Friday, December 8, 2023
Press
Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
The financial web connecting Afghanistan, the US, and Switzerland - NPR Planet Money
What happens when a country's foreign reserves are stored in another country, and then part of that is run by a third? No, it's not the start of a bad joke. It's the story of Afghanistan, the U.S., and Switzerland...
Some Hope For Afghanistan - The New Yorker
Embargoes imposed to coerce dictators also punish suffering populations. For years, lawyers, economists, and policy wonks have searched for technocratic solutions to this dilemma—for example, by designing “targeted” economic and travel sanctions against individual leaders and...
A Year After the Fall of Kabul - The New Yorker
Public anniversaries mark the meaning of the past in the political present. In Washington, one year after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the failure of the United States and its allies is emotive and polarizing. This month, House Republicans issued a report, entitled “A ‘Strategic Failure,’ ” which is...
End America’s Collective Punishment of Afghans - Foreign Policy in Focus
A year has now passed since the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from decades of war and occupation in Afghanistan. With the Taliban functionally in charge, the country faces a deteriorating humanitarian crisis and economic collapse. But instead of taking action to promote stability and...
End The Collective Punishment Of Afghans - Other Words
A year has now passed since the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from decades of war and occupation in Afghanistan. With the Taliban functionally in charge, the country faces a deteriorating humanitarian crisis and economic collapse. But instead of taking action to promote stability and reinvigorate...
How the Taliban’s more effective and ‘fairer’ tax system helped it win control of Afghanistan - CAPX
When the Taliban dramatically gained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, they used bombs and guns to swiftly overcome state security forces. But they also had another valuable and effective weapon at their disposal: taxes. Long before the withdrawal of US troops, the Taliban had...
Biden's move to compensate Taliban victims leaves 9/11 families seething - Washington Examiner
As Taliban forces rampaged across Afghanistan in the wake of the departing U.S. forces last year, they lit the fuse on a financial dispute that has rocked the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "A year ago, the community was sort of at peace," 9/11 Justice founder Brett Eagleson told...
Wall Street Doesn’t Hate This Spending Bill - The New York Times
The urgency of the crisis “is undeniable,” wrote William Byrd, an economist and expert on Afghanistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressionally created research body. Byrd believes the U.S. “should urgently prioritize” moving Afghan money to a trust account abroad and setting up an alternate system...
Afghan Economic Crisis Worsens as Taliban Mark Anniversary - Voice of America
A year into the Taliban’s de facto government in Afghanistan, the war-torn country has experienced an economic crisis that has worsened the already dire humanitarian situation there. The economy collapsed after the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and the international community placed sanctions on...
Afghanistan’s staggering set of crises, explained - Vox
The markets in Kabul have food, but few can afford it. A sack of flour can cost about $30. Businesses struggle to get materials because of lack of access to bank accounts or foreign currency. Teachers and government workers weren’t getting paid, and even if...