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.
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...
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...
Argentina has reached a $7.5bn agreement with the International Monetary Fund, as it tries to get its troubled economy back on track. The South American nation has been in negotiations with the Fund for months over its $44 billion loan program. That's the biggest outstanding deal that the IMF has with any...
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...
For more than a decade, Afghanistan was continuously ranked among the 10 most corrupt governments. But this year, the country has left its disreputable position, and the Taliban claim credit for it. On Tuesday, Transparency International, a Berlin-based nongovernment corruption watchdog, released its latest...
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...
Ever since the August 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, there has been widespread, almost universal, rhetoric in international diplomatic circles—ranging from the United Nations to the European Union and the United States to Russia—that the Taliban need to form a more inclusive government, with varying definitions...
International humanitarian aid is critical in responding to natural disasters and other short-term emergencies. But as the U.N. itself recognizes, such aid is not well positioned to respond to—let alone resolve—a prolonged economic crisis such as the one currently occurring in Afghanistan. This is particularly true when...
William Byrd, a United States Institute of Peace (USIP) expert writing for the LAWFARE blog, said that international aid to Afghanistan is decreasing, and he proposed a number of changes to the world's approach to helping Afghanistan—including coordinating aid efforts and utilizing the Afghan Trust...