Kirsten Fontenrose, Atlantic Council – 23 September 2021 Kirsten Fontenrose of the Atlantic Council reports on how the three heavyweights in the Gulf, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are responding to the crisis in Afghanistan. This article looks, specifically, at how it will impact their relationship with the U.S. and also their security environment.…
Dr. Sohail Mahmood – 12 September 2021 On August 30, the war in Afghanistan ended. America had managed to evacuate some 123,000 civilians from Kabul, including 6,000 Americans. The twenty-year war had a high cost. Some 2,461 US soldiers and civilians were killed. On August 26 a terrorist bombing killed 13 soldiers in Kabul. President Biden on August 31, 2021…
Stefanie Babst, Internationale Politik Quarterly – 2 September 2021 “The Western allies need to review what went wrong in Afghanistan with a genuine sense of humility. Otherwise they are bound to repeat the same mistakes in the future”. This article on Internationale Politik Quarterly looks at four hard questions for NATO after the fall of…
The Conversation Weekly Podcast – 26 August 2021 In this podcast episode, The Conversation talks to two Afghanistan experts about the Taliban’s history and the events in the past two decades that have lead to their resurgence and the takeover of Kabul. Listen to the podcast here.
William Dalrymple, UnHerd – 30 August 2021 The correlation between the First and Fourth Anglo-Afghan War is substantive and a grasp of history dating back to the first war from 1939-42 would have, according to this article, prevented a disastrous war and avoided another military humiliation for the West. Read the full article here.
Anatol Lieven, Prospect – 27 August 2021 Anatol Lieven recounts his NATO-organised trip to Camp Shorabak, an Afghan military base, in 2013 where he first realised that the West’s Afghanistan campaign was doomed. Speaking of military support in Africa, the author also states that “any chance of success depends on Britain and Europe learning the…
Anthony H. Cordesman, Center for Strategic and International Studies – 10 August 2021 As the Taliban surrounds Kabul and takes control of the country, in this report on CSIS the author predicts “a partisan U.S. political battle over who lost Afghanistan”. The author states “the key issue is not why the war was lost, it…
Taj Ayubi, Al Jazeera – 10 August 2021 Dialogue between regional and international actors and sacrifices on both of the warring sides are needed to ensure the stability and prosperity of Afghanistan, according to this report on Al Jazeera. The article states “when it comes to all matters of the country, including war and peace,…
Ben Hubbard, The New York Times – 10 August 2021 Looking at the current collapse of state order within Afghanistan and the events after the withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, this article on The New York Times discusses why the U.S. may struggle to keep troops out of Afghanistan. The article states “The challenge of…
