Andrew Wilder, vice president of Asia programs at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), pointed to the upcoming Afghan presidential elections in 2019. The last election in 2014 required heavy U.S. involvement. Scott Worden, director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at USIP, said that, on one hand, Trump wants to protect the U.S. from terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, but on the other, 30 years of non-democratic institutions in Afghanistan have led to more violence. Belquis Ahmadi, a senior program officer as USIP, said it is now “up to the Afghans to address the needs of its people.”

Afghanistan’s government remains weak, and the Taliban and the Haqqani, another insurgent network, have sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan, making a U.S.-led military victory largely out of reach, said Scott Worden, an analyst at the U.S. Institute for Peace.

Nearly 16 years after the international intervention toppled the Taliban government, war rages in Afghanistan. A gradual but steady deterioration in security — including the massive sewage truck bomb that recently killed 150 civilians in Kabul recently — has leaders inside and outside Afghanistan once again searching for a new strategy.

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...

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...

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...

A Taliban attack on a provincial headquarters of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency which left 10 people dead will undermine the fragile peace process, experts say. The car bomb and ensuing gunfire assault in Samangan’s provincial capital Aybak on Monday ended with...