Afghanistan

The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict: A strategic concern for the US
  • Analysis

    • The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict: A strategic concern for the US

    Pakistan’s relationship with the Afghan Taliban has shifted from open sponsorship in the 1990s to a silent partnership following 2001 to alienation and belligerence since 2021. Their current conflict, which comes at great cost to both countries and seems to have no easy military or political resolution, also poses a threat to the stability and prosperity of neighboring states. Although American strategic interests in the region greatly diminished following the United States’ military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the region’s altered political dynamics have prompted a growing American engagement with Pakistan and tentatively with Afghanistan. At the same time, the US has become a factor in how both Islamabad and Kabul have come to form their national security strategies.

    Don't believe the hype: The modest reality of the Saudi-Pakistani defense pact
    Image created by Oleksii Liskonih via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Don't believe the hype: The modest reality of the Saudi-Pakistani defense pact

    The September 17 Saudi-Pakistani defense agreement generated a wave of overheated commentary about Saudi Arabia now residing under a Pakistani nuclear umbrella and how a new strategic reality was in the offing in the Persian Gulf and South Asian regions. Analysts need to slow their roll. Extended deterrence is an extremely difficult thing to pull off. The devil is in the details, about which we know nothing.

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    Education beyond the School Room
  • Analysis

    • Education beyond the School Room

    Originally posted December 2009

    Experts throughout the massive aid community in Afghanistan agree that education is vital for development. Education shapes the quality of productivity, products, and services. Education informs citizens of the roles that they must play so that good governance may thrive. Education molds the quality of leadership. Yet, despite the rhetoric, the education sector is perennially underfunded; typically, it receives scarcely 10% of what is provided to other sectors.

    April 23, 2012

    Nancy Hatch Dupree

    The Emerging Afghan Media: Beyond the Stereotyping of Women?
  • Analysis

    • The Emerging Afghan Media: Beyond the Stereotyping of Women?

    Originally posted December 2009

    For the past 30 or more years, media content in Afghanistan mostly has been controlled by the central government and its supporters. During this period, as throughout the 20th century, the most important and widely available forms of media have been national radio and television. However, rural perspectives and the realities of rural life have been conspicuously absent from most media content. Moreover, because of traditionally rigid gender roles, Afghan women have had very limited or almost no access to media and information sources.

    April 23, 2012

    Wazhma Frogh

    Women's Agency in Afghanistan: From Survivors to Agents of Change
    Middle East Institute
  • Analysis

    • Women's Agency in Afghanistan: From Survivors to Agents of Change

    Originally posted December 2009

    Often, policy debates on the empowerment of women in Afghanistan are impaired by the historic backlashes against radical top-down reforms and women’s emancipation (e.g., unseating kings) or by the assumption that the male-dominated culture makes it nearly impossible to create space for the advancement of women’s rights. As a result, the effort to develop a cohesive strategy for enhancing women’s participation in the reconstruction agenda is hampered.

    April 23, 2012

    Palwasha Hassan

    Local Perceptions of Rural Development Programs
    Middle East Institute
  • Analysis

    • Local Perceptions of Rural Development Programs

    Originally posted December 2009

    The NGO people drive around in big white cars, live in our cities’ best houses and receive high salaries, though most of them would be jobless in their own country. They come here for two, three hours, and we tell them what they need to hear. They express empathy with our difficult situation, and then they get back into their air-conditioned four wheel drives and race off leaving us behind in a cloud of dust. Often they are never seen again.
    —Farmers in rural Kunduz Province, 2006

    April 20, 2012

    Katja Mielke

    Rebuilding Afghanistan: Practical Measures for Improving the Economy
  • Analysis

    • Rebuilding Afghanistan: Practical Measures for Improving the Economy

    Originally posted December 2009 

    It is a difficult task to suggest a specific recipe for the improvement of the economy of any failed state. The case of Afghanistan presents even more challenges.

    The Magnitude of the Challenge

    April 20, 2012

    F. Faruq Achikzad

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    Taliban Leadership Tracker

    MEI’s Taliban Leadership Tracker is a detailed database mapping 1,200 leaders and appointees wielding influence throughout the Taliban government. Produced and maintained by MEI Non-Resident Scholar Javid Ahmad, the database can be used to help identify individuals who wield various forms of influence, ones who may be receptive to dialogue and collaboration, as well as those involved in rights violations, abuses, or criminal and terrorist activities.

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