War and Peace in Afghanistan

US intelligence community

The US Intelligence Community Sets Out Its Priorities

On Thursday, 30 September 2021, the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee approved the fiscal year 2022 budget for intelligence and intelligence-related activities. These activities cover the work of the Defense Department, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, […]

Taliban-Qatar

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XXVI)

26. Taliban back in American swing chair The US state department admitted belatedly late last night that the first face-to-face meeting between American officials and the Taliban since the regime change in Kabul would take place in the weekend at Doha. Much planning has gone into this development. The poignancy […]

Taliban met British delegation

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XXV)

25. Taliban receives overtures from near and far The Taliban is getting many suitors lately. It is far from the “pariah” that the Biden Administration thought it was destined to be. During the past month alone, the Taliban received six suitors from the region and beyond offering courtship — the […]

Simon Gass

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XXIV)

24. UK fires the first shot in the New Great Game While India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is doing a masterly job to canvass support for the Biden Administration’s project to delay any constructive engagement with the Taliban Government in Kabul by the international community until Washington gets its […]

Wang Yu met Taliban

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XXII)

22. US, UK prepare to re-engage Taliban  Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has written yet another opinion piece in the Washington Post, sensing a turning point lies ahead with the Biden Administration assembling a sustainable, durable policy toward Afghanistan taking into account the new reality of the Taliban government. Quintessentially, […]

US soldiers and opium

Afghanistan: Where’s The Cash?

Afghanistan’s US-run government was the world’s largest producer and exporter of opium, morphine, and the end-product, heroin. As it did after first seizing power in the mid-1990’s, Taliban, the Islamic anti-drug and anti-communist movement, is shutting down the Afghan drug trade. Billions worth of heroin, opium and morphine that had […]

Family photo of the 20th summit SCO

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XIX)

19. SCO won’t be subaltern to QUAD As expected, the situation in Afghanistan was the focal point of the discussions at the 20th summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe on Friday. Yet, the SCO’s Dushanbe Declaration is scanty on the topic. The 8300-word document devoted hardly […]

Pentagon drone strike

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XVIII)

18. India’s ‘over-the-horizon’ dilemma In England, they’d plan a park, build it but wouldn’t complete it until they could observe  for a while the foot tracks of walkers, before deciding where to lay the pathways for optimal utility. The Blinken Administration and Modi Govt apparently think they don’t have that […]