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.

• V. Mahalingam
• May 27, 2015
• IDSA Comments

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.

• V. Mahalingam
• May 06, 2015
• IDSA Comments

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

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

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

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.

• Sandra Destradi
• March 2015
• Strategic Analysis

For all the grandstanding by the Pakistan army and the civilian government that Op Zarb-e-Azb was going to be against all kinds of terror groups based in NWA, no such thing seems to be happening. Clearly, this operation has been launched keeping an eye on the post-2014 situation in Afghanistan.

• Sushant Sareen
• July 31, 2014
• IDSA Comments

The recently concluded Afghan Presidential election, rather than facilitating crucial political transition, is mired in controversy. An early resolution is crucial both for Afghanistan and the international community. For Afghanistan, a peaceful and non-controversial transition would ensure the legitimacy of the upcoming government and push the twin processes of reconciliation and democratization forward.

• Smruti S. Pattanaik , Akriti Vasudeva
• July 30, 2014
• Issue Brief

As all the votes cast in the run-off election are audited and recounted under international supervision, the final outcome could be a close finish with winning candidate leading by a much narrow margin. The process of constitutional amendment can only be initiated after the new parliament is formed as parliamentary elections are due in 2015.

• Vishal Chandra
• July 26, 2014
• Issue Brief

The Afghan government’s peace and reconciliation overtures to the militants, initially at the unofficial level but later sanctioned officially, have formed a key theme of state security policy from the early days of the post-Taliban administration in Afghanistan. Yet far from producing peace and stability, they seem to have played into the hands of the violent groups intent on overthrowing the country’s internationally supported and legitimate political system in the past decade.

• Ahmad Shayeq Qassem
• July 2014
• Strategic Analysis