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.
Asfandyar Mir of the U.S. Institute of Peace and Daniel Byman of Lawfare, Brookings, and Georgetown, are both analysts of al-Qaeda and terrorist groups. They have a different analysis, however, of how al-Qaeda is faring in the current world. Rather than...
Until a few months ago, then Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘digital warriors’ were at the forefront of propagating Pakistan’s state narrative on national security and foreign policy. Digital strategy became a “regular feature” on the agenda of...
They exchanged views on “strengthening mutually beneficial, broad based relationship” and “promotion of peace, development and security”
“Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban are teetering on the brink of a major crisis,” Afandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a Washington-based US government think tank, noted in a recent commentary. “After taking over the country, the Taliban gave the TTP de-facto political asylum. The TTP has used its improved political status in Afghanistan to step-up cross-border attacks and is now regularly sending fighters into Pakistan,” Mir said
At least 100 people have died in terrorist attacks over the past two weeks, as the Islamic State targets minorities in Afghanistan and aims to undermine the Taliban government.
The airstrikes killed at least 45 people, stoking fears of a violent resurgence of the conflict in eastern Afghanistan, which has become a base for Pakistani militants.
Jihadists based in eastern Afghanistan have carried out dozens of attacks in recent months
A week of deadly attacks targeted Afghan minorities — and the Taliban has done little to respond.
“Pakistan has come to the begrudging conclusion that the Taliban are unlikely to deliver on its counterterrorism concerns,” said Asfandyar Mir, a senior analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, a think tank in Washington. “These strikes can be an attempt to alter the Taliban's calculus on support for the TTP by ramping up some costs.”
But the core strategic concern about the CPEC by both India and the US – partners in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – is “more about what China gets in return from Pakistan, in particular in the military domain”, said Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the Washington-based US Institute of Peace.