Holbrooke, Foot, Mouth

by Joshua Foust

Richard Holbrooke, everyone’s favorite envoy they love to hate to love, has an almost Biden-esque talent for saying things that make people angry. His most recent comment, that “Taliban is woven into the fabric of Pashtun society on both sides of the border with Pakistan and almost every Pashtun family has someone involved with the [...]

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AfPax Insider Is Death

by Joshua Foust

In 2008, I mocked Robert Young Pelton. I know, right? Shocking! But read why:
I believe he is saying there is something dishonorable, or unnatural, about people getting paid to participate in a war. This, along with the baseless assertion that “mercenaries” (a general, pejorative, and somewhat meaningless term) are “above the law,” forms the basis [...]

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America the Unreliable

by Joshua Foust

The next time some American official mentions they want to engage in negotiations with the Taliban, please: laugh really hard.
The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban’s No. 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated President Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai’s advisers.
The detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani [...]

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Uzbeks Are Scary

by Joshua Foust

Previously:
Does the IJU Even Exist?
Oh, Actual Terrorists
Talking the IMU in Northern Afghanistan
There’s a pretty interesting essay at SWJ on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Afghanistan. Most of it is fine—I’d seriously question relying on Ahmed Rashid for meaningful information about Uzbeks, for example. There are some bits that are pretty questionable, however, and it [...]

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Wonks vs. Nerds

by Joshua Foust

Back in January, Drew Conway, Thomas Zeitzoff, and I co-wrote a response to a high-profile study on ecologies of conflict. Our primary complaint wasn’t that quantitative study per se was wrong—after all, Thomas and Drew are primarily quantitative in their work—but that it requires a lot of context and understanding to give the numbers meaning [...]

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Book Review: The KGB’s Fascination With Potions

by Joshua Foust

Originally posted to Steve LeVine’s excellent Oil and Glory blog.
It can be difficult to stand out in the somewhat crowded field of Russian scare-books. Whether arguing for the resumption of a “new cold war” or whatever conspiracy happens to be topical, recent years have seen an avalanche of books arguing that Russia is not the [...]

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Oh, the Shinwari

by Joshua Foust

It’s almost like no one could have seen this coming.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Six weeks ago, elders of the Shinwari tribe, which dominates a large area in southeastern Afghanistan, pledged that they would set aside internal differences to focus on fighting the Taliban.
This week, that commitment seemed less important as two Shinwari subtribes took up [...]

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Kazakhstan’s Libel Laws

Thumbnail image for Kazakhstan’s Libel Laws by Joshua Foust

I’m genuinely confused by this:
A U.S. media group has criticized Kazakhstan for effectively banning an opposition newspaper, saying the move violated the core values of Europe’s main democracy watchdog, chaired by Kazakhstan this year.
Distribution of the main opposition Respublika newspaper was halted in February after a court ruled a story published by the paper last [...]

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Romancing Hekmatyar (and other related monsters)

by Joshua Foust

Blake Hounshell is on to something:
There’s been a lot of chatter recently over bringing Hekmatyar and/or Haqqani over on the the government side… There’s no question these are nasty men, but they don’t strike me as particularly worse on human rights issues than say, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, or any number of petty [...]

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Thinking Big, Thinking Small

by Asher Kohn

…or perhaps not thinking. Not at all. Seuss-ian writing aside, there are a few different ways to view how ISAF is trying to change the built environment in Afghanistan. I’ve been bullish on architectural changes for a while now, and the military wings its way besides. I’d imagine the impulse to make wholesale changes is [...]

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