Research & Commentary Results

Podcast, 6 September, 2012 in the MEI Boardman room Turkey and Thailand: Unlikely Twins Ayse Zarakol This is the first of four events in a joint lecture series by Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies and the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University.

Podcast, 6 September, 2012 in the MEI Boardman room Turkey and Thailand: Unlikely Twins Ayse Zarakol This is the first of four events in a joint lecture series by Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies and the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University.

Podcast, 6 September, 2012 in the MEI Boardman room Turkey and Thailand: Unlikely Twins Ayse Zarakol This is the first of four events in a joint lecture series by Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies and the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University.

Podcast, 6 September, 2012 in the MEI Boardman room Turkey and Thailand: Unlikely Twins Ayse Zarakol This is the first of four events in a joint lecture series by Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies and the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University.

Podcast, 6 September, 2012 in the MEI Boardman room Turkey and Thailand: Unlikely Twins Ayse Zarakol This is the first of four events in a joint lecture series by Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies and the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University.

This Opinion first appeared in Foreign Policy on August 29, 2012

The “new and improved” tactics of “divide and conquer” are operational both at the vertical and horizontal layers of the government and society in Afghanistan.

Recent media coverage of the Afghan war questions whether we’ve made meaningful progress towards security and an effective Government in that country. Or were the past ten years a lost decade for the Afghans and Coalition partners? This ten-year milestone is a good point in time to pause, check Afghanistan’s progress, and assess where it appears to be headed. With the assistance of over 40 nations, Afghanistan developed its infrastructure and has taken major steps towards self sufficiency.

Originally posted December 2009

We are regularly bombarded by news reports and political analysis that reflect certain underlying assumptions about Afghanistan. These assumptions range from claims that Afghanistan was always a backward state ruled by warlords, to assertions that the country was never really a nation at all, and proclamations that Afghanistan is unfit for Western-style democracy and that it is dangerously naïve to think otherwise.

Since the overthrow of King Mohammad Zahir Shah in 1973, Afghanistan has been plagued by war — either war waged among ideologues (Marxists v. nationalists) or war marked by foreign invasion and occupation. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which began in 1979, lasted a full decade.

Introduction