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.
De facto Taliban authorities in Afghanistan are presenting an impressive list of achievements in the fight against narcotics about a year after their reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, outlawed drug production. To implement Akhundzada's edict, Taliban forces have conducted 5,799 counter...
Millions of people in Afghanistan are likely to have no food, healthcare or shelter this winter because of critical funding gaps, according to various experts who spoke with VOA. “What is at stake in Afghanistan this winter is the lives of millions of starving women and children,” Jan Egeland...
As if Coca-Cola gave up making soft drinks, the Taliban announced to great fanfare last year that they were getting out of the drug business. The group that rode big opium profits to a takeover of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 suddenly, seemingly, swore off the stuff. Poppy planting was banned and drugs were...
Talks between U.S. and global leaders this week underscored intensifying concerns about the fallout from the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, but they produced no consensus on how and when to fully resume vital financial assistance to the country as it plunges deeper into economic crisis...
The troubled nation of Afghanistan, set in unforgiving deserts and the foothills of the Hindu Kush, is once again sagging under the yoke of a medieval-minded regime that enforces draconian punishments and gender rules that echo those of 16th or 17th century Europe. According to international experts trying to come up with a viable plan to help oppressed and underfed Afghans, the truth of Afghanistan in 2021 is significantly stranger than an imaginary dystopia...
The idea began with urgent phone calls between United Nations agencies and an anonymous business executive in Texas. It’s resulted in a steady stream of much-needed currency into Afghanistan. Acting as an intermediary for one of Afghanistan’s richest men, the Texas-based businessman has helped arrange for warehouses of afghanis, the local currency, to be swapped with U.S. dollars held in the accounts of international humanitarian groups...
Amin Agha worked as a manual laborer for eight years at Bagram Airfield, the U.S. military's largest base in Afghanistan. But as the United States begins its final troop withdrawal from the country, Agha is among hundreds of Afghans who have recently...
Pakistan and Uzbekistan have exchanged goods through war-torn Afghanistan for the first time, in a move hailed as a milestone for regional economic integration. A Pakistani cargo truck on May 4 transported medicine from the port city of Karachi to...
Pakistan and Uzbekistan have exchanged goods through war-torn Afghanistan for the first time, in a move hailed as a milestone for regional economic integration. A Pakistani cargo truck transported medicine from the port city of Karachi on April 9 to...
Afghanistan faces a "Saigon moment" of comprehensive defeat with the Taliban taking over Kabul after the withdrawal of US and Nato troops, leading politicians and academics have warned. As 10,000 allied troops prepare to leave the country after 20 years combating the insurgency, there are growing fears...