The UN, with US leadership, must reimpose the Taliban travel ban
2022-05-14
By Annie Pforzheimer
In June, the United Nations Security Council must decide whether to adjust the current regime of sanctions against Taliban leadership. It’s a consequential decision.
U.N. sanctions on the Taliban for years had included a ban on the leadership’s international travel, but the Security Council Read more
Time for the International Community to Get Serious About Protecting Human Rights in Afghanistan
2022-04-22
By Dr. Nasir Andisha & Hamid A. Formuli
Human rights abuses in Afghanistan have continued to accelerate since the Taliban takeover last August. While the international community professes outrage, it has failed to prevent escalating abuses or to take steps necessary to investigate and collect evidence for future accountability efforts. There is no question tha
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Beijing’s Afghanistan gamble: Can emerging China-Taliban-Pakistan triangle deliver peace?
2022-03-30
By Dr. Davood Moradian
China should support an inclusive process in Afghanistan. The alternative would be either a permanent black security hole or an Islamist dystopia on China’s doorsteps.
For protocol-obsessed Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, it was unusual to pay an unscheduled visit to Taliban’s acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani at the la
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A Principled and Implementable Path for American Assistance in Afghanistan
2022-03-16
By Annie Pforzheimer & Jeffrey Grieco
In view of the dangerous and worsening humanitarian conditions now assailing Afghans, and as the United States contemplates its FY 2023 budget, finding a “sweet spot” for principled U.S. assistance to Afghanistan is an urgent requirement. What can donors do now, and where should donors aim to be six m
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Russian invasion of Ukraine raises dilemmas for Middle East and India
2022-02-28
By Amin Saikal
The Ukraine crisis has confronted three Middle Eastern countries—Turkey, Israel and Iran—as well as India, with serious policy quandaries. For different reasons, they face the conundrum of how to strike a balance between opposing Russia’s aggression against the sovereign state of Ukraine and maintaining good relations with Moscow. So far, they have walked a
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