Review Articles and Op-Eds
The highly anticipated 2017 White House strategy for Afghanistan has many experts warning there are no good policy options, let alone an effective number of U.S. troops that will solve what Gen. John Nicholson calls a “stalemate” between insurgents and the Afghan...
Review Articles and Op-Eds
Amidst the disarray following General McChrystal’s interview with Rolling Stone, a much less reported but profound event marked the course of the insurgency in Afghanistan. The recent female suicide operation in eastern Afghanistan reveals not only a paradigm...
Review Articles and Op-Eds
In September, Human Rights Watch released a scathing report on the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a paramilitary institution under control of the Minister of Interior and being trained by US Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan.[1] The report highlighted accusations...
Review Articles and Op-Eds
It appears the Islamic State’s territorial motivations extend well beyond Syria and Iraq, as recent reports reveal the organization’s recruitment and expansion efforts in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, a former Guantanamo Bay...
Review Articles and Op-Eds
The latest Human Rights Watch (HRW) report may be the strongest indictment yet against Afghan strongmen and their security institutions, but does it go too far? The report details a number of human rights violations, charges of war crimes, and institutional predation...
Review Articles and Op-Eds
After serving their country, many soldiers who returned home from America’s war in Vietnam received no welcome. Service members faced a divided nation and the deep-rooted anger of a public that had long grown tired of the human costs of foreign policy failures in...