Gabriela Campos, an intern at the Institute for Policy Studies, talks about a compilation of analyses regarding the New Taliban. The book, entitled Decoding the New Taliban: Insights from the Afghan Field, is edited by Antonio Giustozzi who is a fellow at the London School of Economics. The book asserts that a stronger Neo-Taliban has [...]

As U.S President Barack Obama convenes with his cabinet and his senior military commanders to revise the the U.S policy in Afghanistan, the country witnessed another spate of deadly insurgent attacks that carried a ripple of terror across Afghanistan.
Separate bombings and shooting attacks throughout Afghanistan, killed 12 people that included four U.S soldiers and three [...]

Whether the US wants Hamid Karzai for Afghanistan leadership or not is now moot. Karzai’s opponent backed out of the runoff and the country is left with no choice but to accept Karzai’s ‘reelection,’ amidst prevailing speculation of massive electoral fraud. ‘Nearly a third of the votes cast in Mr. Karzai’s favor in presidential elections [...]

As one observer noted, ‘The Taliban-led insurgency is increasingly an insurrection against the behavior of the Karzai government—not against the religion or civilization of its international partners.’
The basic concept behind an insurgency, after all, is revolt against current political administration. As Thomas L. Friedman stated, “When you are mounting a counterinsurgency campaign, the local government [...]

Immediately, the Taliban issued a statement on Friday condemning Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. That’s perfectly understandable. After all, they are labeled as US enemy. The group explains that Obama has ‘boosted troop numbers and continued the aggressive policies of his predecessor rather than bring peace to Afghanistan.’
“We have seen no change in his strategy [...]

Because of highly-disputed election results, political turmoil is expected to last even longer in Afghanistan, endangering the plans to conduct dialogue with the Taliban at post-elections. Nonetheless, the planned dialogue has not been axed. Regional armed groups have quieted down their local conflicts so as to counter the US AfPak strategy that only translates to [...]