… give or take
// The United States is at a turning point in its foreign policy history. For the first time in many decades, the US faces the choice between domestic priorities and foreign entanglements. This fork in the road was bound to arrive sooner or later, but the disastrous and foolhardy adventures begun under George Bush II [...]
// The primary reason the United States invaded Afghanistan in the first place was to fight Al Qaeda and its Islamist allies, particularly the Taliban. Ten years later, now that Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been dramatically weakened, America ostensibly has the luxury of considering significant troop reductions in the region. Needless to [...]
// From the western perspective, looking on a map, Afghanistan looks like a discrete political unit, comparable to any other sovereign country like France, Canada, Mexico or Japan. Therefore, westerners often assume that the kinds of social and political institutions present in those other countries can also be built in Afghanistan, with due regard for [...]
// Continued from yesterday’s post… Conclusions and Recommendations American policymakers would be wise to heed the lessons of history. Although Muhammad Zahir Shah reigned over a stable central Afghan state for 40 years, the period was marked by limited progress for the country as a whole, and the central government depended so heavily on the [...]
// Continuing from yesterday’s post… Afghanistan: A Tough Nut to Crack However, there are deeper structural impediments standing in the way of a modern Afghan state. From the rulers of the 18th century to the Taliban in the 1990s, certain characteristics of Afghanistan have continually thwarted the efforts of centralizing forces. Like Europe, whose rivers, mountain [...]
