If reconciliation fails in Afghanistan… II on March 12, 2016The problem, however, is that the stakes are too high to wait it out. Afghanistan’s stability hangs in the balance, and by the thinnest of threads. The Taliban’s clout now extends far beyond their traditional bastions in the south and east — where they are retaking territory — and into the country’s northern reaches. Alarmingly, […]
If reconciliation fails in Afghanistan I on March 11, 2016In Washington, it’s a term that sends shivers down policymakers’ spines — often invoked to describe an unknown or undesirable alternative to a policy that is problematic and often overly idealistic, yet that officials nonetheless desperately want to succeed. In 2007, soon after U.S. authorities had announced a high-stakes troop surge in Iraq, a group […]