Strategic depth
Daud Khattak
Monday, December 17, 2012
Pakistan's new engagement in efforts to find a peaceful end
to the conflict in Afghanistan
has been received with optimism in the West. In just the past month, members of
Afghanistan's High Peace Council visited
Islamabad for discussions with Pakistani officials, Pakistan Army chief
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited Kabul to sign
an agreement on border security, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasool visited
Islamabad for talks, and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khan met
with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Brussels to discuss their cooperation
on counterterrorism in the region.
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taliban reconciliation
Rachel Reid
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Pakistan has accepted an Afghan "roadmap" for peace, according
to news reports
this week. If true, this would be quite a breakthrough given the setbacks of
the last year, such as the suspension of talks
by the Taliban in March, cross-border
shelling into eastern Afghanistan, and recent allegations
that Pakistan was involved in an assassination attempt on the Afghan
intelligence chief last week. Ending a conflict that has claimed so many
thousands of Afghan lives is desperately needed, and signs of a shift in Pakistan's
attitude to talks could be a positive step towards that. However, a
recently leaked copy of the Afghan High Peace Council's "Peace Process Roadmap
to 2015,"[posted here], which has not yet been made public, lays out a trajectory
that does little to assuage fears that a deal with the Taliban could erode women's
rights and human rights in general.
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Post-2014 Afghanistan
Norine MacDonald QC and Jorrit Kamminga
Friday, December 7, 2012
With all combat troops scheduled to be withdrawn
from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the negotiations taking place in Kabul on
the presence and role of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond that point must
include a plan for a Contingency Force as part of the troop drawdown. And the United
States should take the lead in establishing this Contingency Force, either
under the flag of NATO, or as a new coalition concerned with security and
stability in Afghanistan in coming years.
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Petraeus and Pakistan
Haider Ali Hussein Mullick
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Watching your mentor fall from grace
is never easy. This month, many have questioned and saluted
David H. Petraeus, who resigned from his post as director of the CIA because of
an extramarital affair. Critics chide his judgment, and friends remind us of
his brilliance and victories in Iraq. Most acknowledge his indelible mark on
how America must fight wars amongst the peoples: creating local partners
through peaceful interaction, rather than enemies through the sole use of
lethal force. But Petraeus left another mark on a war to prevent future 9/11s, by
fighting without troops but with trainers, spies and drones in Pakistan.
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The Shelf
Michael Waltz
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Anyone seeking to understand Afghanistan in general, the
flaws in the United States' effort there, or life on the ground as a political
advisor in the midst of a counterinsurgency, should read The Valley's Edge by Daniel Green.
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covert war death tolls
Meg Braun
Thursday, November 29, 2012
An October report
by Columbia Law School's Human Rights Clinic claims to have found significant
flaws in media reports regarding casualties caused by U.S. drone operations in
Pakistan. Three organizations, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Long
War Journal and the New America Foundation, maintain databases that collect
information on the casualties for each strike and their research is regularly
cited in congressional reports and news articles. While the Columbia report
laments that these estimates can only "substitute for hard facts and
information that ought to be provided by the U.S. government," it proceeds to weigh
in on the casualty debate. After a strike by strike comparison of the three
databases' 2011 data, Columbia concludes that two of these organizations "significantly
undercount the number of civilians killed by drone strikes," while singling out
the Bureau as the most accurate and reliable source of information on drone
casualties.
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Sectarian violence
Beenish Ahmed
Monday, November 26, 2012
Over
1,300 years after the brutal killing of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein in what is now Karbala, Iraq, Shi'a Muslims still mourn
their loss. One
group of Muslims at the time wanted the Islamic Caliphate to be handed down
along hereditary lines, while another group wanted the Muslim community to
elect a leader. This difference in political beliefs led a split between the
groups into Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, who also now differ in their religious
practices as well as their historical beliefs. Today, Shi'as come under fire
all over the world, particularly during the month of Muharram, during which they
mourn Hussein's death with an inconsolable grief that many hardline
Sunnis deem blasphemous.
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Militancy in the tribal regions
Christopher Anzalone
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a militant group based in Pakistan's tribal
agencies, has suffered a series of major battlefield setbacks over the past
year. But despite the loss of several senior leaders and a key media operative
since 2011, the group remains one of the most militarily capable and media
savvy militant outfits operating in the region.
It maintains working
relationships with a number of other Sunni militant groups active in the
region including al-Qaeda Central, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the
Afghan Taliban. The IMU has particularly
close ties to the TTP, with whom it has launched joint military operations against
Pakistani military targets inside Pakistan, as well ISAF and Afghan government targets
in Afghanistan. In April, an estimated 150
IMU and TTP fighters launched a successful attack
on Bannu Prison in northwestern Pakistan, freeing nearly 400 prisoners,
including Adnan
Rashid, who was convicted in 2008 of involvement in an assassination plot
against then-Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf. Rashid was subsequently
featured in videos released by the IMU and TTP.
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politicking
Uzma Kolsy
Friday, November 16, 2012
When the United Nations declared November 10 "Malala
Day," people across the globe, from Hong Kong to Islamabad, took to the
streets in an outpouring of support for Malala Yousufzai, calling for reforms
in access to education for girls in Pakistan. Many political parties in Pakistan
took to politicking in commemorating the day, sponsoring vigils and
demonstrations. But one party had already taken a commanding lead in grand
public affirmations of support for Malala last month.
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Public Opinion
Theodore L. Eliot, Jr., Karl F. Inderfurth
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
For the most part,
Afghanistan is portrayed today as violent and war-torn and with an ineffective
and corrupt government. The consensus seems to be that there is little hope
that the country will hold together or defend itself against the Taliban and
other terrorists after U.S. and NATO combat troops leave two years hence. The
conclusion is that much blood and treasure has been wasted since the Taliban
were ousted in 2001.
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Words without action
Kiran Nazish
Monday, November 12, 2012
Jamila's
screams tore through the sky, travelling the deep lengths of haunting silence guarded
by military men at River Neelum. She wanted to grab her son, Ali Ahmad, from
the other side of the border and run. Instead, Jamila saw him being dragged
away by Indian soldiers, away from the river, away from the border, away from
her sight. The cross-border meeting time was over.
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POST
Shuja Nawaz
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
With a second term assured, President Barack Obama has a
shot at making a huge difference in greater South Asia, an opportunity that he
failed to take in his first term. This may now be the time for a new hyphenation
across the map of that critical part of the globe: bringing together a string
of countries ranging from Iran, through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to
Bangladesh. For this may be the center of gravity of Asian stability and growth
in the next couple of decades, if the United States and its partners get their
policies right. But first, the President needs to create a center of gravity
for decision making on this region in his own Administration, reaching across
the aisle and bringing in new blood to rejuvenate his efforts to bring peace.
Then he must help create a network among the nations of this region that is
based on their own self-interests and from which the United States would profit
immeasurably.
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A primer on the epicenter of global terrorism.
