Afghanistan

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Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan, South Asia

Staff:

Barnett Rubin

Tom Gregg

An assessment of Azerbaijani-Afghan relations

1. Dear Said Sabir Ibrahimi, how do you assess Azerbaijani-Afghan relations and what are the prospects for their development?

Publication Date: Sep 07, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Said Sabir Ibrahimi

Region/Country: South Asia, Afghanistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan, South Asia

US Election Nominees will mention Afghanistan in their debates

Said Sabir Ibrahimi, Research Associate, appeared on Voice of America Dari to discuss the US elections and its implications on Afghanistan.

Q: Do you think it is concerning that the US presidential candidates have not mentioned Afghanistan in their speeches?

A: Donald Trump has been vague about his programs, and both him and Hillary Clinton have not mentioned Afghanistan in their big foreign policy speeches, but in their interviews with American media, they both have mentioned Afghanistan.

Publication Date: Aug 22, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Said Sabir Ibrahimi

Region/Country: South Asia, Afghanistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan

The U.S. Presence and Afghanistan’s National Unity Government: Preserving and Broadening the Political Settlement

President Obama has announced that the U.S, will maintain 8,400 troops in Afghanistan until the end of his term. The international military presence does not only affect the balance of forces between the government and the Taliban insurgency based in Pakistan.

Publication Date: Aug 09, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Barnett Rubin, Georgette Gagnon

Region/Country: Middle East, Afghanistan

Topic(s): Fragile States, South Asia

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Taliban Views on a Future State

Few if any Taliban leaders say they want to re-establish the Islamic Emirate or revive the policies that drew the world’s opprobrium upon them when they controlled the Afghan state in the 1990s.That is the conclusion drawn in this report by Borhan Osman of the Afghanistan Analysts Network and Anand Gopal, author of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes from interviews with members of the Taliban’s political wing and analysis of the movement’s official publications.

Publication Date: Jul 13, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Borhan Osman, Anand Gopal

Region/Country: South Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan

Topic(s): Afghanistan, International Security, Pakistan, South Asia

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Why is China getting involved in Afghan peace talks?

During German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent visit to China, the two countries agreed to jointly fund a disaster response centre in Afghanistan. It was just the latest sign of China’s increasingly prominent role in that country, which also includes trying to jump-start peace talks with the Taliban.

Publication Date: Jul 06, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Joanna Chiu, Jared Ferrie, Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: China, South Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Theorist-in-Chief

Ghani is Afghanistan’s Jimmy Carter—a visionary technocrat who has alienated potential allies and has no feel for politics.

Publication Date: Jul 04, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): George Packer, Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: United States, South Asia, Afghanistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan, South Asia

An Assasination That Could Bring War or Peace

At a press conference in Hanoi on May 23, President Obama announced that he would lift the decades-old arms embargo on Vietnam, which he called “a lingering vestige of the Cold War.” He also confirmed that, two days earlier, a missile launched from a U.S. Special Operations Forces drone had killed the Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansur in a taxi about a hundred miles southwest of Quetta, the capital of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. (The strike also killed the driver, Muhammad Azam, whose family the U.S.

Publication Date: Jun 04, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: South Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan

Iran's 'marriage of convenience' with Taliban

Experts say reports of an Iran-backed Taliban buffer zone in Afghanistan against the Islamic State are overstated but that Iran has had links with Taliban commanders for over a decade.

Publication Date: Jun 01, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: Middle East, South Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Asia

Iran Teams With Taliban To Fight Islamic State in Afghanistan

Iran is working with the Taliban to set up a buffer zone along its border with Afghanistan to keep out the Islamic State, the latest sign of how the rise of the Syrian-based terror group is turning longtime rivals into uneasy allies.

Publication Date: May 27, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: Middle East, South Asia, Afghanistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Barnett Rubin on Voice of America Pashto

CIC Senior Fellow and Afghanistan expert Barnett Rubin spoke recently with Voice of America Pashto, please view the interview below.

The VoA commentator poses questions in Pashto and Dr. Rubin responds in English. Below are the English translationss of the questions.

-President Obama stated that the death of Mansoor is an important milestone. Is it? Will the loss of this leader really effect the Taliban’s progress?

Publication Date: May 26, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: South Asia, Afghanistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan, South Asia