The United States is combating terrorism in Afghanistan to keep it from reverting to a safe haven for terrorists like those who struck on September 11, 2001. Efforts by the U.S. and its allies and partners in Afghanistan to facilitate and defend stable democratic governance are essential to reducing the terrorist threats to U.S. national security.
President Obama must avoid shortsighted policies that undermine U.S. friends in Afghanistan and Pakistan while encouraging America's enemies. Read More.
President Obama provided a clear signal that his Administration intends to dedicate the time, resources, and, most important, U.S. leadership necessary to stabilize the region and contain the terrorist threat in South Asia. Read More.
The Obama Administration has been banking on Pakistani cooperation with its strategy to start a political reconciliation process inside Afghanistan as it withdraws U.S troops from the battlefield and shifts responsibility for security operations to the Afghan forces. Pakistani leaders have demonstrated little interest in assisting the U.S.… Read more
Lisa Curtis comments on Pakistan and Afghanistan. … Read more
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) visited Heritage to give the annual B.C. Lee lecture, focusing on the importance of American leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. After his speech, he sat down with us for a wide-ranging interview on free trade, Taiwan, the pitfalls of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and the implications of… Read more
The Main Obstacle to Progress in Afghanistan Is Pakistan Pakistan Proxies Conducting Brazen Attacks… Read more
Credible U.S. press reports yesterday revealed that cell phones found on the attackers in the September 13 attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul were linked to Pakistani intelligence officials. The U.S. has long known that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), works closely with the Haqqani… Read more
America has sacrificed a lot fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan - but we are not alone. The United States and our NATO allies are getting help from places many Americans can’t find on the map. Late on July 5, an Azerbaijani tanker plane crashed in Afghanistan en route to… Read more
In Vietnam, the United States grasped defeat from the jaws of victory. As documented in Mark Woodruff's "Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973," the enemy were defeated in battle, the insurgency was crushed, and "Vietnamization" (building out the south's defense forces) was… Read more
Last month, Kazakhstan’s Parliament approved the sending of troops to Afghanistan. The Taliban immediately issued a threat, warning Kazakhstan that its willingness to participate in the war on terrorism would make the country a target for violence. Days later, Kazakh security services’ headquarters in the northwestern city of Aktobe and… Read more
Osama bin Laden’s death was undoubtedly a major victory for the United States and civilized society. The War on Terrorism, however, is not over—al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups will continue to stage plots against the United States, as they have done at least 39 times since 9/11. Successful counterterrorism policies,… Read more
The killing of Osama bin Laden should strengthen U.S resolve to stabilize Afghanistan and ensure that it does not return to serving as a safe haven for terrorists intent on attacking the U.S. homeland. While the death of bin Laden marks a turning point in the fight against global terrorism,… Read more
This month, several individuals detained as "enemy combatants" will make their appeals for freedom to the highest court in the land. Perhaps now, more than any other time in recent memory, the eyes of the world are intensely focused… Read more
A few Members of Congress, motivated by American combat in the Middle East, have called for the reinstatement of a compulsory military draft. The case for coercing young citizens to join the military is supposedly based on social justice?that all should serve?and… Read more
(Archived document, may contain errors) THE SOVIET INVAS./ON OF AFGHANISTAN INTRODUCTION On December 27, 1979, under cover cf an ongoing Soviet military buildup, heavily-armed elements of a Soviet airborne brigade were airlifted into Kabul, Afghanistan, to violently overthrow the regime of President Hafizollah Amin. Within hours after the beginning of this Trojan Horse-type operation, Soviet… Read more
The global financial crisis has had a major impact on perceptions of American power and its relationships in Asia. Many of the perceptions are not founded on facts. Among the facts often overlooked: American companies invest far more abroad than does… Read more
Abstract: The U.S. faces difficult and ongoing challenges in Afghanistan. There have been setbacks, delays, and stumbling blocks in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but now is not the time to begin large-scale troop withdrawals or to cut civilian aid programs. By… Read more
President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night included brief words on the war in Afghanistan, where nearly 100,000 U.S. troops are deployed. While he was clear on U.S. objectives in the war when he stated, “By preventing the Taliban from establishing a stranglehold over the Afghan people,… Read more
The White House review on Afghanistan released Thursday demonstrates that the 30,000 additional U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan this year are beginning to make a difference in the direction of the war. In order to build on these tentative gains, the Administration should take a stronger… Read more
There are signs that the Obama Administration is backing away from the date it set for the beginning of withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. The July 2011 withdrawal date, first announced by President Obama last December, signaled a lack of U.S. commitment to the mission and complicated U.S. efforts… Read more
A new Washington Post–ABC News poll finds that “the sharpest edges of President Obama’s counterterrorism policy,...… Read more
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently delivered a new report, “A Historical Perspective on ‘Hollow Forces.’”...… Read more
The mixed messages coming from the Obama Administration last week on the future of combat operations in Afghanistan have...… Read more
Though the idea has been thoroughly discredited, the President and Members of Congress are still considering a large,...… Read more
In a secret NATO report recently leaked to the British media, Taliban insurgents told their interrogators that they are...… Read more
President Obama publicly admitted Monday for the first time that the U.S. is conducting an aggressive drone missile...… Read more
During Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Obama largely glossed over the ongoing war in Afghanistan,...… Read more
In listening to the State of the Union, you would never know that the U.S. still has close to 100,000 troops fighting...… Read more
The relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda was one of the hot topics of Monday night’s presidential debate....… Read more
[caption id="attachment_88148" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="President Barak Obama leaves 10 Downing street...… Read more
Senior Research Fellow
Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs