Afghanistan

Pompeo's plan to make peace with the resurgent Taliban is a sad reminder of all that went wrong in Afghanistan—and how it could have been otherwise.

The pact pledging “intra-Afghan” talks is to be signed Feb. 29, but questions remain over whether the deal will last.

Tehran’s goals are pragmatic—and may be in line with Washington’s.

The U.S.-Taliban truce raises some hope—but not while the Afghan government remains a stranger to the talks.

As dissidents are attacked and murdered, critics liken the National Directorate of Security to the brutal intelligence service of the Afghan communists in the 1980s.

The Trump administration has made it nearly impossible for Afghans who aided U.S. troops to claim asylum in the United States. Instead, thousands who aided Americans on the battlefield are stranded in a country that doesn't want them.

Countless madrassas are said to be funded by Gulf sources associated with the spread of extremist Salafist views.

Caught on the border, many are vulnerable to extortion, abuse, and regional tensions.

Two crises dominated South Asia in 2019, and each one stands to get worse next year.

Even now, 18 years in, there is no clear way out for the United States. 

The “Afghanistan Papers” point to an information cartel that will likely persist for the foreseeable future.

Inflated threats, concealed costs, and lack of accountability for failure—and the complicity of the foreign-policy establishment—have kept the infinity war going for 18 years.

The prospect of a revival of talks with the Taliban is persuading no one after two protracted civil wars that have taken up the lives of most Afghans.

Pro-Indian views clash with sympathy for fellow Muslims.

The Islamic State-Khorasan offers a powerful case study of the militant group’s ability to create autonomous affiliates that flourish and endure.