Category: Afghanistan

Post 9/11 wars not about promoting democracy, says Condoleezza Rice

     

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that U.S.-led interventions in the Middle East and Central Asia were not about spreading democracy, but about addressing regional security issues, Newsweek… Read more »

Politics, not theology, at the root of Islamist ideology

     

New national security adviser H.R. McMaster is setting a strikingly different tone to discussions on countering violent extremism by saying the term “radical Islamic terrorism” isn’t helpful for US goals, CNN… Read more »

After Mosul: state-building means democratic state-building

     

A dispute between Iraq and Turkey has emerged as a dramatic geopolitical sideshow to the complicated military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State, with Turkey’s… Read more »

Inclusion & empowerment vital for democratic development

     

  Inclusion and empowerment are vital for both democracy and development to take hold in conflict and post-conflict situations, according to Nicholas Haysom, special representative of United Nations Secretary-General Ban… Read more »

Beware the ‘Isolationist Temptation’

     

It has been only a quarter-century since the end of the Cold War, but the U.S. is already in the midst of its second great foreign-policy debate of the post-Soviet… Read more »

What are Khalilzad memoir’s lessons for U.S. policy?

     

Raymond Tanter, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, asks in The National Interest: First, regarding theory: recognize bureaucratic principles, as modified by recent research, which is quite critical of… Read more »

The case for negotiating with Iran

     

Under the right conditions, which must include a hard-headed approach and tough actions to check Iran’s ambitions, Washington can benefit from bringing Iran into multilateral forums where the United States… Read more »

Engage civil society in party-building to consolidate democracy

     

Criticizing U.S. missteps in promoting democracy is certainly reasonable—particularly in light of the debacles in Iraq and Libya—but elevating these criticisms into high doctrine and principled critiques of democracy promotion… Read more »

Envoy Khalilzad’s knack for being in room while history was written

     

One of the most intriguing individuals to play a leading role in the Bush-era wars is Zalmay Khalilzad, a polished diplomat who was the most senior Muslim in the White… Read more »