March 25, 2011 COMMENTARY BY: Jeffrey Laurenti TOPICS: Foreign Policy, Addressing Challenges in the Afghanistan - Pakistan Region
Afghans largely recognize that their country has made considerable gains over the past decade, project director Jeffrey Laurenti argues in this background paper for the task force, but unreconciled internal divisions and the conflicting priorities of Afghans' foreign friends have aborted the country's return to stability. The concentric circles of neighborly interests in Afghanistan have been partly harmonized through the United Nations, with the critical exception of Pakistan's, but a new fluidity may be opening possibilities for convergence on restoring peace and security.
READ MOREMarch 25, 2011 COMMENTARY BY: Orzala Ashraf Nema TOPICS: Foreign Policy, Addressing Challenges in the Afghanistan - Pakistan Region
How have the status and roles of Afghanistan's women changed, in town and in country, through the conflicts and upheavals of recent decades, and how important is their contested status to the country's conflicts today? To what extent are women's gains of the past decade at risk from a
fundamentalist resurgence, and to what extent have some Afghan women acquired a modicum of economic and political power of their own, and found allies ready to assist them, to defend women's rights and opportunities? Despite the Taliban-fostered image that Afghanistan’s traditional society is not ready to accept women’s rights, Orzala Ashraf Nemat argues, the past thirty years have laid the groundwork for the active role of women in public life. Much work remains to be done on linking Islamic principles with the efforts of Afghan women for peace, security, political participation, and legal rights
February 8, 2011 COMMENTARY BY: Mary Kaldor, Marika Theros TOPICS: Foreign Policy, Addressing Challenges in the Afghanistan - Pakistan Region
What is the role of local leaders and of civil society across the region in resolving conflicts in their area, and how can they be constructively engaged with international and national authorities? Can such a bottom-up approach complement and strengthen top-down efforts in addressing the regional dimensions of the conflict in Afghanistan-Pakistan? Despite the efforts and expenditures of the international community and the government in Kabul, security in Afghanistan remains elusive, Kaldor and Theros argue, often because in many Afghan provinces foreign and government forces are seen as an intruding presence. However, civil society initiatives at the grassroots local level can build a cooperative framework for resolution of the Afghan conflict that can facilitate larger solutions.
READ MOREOctober 29, 2010 COMMENTARY BY: Suzanne Chang TOPICS: Foreign Policy, Addressing Challenges in the Afghanistan - Pakistan Region
This paper provides a critical perspective on past Pakistani policy toward jihadist militant groups, the growth of their influence in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Kyber Pukhtunkhwa Province (KPP), and what steps need to be taken in order to reverse their momentum. Abbas argues that Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership will have to transition from a short-term strategy of deal-making and army offensives to a long-term political solution that will erode the gains made by militant groups in these areas since 2002. Download the report.
READ MORESeptember 28, 2010 COMMENTARY BY: C. Christine Fair TOPICS: Foreign Policy, Addressing Challenges in the Afghanistan - Pakistan Region
The international community has been ambivalent about India’s profile in Afghanistan. While the Afghan government and its international partners welcome India’s constructive role, many also worry about the negative externalities associated with India’s footprint in the country, particularly with respect to Pakistan, which has long feared Indian encirclement and complains sharply about India’s expanding presence in Afghanistan. In this report, Christine Fair outlines India’s current interests in Afghanistan, how it has sought to achieve its aims, and the consequences of its actions for India, Pakistan, and the international efforts to stabilize Pakistan and Afghanistan. She argues that India’s interests in Afghanistan are not only Pakistan-specific but also tied to India’s desire to be seen as an extra- regional power moving toward great power status.
READ MORESeptember 28, 2010 COMMENTARY BY: Joshua Foust TOPICS: Foreign Policy, Addressing Challenges in the Afghanistan - Pakistan Region
Afghanistan’s neighbors that garner the most attention in policy debates about resolving its conflicts are Iran and Pakistan. The five post-Soviet states to Afghanistan’s north—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—also will have a hand in determining Afghanistan’s future, though their relevance is often discounted and there is little understanding of exactly what their role might be. Joshua Foust’s paper explains how and why these bordering countries do not view the war in Afghanistan in the same terms as do the United States, Russia, Europe, or the Security Council collectively. In some cases, the interests of these Central Asian neighbors run counter to those of the more global players seeking to determine Afghanistan’s future.
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Fellow Harold Pollack focuses on issues of Economics and Inequality. He is the Helen Ross Professor at the School of Social Service Administration, and faculty chair of the Center for Health Administration Studies at the University of Chicago.
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