Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Idea of 'Hopeless' Afghanistan Misreads U.S. Role
The new U.S. plan for Afghanistan--adding troops, trying to coax the Taliban into a peace process, and supporting government reforms--is being met with skepticism and outright hostility by some who believe the situation there has always been hopeless. But the idea that nothing has worked in Afghanistan, let alone that nothing would have ever worked, is a profound misreading of the past 16 years.
Toward a Stronger South Sudan Peace Process
An East African initiative to revive the stalled peace agreement in South Sudan, where the civil war’s death toll continues to rise, must urgently develop criteria for which groups should be represented, to ensure a more durable outcome. Several steps could help define those criteria.
With Key Iraqi Province Retaken from ISIS, What’s Next?
Iraqi forces backed by the U.S.-led coalition recaptured the last areas of Nineveh Province still held by ISIS this week, after retaking the provincial capital Mosul in July. A few smaller but important areas of Iraq remain to be liberated...
Looking Beyond Prison When ISIS Fighters Go Home
Developing sustainable responses to the return of foreign fighters is a critical and complex challenge, not least because of the high numbers that will be coming back to countries with weak criminal justice systems.
Afghan Retreat From Sangin Shows Need for Political Deal
The Taliban’s threat to Sangin, a strategic district of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, is a sobering reminder of the challenges that Afghan forces face and the risks that continue to plague the U.S. campaign against terrorism.
After ISIS, Urgent Questions of Women’s Roles in Iraq
The liberation of Mosul and the Islamic State’s rollback in the rest of Iraq means urgent questions about the nation’s future are quickly rising to the surface. Among the pressing concerns that had been subordinated...
USIP's Omar Samad on Taliban Cancelling Talks, Karzai's Request on Troops
The Taliban announced today that it would cancel reconciliation talks and close its office in Qatar as a result of widespread anger over the killing of 16 Afghan civilians at the hands of an American service member.
What Chic Homes in Kabul Say About Corruption and Governance
Each day, the daily commute to USIP's office in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul is punctuated with an unseemly five-minute passage through one of the most horrible sections of the city.
