The UK government should maintain aid spending in Afghanistan, especially after the troop withdrawal. The decision by the UK government to cut foreign aid will have devastating consequences, particularly in Afghanistan where the security situation is deteriorating. The cuts signal that the UK government has not learned from history, where a lack of commitment to Afghanistan and its neighbours has […]

Cumhurbaşkanı Tayyip Erdoğan, Taliban’ın liderini kabul edebileceğini televizyondan duyurdu. Ancak devlet başkanı düzeyinde Taliban’la muhatap olan ülke yok. Eğer Erdoğan görüşürse, bu devlet başkanı düzeyinde ilk görüşme olacak. Böyle bir görüşmenin Türkiye açısından stratejik bir hata olacağı deneyimli diplomatlar ve askerler tarafından dile getiriliyor Türkiye, bir cehenneme dönmüş olan Afganistan’da kalmaya çok istekli. Ankara’nın bu istekliliği, başta ABD tarafından da […]

“A NEGATIVE OUTCOME, a Taliban automatic military takeover, is not a foregone conclusion,” Mark Milley, America’s most senior soldier, intoned last month while reiterating America’s support for the embattled Afghan government. General Milley is right: such a takeover is not quite inevitable, despite the departure of American troops. But it is growing more likely by the day—in large part because […]

Der Westen ist in Afghanistan gescheitert. Ein neuer Militäreinsatz, um die Taliban zu vertreiben, ist unrealistisch. Trotzdem haben die westlichen Truppen noch eine Aufgabe: Sie müssen Friedensverhandlungen erzwingen. Der Westen ist gescheitert, in Afghanistan gescheitert. Das ist die bittere Wahrheit. Und jetzt? Das Scheitern ist seit Langem klar – aber es wird uns jetzt in aller Deutlichkeit vor Augen geführt: […]

Western powers appear to be preparing for the fall of Kabul, after the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada all announced fresh troop deployments to help evacuate citizens and other residents of the Afghan capital on Thursday. The United States will send 3,000 troops to secure Kabul’s international airport and mount an evacuation effort for U.S. embassy staff alongside Afghans […]

The situation in Afghanistan—and with it the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship—is likely to worsen in the short term. The prospect of a prolonged civil war or full Taliban takeover now looms large as hopes of a negotiated settlement recede. Whatever the outcome, the countries’ bilateral relationship will continue to be shaped by tensions that have characterized it for more than a century. […]

No matter where the conflict goes from here, Afghans will bear enormous costs as stability looks to be a distant prospect. The Afghan government has had its most difficult week fighting the Taliban since the insurgency began. As of this writing, 12 provincial capitals have fallen since last Friday, marking the first time the Taliban have controlled a city since […]

The Taliban conquered the second and third largest cities in Afghanistan, Kandahar and Herat, on Friday as part of a major offensive on the heels of the U.S. withdrawal. The assault on Kandahar carried symbolic weight because it is the birthplace of the Taliban, from where founder Mullah Omar began conquering Afghanistan in the 1990s. Taliban militants now control over […]

Introduction As the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition troops from Afghanistan is already in its final stages as per the February 29, 2020 agreement[1] between the United States and the Afghan Taliban, signed in the Qatari capital of Doha, the Islamic State (ISIS) has begun to carry out increasingly diverse attacks via its Afghan affiliate, the Islamic State Khurasan Province […]

This is Part-1 of a two-part article. This part shows how peace and tranquility at LAC is sought to be restored, in spite of a rare clash at Galwan last year. LAC was a rare border where not a single shot was fired, and none killed, in over four decades despite it being a disputed border. It further shows how […]