by Paul R. Pillar Fighting terrorism has been the most commonly invoked rationale for U.S. involvement in overseas military conflicts during the past two decades. But much of that involvement has sustained and strengthened, rather than weakened, international terrorism. Recent… Continue Reading
by International Crisis Group For three days over the Eid al-Fitr holiday, Afghanistan witnessed an historic ceasefire by the main parties to its decades-long and ever bloodier conflict. A steep drop in violence brought a brief sense of normalcy to… Continue Reading
by Diana Ohlbaum “Between 2001 and 2017, U.S. government efforts to stabilize insecure and contested areas in Afghanistan mostly failed.” Those are not my words. They’re not from some partisan pundit or ideological crusader. It’s the conclusion reached by the… Continue Reading
by Edward Hunt Seventeen years into the war in Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history, violence has never been worse. In 2017, more than 20,000 Afghans died, a new record. The dead include an estimated 10,000 Afghan security forces,… Continue Reading
by Abrahim Shah Relations between the United States and its erstwhile ally Pakistan can best be characterized as turbulent. Ever since Pakistan decided to entrench itself in the American camp during the Cold War, Pakistan and America have gone back… Continue Reading