After a decade of war in Afghanistan, the West’s massive military and aid presence has seemingly done little more than …
Afghanistan
Must-Reads from Around the World
A business boom in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif also fuels the area’s sex trade, Japan asks why young judo practitioners are dying and the E.U. is set to lift all sanctions on Burma
Must-Reads from Around the World
A new World Bank report is released on sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth, Sunni candidates in Iraq are being assassinated ahead of the country’s elections, and a senior Syrian government minister has alleged that Britain and …
Must-Reads from Around the World
An ex-dictator of Guatemala is on trial on genocide charges, the Vietnamese government might give cash to families who have daughters and China’s Xi Jinping says he is willing to promote dialogue between North and South Korea
The Terror of Toulouse: How Much Did the French Know About a Spree Shooter?
A year after Toulouse jihadi Mohammed Merah began a killing campaign that claimed seven lives, France marks the death of his first victim amid new indications that domestic intelligence services missed clear signs of the threat he posed
How to Dismantle an Occupation: U.S. Soldiers Tear Down Afghan Bases, Take Home Memories
Closing smaller bases is the first step in what the military calls retrograde–the arduous and complex process of bringing home all of the U.S.’s equipment in Afghanistan.
Iran Releases Video Seized from ‘Downed U.S. Drone’
Video footage supposedly filmed by a downed U.S. drone has been released by Iran.
Must-Reads from Around the World
A rights group says migrant workers at the Sochi Olympic construction sites are exploited, the U.K. is the world’s top land-grabber and Iran releases footage of a missing U.S. drone
France’s Mali Mission: Has al-Qaeda Already Been Defeated?
Despite the French army’s rapid progress in pushing al-Qaeda-linked extremists to the nether regions of Mali, officials in Paris say full elimination of jihadi militias in the Sahel is more than unlikely
Viewpoint: Algerian Terror Debacle Shows that Fighting Al-Qaeda is Like Fighting Narcos
If there’s one thing last week’s attack should tell us, it’s that the “war on terror” isn’t that different from the “war on drugs”.
The Lure of Office Space and Other Ways to Talk to the Taliban
The latest moves in the Afghanistan endgame have moved the insurgents closer to talking with the Kabul government — but there is no real breakthrough yet
Why Afghan Ghosts Haunt France’s Mali Intervention
Comparisons with Afghanistan are inevitable when any Western country sends its military to war in a Muslim country where al-Qaeda has set up shop — and the comparison may be a particularly uncomfortable one for France’s …
The Obama-Karzai Meeting: But Who Really Gets to Decide Afghanistan’s Future?
The end-game in the war torn country is complex–and troop levels may be the simplest piece of the puzzle
