When Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with some 100 high-level Afghan and International delegations, met in Bonn for a conference on Afghanistan’s …
The Bonn Conference: Can Afghanistan Be Saved Without Pakistan On Board?
It’s rarely a good sign these days when a summit gets referenced by the city that hosts it: Kyoto is now synonymous with the international community’s failures dealing with climate change; Oslo has become another watchword for …
Fareed Zakaria: How the U.S. Should Approach Pakistan
The discord underlying Washington’s troubled relationship with Islamabad reared its head again this week following the NATO bombing of Pakistani positions along the Afghan border. 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a strike for which NATO has expressed regret, but reports suggest NATO and Afghan forces had taken fire from Pakistani …
Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga: Substance or Hot Air?
‘Tis the season. The season of talks on Afghanistan, that is. Two weeks ago it was Istanbul, where Afghanistan’s neighbors met to discuss their roles in the country’s stability going forward. Early next month it will be Bonn, Germany, where the rest of the world will convene to ask, again, “whither Afghanistan?” And today, …
How Will China Respond to a New U.S. Military Presence in Australia?
U.S. plans to station troops in Australia to help counter China’s growing clout might be expected to provoke cries of indignation from Beijing. But the development, which President Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard are expected to formally announce on Nov. 17 during Obama’s visit to Australia, has thus far …
Why Kyrgyzstan’s Presidential Election Matters
From the farce of Borat to the ignorance of Herman Cain, the politics and people of Central Asia get short shrift in the U.S. But deride the ‘Stans at your peril. The old crossroads of the Silk Road now rest upon 21st century geo-political faultlines, etched by the competing strategic interests of Russia, China, and the U.S. …
Haunted by the Ghosts of Afghanistan, Libya Asks NATO to Stay On
The request by Libya’s Transitional National Council for NATO to continue its military mission in the country despite the overthrow and slaying of Col. Muammar Gaddafi is a reminder that Libya may have some things in common with Afghanistan circa January 2002. There, the Taliban had been routed and driven out of power by a …