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NATO Review: Ahmed Rashid, author of the seminal book ‘Taliban,’ talks to NATO Review’s Paul King about how terror, tribalism and the Taliban fit together in present-day Afghanistan.
Watch host Paul King, NATO Review Editor, pick the mind of Ahmed Rashid. King’s inquisitive questions coupled with Rashid’s astute knowledge of the region make for a compelling interview.
In part one a number of topical issues are broached:
Defining terrorism, how it has evolved, and its context within Afghanistan;
What accounts for a resurgent Taliban movement in Afghanistan;
Al-Qaeda’s success in ...More
Interview with Jackson Janes: The executive director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies tells Atlantic-community.org that Russia, energy security, climate change, Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the financial crisis are all pressing issues to be addressed jointly by Germany and the United States under an Obama administration.
A New Road Map for American-German Relations, a memorandum to the US president-elect, details how Germany and the US can cooperate in the coming years on global issues. Therein, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) makes a variety of policy recommendations:
Craft a coordinated strategy on Russia to avoid a transatlantic rift, which would be exploited by Russia to the detriment of the US and Europe.
Engage Russia, ...More
Bertelsmann Foundation: Written with a distinctly European perspective, this Trans-Atlantic Briefing Book for the Obama administration is a policy blueprint that offers strategies for cooperation between Europe and the new US leadership.
The Bertelsmann Foundation, the only non-partisan pan-European think tank in Washington, DC, presented its Trans-Atlantic Briefing Book for the Obama administration on Thursday, November 13, 2008.
The Briefing Book is a policy blueprint that describes the go and no-go areas of major foreign-policy issues and offers strategies for transatlantic foreign-policy cooperation.
Among the many challenges the new administration faces, the foundation ...More
Thomas Bauer: Barack Obama’s election has created a ground swelling of excitement in Europe. In an effort to revitalize transatlantic relations, several issues need to be addressed. First and foremost, Europe needs to get its own house in order if it expects the new President to heed its calls for greater cooperation.
The global Obamania hype has reached European soil. Expectations are gigantic. But the fate of the transatlantic relationship does not solely depend on Barack Obama. Its fate will rather be decided by the way Europeans react to and interact with the new US President, as well as to what extent they are willing and able to set an agenda and contribute to its implementation.The current, rather passive, European approach ...More
Nicholas Lunt: ISAF and NATO have tried to speak to Afghans directly in their own language. Previous communication, even when assisted by locals, has led to misunderstandings and conflict. The solution would be to empower locals to speak for ISAF and NATO directly.
In the 1967 film ‘Dr Doolittle', the fictional eponymous hero attempts to learn to speak to animal language. This would open up a whole new world, he says.
‘I would converse in polar bear and python. And I would curse in fluent kangaroo. If people ask me "can you speak rhinoceros?" I'd say "of courserous! Can't you?"'.
Dr Doolittle succeeds in learning to ‘speak rhinoceros'. Because of this magical skill, the animal kingdom comes ...More
Luke A. Nichter: With this weekend’s G-20 meeting in Washington, calls for the return to a Bretton Woods-like system can be heard around the world. However, before getting caught up in the momentum of “reform,” the incoming administration of President-elect Obama should carefully heed the lessons of history.
On the occasion of this weekend's G-20 meeting in Washington, the global economic crisis seems more entrenched than ever. Calls for the return to a Bretton Woods-like system can be heard around the world. The Washington Post has said that a new Bretton Woods "could reform the IMF" (October 20). The Times of London has reported Prime Minister Brown's call for a new international financial architecture (November 14). Le Monde has printed favorable ...More
Sepideh Parsa: Despite efforts to combat the drug production in Afghanistan, figures continue to rise. To avert the threat which arises from the resurgence of terrorist groups, and to ensure international security, the international community has to make a long- term commitment. This paper aims to outline the dynamics of the Afghan drug economy, focusing on the effectiveness of measures carried out under international law.
Afghanistan is by far the biggest producer of narcotic drugs.
Developments in the past two centuries are a major cause for concern to the
international communiy. By building a secure state with an viable government,
the international community can try to break through the cycle of the drug
economy. The current interim administration under president Karzai is not able to
provide a secure environment, a legal economy or the implementation of ...More
Daniel Korski: EU engagement in Afghanistan will affect Washington’s perception of its strategic partnership. The best way for the EU to stay a strong partner is to extend the aid-and-security approach of its Provincial Reconstruction Teams and take the concept to Kabul. Diplomacy with Pakistan will remain important.
President Obama will want to see a significant enhancement of the European effort in Afghanistan. The issue is likely to be viewed in Washington as a litmus test of whether Europeans should be taken seriously as strategic partners. So the European response will go a long way to shape the transatlantic security relationship over the next 4 or 8 years.
But European support for NATOs' Afghan mission has been ebbing. The usual European critique of ...More
Eimear O'Casey: Three general elections have been held in Canada over the last four years. Although Canadian elections don’t get much media coverage, this election deserves our attention as an example of an ailing electoral system and the failures of vote-swapping. We need to draw some lessons from this display of first-past-the-post politics at its worst.
In the midst of a captivating US election and a global financial meltdown, Canada’s third general election in four years struggled to make international press headlines and the victory on October 16th for incumbent Conservatives led by Stephen Harper went almost entirely unnoticed. However, this election deserves our attention as an example of an ailing electoral system and a display of first-past-the-post (FPP) politics at ...More
Royal United Services Institute (RUSI): Bringing food to millions of Afghans can have both strategic and humanitarian results. An operation styled on the Berlin Airlift could also bring new actors to Afghanistan. Likewise, it might be a necessity for keeping the Afghan government afloat, since access to food during famine can determine political allegiances.
Last winter killed between 1,300 and 1,700 Afghans through hunger and exposure. Similar conditions, combined with a dry summer, failing crops and increases in international food prices, are setting the stage for a similar or worse disaster this winter, warns a British defense think tank.
In addition to the risk of an acute famine, perhaps a third of the Afghani population is facing food insecurity. While isolated regions of the country are closed ...More
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