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.
Voter turnout in Afghanistan’s presidential election over the weekend was less than half of what it was the last time Afghans chose a president, officials estimated Sunday, a dismal showing that threatened to weaken the next government no matter who is declared...
Slightly more than two million Afghans voted in presidential elections over the weekend, a historic low for a nation beleaguered by a nearly 18-year war and disillusioned by the government’s failure to deliver on its pledge to end corruption and spur overhauls. As vote...
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghan reconciliation, is on the verge of an agreement with the Taliban that would pave the way for the withdrawal of some 14,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees that the war-wracked nation would...
Afghanistan faces a presidential election next month but few believe the vote will take place as the United States and the Taliban inch closer to a deal that could end the nearly...
Lawmakers and foreign policy experts alike are warning that the ongoing peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan won’t go as smoothly as the Trump administration has portrayed. Administration officials of late have touted an initial framework for a peace deal, currently in the works between U.S. and Taliban officials, to end the now 18-year war and...
US President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that the Afghan peace talks, which is expected to bring a breakthrough in the 18-year conflict, are the result of America's military pressure on the Taliban. Last month, Trump had said regional countries like Russia and India should play a more active role in resolving the Afghan conflict. "We spend USD 50 billion...
Afghanistan’s presidential elections will be postponed, an election official in Kabul suggested Wednesday, a move that could jeopardize the incumbent president’s reelection hopes while likely easing efforts to reach a negotiated settlement of the 17-year war...
Amid high tension and tight security, tens of thousands of voters lined up Saturday across southern Kandahar province, where polling in Afghan parliamentary elections was held one week late after the provincial police chief was assassinated in a shooting claimed by the Taliban. By late afternoon, no insurgent attacks or other violence were reported at more than 1,100 polling stations, where about half a million voters had registered to choose among 111 candidates competing for 11 legislative seats. Many voting sites opened late or suffered from...
Despite a shroud of violence and voting delays, more than 4 million Afghans cast their ballots in parliamentary elections last weekend, according to the country’s election commission. Afghans waited, often in long lines, to vote for 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, up for grabs for the first time in eight years. More than 2,500 candidates, including 417 women, vied for those seats. But violence leading up to the vote shook the nation, included the shooting death of Kandahar province’s police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, by one of his own guards. Ten candidates also...
When Afghans cast ballots Saturday in parliamentary elections viewed as a crucial test run for the presidential vote, it will be a shrinking number of voters that braves the tide of Taliban and Islamic State violence. For the first time since a U.S.-led invasion forced the Taliban from power in 2001, elections won't be held across Afghanistan. Residents of an entire province won't go to the polls because the country's security forces can't protect polling stations there. Ghazni, the seventh most populous of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces at 1.3 million people, won’t be the only disenfranchised area. After...