Afghanistan Archives - Page 3 of 15

Mother of All Bombs: A New Age Weapon of Mass Destruction?

Given the advertisement surrounding the use of MOAB, it is possible that the Trump administration is signalling to its adversaries the very lethal weapons in its arsenal and its willingness to use them.

Ajey Lele
April 18, 2017
IDSA Comments

The Challenges and Opportunities of a Negotiated Settlement in Afghanistan

For the last 15 years, the war in Afghanistan has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and the United States has sent thousands of troops and spent billions of dollars supporting strategies that have been unable to curtail the violence in the country. In addition to deploying over 130,000 troops from 51 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and its partner nations, the United States alone spent over $686 billion in the ‘Afghan war’.

India and SCO – Future Prospects

SCO will need to assume responsibility for providing security in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the withdrawal of ISAF forces.

War and State-Building in Afghanistan: Historical and Modern Perspectives, edited by Scott Gates and Kaushik Roy

War and State-Building in Afghanistan deals with one of South Asia’s most turbulent states, Afghanistan, and its socio-political and military conditions. This book also traces the processes that have shaped the geopolitics of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been occupied by the Mughals, British, Soviets, Americans and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The book looks at their efforts at counter-insurgency (COIN) operations in the last five centuries ranging from 1520 to 2012.

The Centre of Gravity of militancy shifts to Afghanistan

Stakeholder regional countries threatened by Islamic militancy need to get together under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and fight a joint war to end the menace.

Implications of the Taliban’s 2015 Spring Offensive

Shifting the centre of gravity of fighting from their traditional strongholds in the South to the northern parts of Afghanistan in this operation is indicative of the Taliban’s shift in focus to other regions that are also in the al Qaeda’s radar.

Afghanistan and the Region

Answers to all of Afghan problems can easily be found within the regional context. But the Afghan leadership is not likely to uphold the regional choice now.

P. Stobdan
April 20, 2015
Issue Brief

Ashraf Ghani: America’s New Subedar?

President Ghani has extended an open invitation to the US for an open-ended military presence in Afghanistan and has also virtually expressed a readiness to play the role of a ‘frontline state’ for any future American contingency.

P. Stobdan
April 07, 2015
IDSA Comments

Out of Afghanistan: US Needs to Rethink its Afghan Policy

The US and other countries, including India, should open the floodgates of military and economic assistance to the Afghan state and help build the capacity and capability of its security forces and administrative machinery.

Sushant Sareen
March 24, 2015
IDSA Comments

Difficulties of Regional Cooperation for Afghanistan: An Alternative Interpretation

This article addresses the question of why regional cooperation among Afghanistan’s neighbours has been so difficult despite these countries’ common concerns. To answer this question, Afghanistan is conceptualised as placed at the core of overlapping regions: South Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia and, through China’s influence, East Asia. Over the past decade, interactions among different regions ‘through’ Afghanistan have increased, and overlap has intensified.