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822. NATO's Survival Depends on Afghanistan
- Author:
- David M. Abshire
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- General Stanley McChrystal has said that without additional forces America will experience “Mission Failure” in Afghanistan. There is a growing fear within both the American political right and left that General McChrystal's request for additional troop increases in Afghanistan will start us on the road to another Vietnam. Shockingly, no one, not even the President, has yet to call for some form of comparable commitments from our allies. Ironically, it was the European members of the Alliance which took the initiative to invoke Article 5 after the 9/11 attacks, signaling that the attack was an attack against them all. Thus, Europeans were willing to make Afghanistan NATO's war. During the initial phase of the “War on Terror,” the United States mistakenly believed it did not need allies and made little effort to involve NATO in its operations until overextension in Iraq forced the United States to seek allies when it set up the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Terrorist attacks on European cities have also made it clear that Europe has just as much at stake in Afghanistan.
- Topic:
- NATO
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, Europe, and Vietnam
823. Afghanistan: At the Crossroads
- Author:
- Michael P. Cohn
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- Located on an ancient highway of trade and conquest, at the crossroads of civilizations, Afghanistan, rugged and remote, has withstood many invasions and undergone numerous internal changes over the centuries. Today it sits at the crossroads of history. Physically, politically and culturally, it remains a perplexing mix of modernity and the past.
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan
824. Conflictos bélicos y gestión de la información: una revisión tras la guerra en Irak y Afganistán
- Author:
- Manuel R. Torres Soriano and Javier García Marín
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
- Abstract:
- Existe un acuerdo casi unánime entre aquellos estudiosos que han investigado la compleja realidad de la guerra: el creciente papel que tiene la gestión de la información pública en el desarrollo de los conflictos bélicos (Libicki, 1995; Alberts et al., 2001, Armistead, 2004). Esta preponderancia se manifestó en algunos de los conflictos de la década de los noventa, como la llamada Guerra del Golfo, y en los de la antigua Yugoslavia y Kosovo. A pesar de que en ellos la gestión de la información jugó un papel destacado en la estrategia de los contendientes, el desenlace de estos conflictos estuvo vinculado a los tradicionales elementos del “poder duro”, según la distinción de Josehp Nye (1990). Sin embargo, en los últimos años, hemos podido asistir a un acelerado incremento de la importancia del componente “inmaterial” de la guerra. La generalización y sofisticación de las nuevas tecnologías de la información, junto con la aparición de una nueva tipología de conflicto caracterizado por la asimetría en la naturaleza y fines de los contendientes, han situado a la dimensión informativa de los conflictos en el lugar central de toda reflexión sobre la naturaleza de las guerras del presente y el futuro.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, War, and Insurgency
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Maryland
825. The Cost of War: Afghan experiences of conflict, 1978-2009
- Author:
- Ashley Jackson
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The past three decades of war and disorder have had a devastating impact on the Afghan people. Millions have been killed, millions more have been forced to flee their homes and the country's infrastructure and forests have all but been destroyed. The social fabric of the country is fractured and state institutions are fragile and weak.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, and War
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan
826. Obama's Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan, December 2009
- Author:
- Barack Obama
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- President Obama gave this address on December 1, 2009 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, War, Armed Struggle, and Fragile/Failed State
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, and New York
827. Bandits, Borderlands and Opium Wars: Afghan State-building Viewed from the Margins
- Author:
- Jonathan Goodhand
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper explores the linkages between the drugs economy, borderlands and 'post conflict' state-building in Afghanistan. It does this through a fine grained historical analysis of Sheghnan, a remote district on the Afghan-Tajik border in the north-east. The paper charts the opening and closing of the border; the movement of people, commodities and ideas across the border; the effects of changing political regimes; the role of resources and their effects on local governance; and the complex, multifaceted networks that span the border and are involved in the drugs trade. The paper argues that the drugs economy has been an important part of the story of borderland transformation in Sheghnan. Because of drugs, borderlands are no longer marginal, but have become a resource to be exploited by the centre. As such the paper argues that examining the frontier may throw light on processes of state formation, state collapse and 'post conflict' state-building. A focus on borderlands means taking seriously the 'politics of place' and examining the diffuse dynamics and localised projects that feed into and shape processes of state formation.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Economics, War, and Narcotics Trafficking
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan
828. Afghanistan: Elections and the Crisis of Governance
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- President Hamid Karzai's re-election on 2 November 2009, following widespread fraud in the 20 August presidential and provincial polls, has delivered a critical blow to his government's legitimacy. The deeply flawed polls have eroded public confidence in the electoral process and in the international community's commitment to the country's nascent democratic institutions. Concentration of power in the executive to the exclusion of the legislature and judiciary has also resulted in a fundamental breakdown in governance while strengthening the hand of the insurgency. To restore stability, vigorous constitutional reform under the aegis of a loya jirga must be undertaken; an impartial commission of inquiry into the flawed elections should be formed; the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) should be restructured to restore credibility; and prompt steps must be taken to strengthen institutions.
- Topic:
- Democratization, War, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan
829. Iran's Presidential Elections: What Impact on External Relations?
- Author:
- Shireen T. Hunter
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- In June 2009, Iran will hold its 10th presidential elections since the establishment of the Islamic regime in 1979. As a rule, in past elections the incumbent president was elected to a second term. Even Muhammad Khatami, despite his problems with the conservative elements and disagreements with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was reelected in 2001.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Corruption, Democratization, Islam, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and Iran
830. Enhancing U.S. Preventive Action
- Author:
- Paul B. Stares and Micah Zenko
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Since taking office, the Obama administration has repeatedly affirmed its intent to prevent potential future international crises from becoming the source of costly new U.S. military commitments. In one of the earliest foreign policy pronouncements of the new administration, Vice President Joseph R. Biden declared: “We'll strive to act preventively, not preemptively, to avoid whenever possible or wherever possible the choice of last resort between the risks of war and the dangers of inaction. We'll draw upon all the elements of our power—military and diplomatic; intelligence and law enforcement; economic and cultural—to stop crises from occurring before they are in front of us.” Not long afterward, General James L. Jones, in his first speech as national security adviser, echoed much the same objective: “We need to be able to anticipate the kind of operations that we should be thinking about six months to a year ahead of time in different parts of the world to bring the necessary elements of national and international power to bear to prevent future Iraqs and future Afghanistans.” And in a major speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in August 2009, President Barack Obama also declared that “one of the best ways to lead our troops wisely is to prevent the conflicts that cost American blood and treasure tomorrow.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention and Foreign Policy
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, and Iraq