Deployed in an Afghan poppy field. Narayan: You put forth the idea of withdrawal without winning in Afghanistan. One of your biggest arguments was that Taliban resurgence does not necessarily entail al-Qaeda resurgence. … Can one not argue that we will be repeating the same mistake we made when we pulled out of Afghanistan in the 1990s? Jervis: I think this is perhaps the biggest question we are facing. That is, what will happen when Taliban ta...
The World Leaders Forum hosted an event last evening on “U.S. Foreign Policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” The event was co-sponsored by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), International Media, Advocacy and Communications (IMAC), SIPA, and the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). Bill Grueskin, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Professional Practice at the Columbia School of Jou...
It’s official. The war that has topped headlines for half of my life is officially being drawn down, and within a few more years, it will probably be over. I am talking, of course, about the war in Afghanistan. A few days ago, shortly before a NATO summit, United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced a new plan to have US troops play only an “enabling” role in the country by mid-2013 – a sharp contrast to the earlier “Lisbon strategy,...
...ctives in South Asia. Moreover, the strategic justifications for working with Pakistan are becoming less clear. In 2001, the United States sought to partner with Pakistan in the war on terror; now, with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan fast approaching, it is unclear what strategic interest continues to bind Washington and Islamabad. It’s no wonder, then, that there is increasing support in some quarters for scaling back this partnership. In la...
...trategic position. During the American occupation in Iraq, Tehran faced the reality that “the Great Satan” had military forces on both borders. Across the Gulf lies Saudi Arabia, another ideological and geopolitical rival. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are enemies of the United States yet also enemies of Iran. Indeed, Afghanistan is one of three countries—including Iraq and Pakistan—that could potentially destabilize, inundating Iran with refugees...
...s right for the world. We should be solid but not slavish in our friendship with America.” Concerns that Britain is playing the role of America’s sequacious sibling have been exacerbated lately as a result of recent events in Afghanistan. Last week on March 7, six British soldiers were killed when the Warrior vehicle in which they were traveling hit a homemade bomb in the streets of the Helmand Province. The deadliest attack in six years, this in...
Even after eight years and counting of violent engagement with Afghanistan, few know the depth of Afghan history. Somehow, this onetime crossroads of the Silk Road has been ignored by the West for the majority of the modern era. The art exhibit “Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul,” put together by the National Geographic Society and currently touring North America, offers an excellent introduction to that colorful hist...
As the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan continue, one hears pundits muttering about how the Afghan War is arguably the longest war in the history of the United States. Whether it’s actually true or not, one thing is for certain, and that’s that this war has gone on for far too long—nine years after the first invasion, and yet we’re still in combat mode? Something must be wrong. And something absolutely is. Last week it was reported that Afghan Presid...
...most Pakistanis challenges the strict traditionalist revivalism extolled by fundamentalists, such as the politically vocal minority Deobandi Sunni sect. Its adherents, including the Taliban and allied militant groups in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, follow a hard-line, Saudi-inspired version of Islam. Sufism heresy, especially because of the sect’s veneration of saints and its devotional singing and dancing, and militants have bombed dozens of...
...operatives show that their future strategy is to give America a “death of a thousand cuts”, rather than elaborate and theatrical events like Sept. 11. Nevertheless, the narrative justifying a continued presence in Afghanistan and Iraq is that of the prevention of another Sept. 11. The prospect of a repeat of a terrorist attack on such a scale is awful, but that fear may be disproportionate to the amount of real damage an attack could...
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