In the Media - Program for Culture and Conflict Studies

In the Media - Title

In the Media


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4 Contenders Emerge to Lead Taliban - Article

4 Contenders Emerge to Lead Taliban

Taliban has began discussing replacement of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, insiders say — a choice that could spark furious... read more at the Daily Pakistan Observer

 

Who Will Lead Taliban Next? Four Contenders Emerge - Article

Who Will Lead Taliban Next? Four Contenders Emerge

As the Taliban collected the body of its slain leader on Monday, the insurgent group also began discussing his replacement, insiders say — a choice that could... read more at the Center on International Cooperation

A year in the US: Social turmoil, violence and historic change - Article

A year in the US: Social turmoil, violence and historic change

President Barack Obama broke two major taboos in US foreign policy this year: he re-established diplomatic ties with Cuba... read more at Deutsche Welle

Afghanistan And The Taliban, Again - Article

Afghanistan And The Taliban, Again

US-trained Iraqi troops fell like a house of cards when ISIS hit the country. Fled Mosul. Syrian fighters... read more at On Point

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The terrorists behind school shootings supported from Kabul - Article

The terrorists behind school shootings supported from Kabul

Afghan intelligence, in cooperation with the Indian intelligence, supports Taliban groups in Pakistan... read more at Dagsavisen (translated by Google)

Endgame in Afghanistan - Article

Endgame in Afghanistan

The rifts among Taliban factions had been growing for some time, bubbling up as the deception over their leader’s death continued... read more at The Cipher Brief

 

A Closer Look At The Pakistani Taliban - Article

A Closer Look At The Pakistani Taliban

Pakistan’s military is calling on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take a tougher stance against terrorists, including more punitive... read more at Here and Now

Analysts See Promising Trends in Afghan Election - Article

Analysts See Promising Trends in Afghan Election

While uncertainty remains over the outcome of the Afghan election, analysts say the vote is showing... read more at Voice of America

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How To Leave Afghanistan - Article

How To Leave Afghanistan

Surveillance video out of Afghanistan shows the US soldier who allegedly shot sixteen Afghan villagers on Sunday walking back up to his base after... read more at On Point

Suicide Attack at NATO Base in Jalalabad Kills 9 Afghans - Article

Suicide Attack at NATO Base in Jalalabad Kills 9 Afghans

Listen at PBS Newshour

The Fog of Peace - Article

The Fog of Peace

Afghanistan policy, like Vietnam policy before it, has taken on a life of its own, impervious to ground truth. The simple reality is that "peace talks" with the Taliban have... read more at Foreign Policy

Gordon Campbell on the only foreign policy in this campaign - Article

Gordon Campbell on the only foreign policy in this campaign

Ten years ago come Saturday, the Taliban fled Kabul as the US–led forces of Operation Enduring Freedom reached the gates of... read more at Scoop

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Afghan National Army prepares for life after Nato - Article

Afghan National Army prepares for life after Nato

In many ways the platoon of soldiers heading into... read more at The Guardian

Afghan politician asks for SAS to be more involved in security - Article

Afghan politician asks for SAS to be more involved in security

The Deputy Speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Khalid Pashtoon, wants international troops like New Zealand's SAS to be more involved in... listen at Radio New Zealand

Killing of Afghan ‘Godfather’ Fuels New Questions on Stability - Article

Killing of Afghan ‘Godfather’ Fuels New Questions on Stability

Listen at PBS Newshour

U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan - Article

U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Listen at The Voice of Russia

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Mission called flawless - Article

Mission called flawless

You could probably hear the gunfire from the raid that took down Osama bin Laden from the campus of Pakistan's national military academy, said Tom Johnson... read more at the Monterey Herald

Bin Laden’s Gone, What’s Next For The U.S And Afghanistan? - Article

Bin Laden’s Gone, What’s Next For The U.S And Afghanistan?

The United States went to war in Afghanistan explicitly to deal with the terrorism threat from al-Qaida. Now, al-Qaida leader... read more at On Point

Robert Gates’ Pentagon Legacy: Unfinished Wars, Unfinished Budget Reform - Article

Robert Gates’ Pentagon Legacy: Unfinished Wars, Unfinished Budget Reform

When President George W. Bush put... read more at The Huffington Post

U.S. strategy in Afghanistan likened to disastrous Soviet invasion - Article

U.S. strategy in Afghanistan likened to disastrous Soviet invasion

The American-led war in Afghanistan is heading toward an outcome similar to the disastrous Soviet... read more at iPolitics

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Poetry as a Weapon of War in Afghanistan - Article

Poetry as a Weapon of War in Afghanistan

According to two new reports, the Taliban is defeating the United States when it comes to winning Afghans' hearts and minds with propaganda... watch at PBS

Transition to nowhere: The limits of “Afghanization” - Article

Transition to nowhere: The limits of “Afghanization”

The strategy of having the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) take over the security burden from the U.S and NATO forces is now a centerpiece of... read more at Foreign Policy

Pashtun hard-core rap - Article

Pashtun hard-core rap: A report on the messages carried in Taliban chants

There’s an interesting article on Taliban chants in the new issue of Small Wars and Insurgencies by... read more at Foreign Policy

High times for Iranian drugs mafia - Article

High times for Iranian drugs mafia

Southwest Asia's robust illicit-narcotics industry is usually associated with Afghanistan, a narco-producing... read more at Asia Times Online

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The Transforming Threat of Southwest Asia's Narcotics Industry - Article

The Transforming Threat of Southwest Asia's Narcotics Industry

On Oct. 17, Iranian border guards clashed with drug traffickers on the wild Iran-Afghan frontier and subsequently... read more at World Politics Review

Supply route may decide outcome of Afghan war - Article

Supply route may decide outcome of Afghan war

If countries were rated on how tough it is to fight wars on their soil, Afghanistan would come close to the top of the list... read more at the Toronto Star

Fatalities escalate in Afghanistan war - Article

Fatalities escalate in Afghanistan war

The U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan passed a grim milestone Friday, when the deaths of several service members... read more at the San Diego Union-Tribune

Troops seek to replicate gains made in Afghan village - Article

Troops seek to replicate gains made in Afghan village

 In June 2009, then commander of international forces in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal hailed the counterinsurgency strategy employed by... read more at Stars and Stripes

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NSA Students Design “Afghanistan-in-Your-Hand” Smart Phone App - Article

NSA Students Design “Afghanistan-in-Your-Hand” Smart Phone App

While smart phone apps can put a map in your hands, two Naval Postgraduate School students have designed one that puts a whole country in your hands... read more at Naval Postgraduate School

The Afghan-American Future - Article

The Afghan-American Future

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in the Oval Office this morning on his “make nice” tour of... read more at On Point

Bomb Attempt Puts U.S.-Pakistan Ties In Spotlight - Article

Bomb Attempt Puts U.S.-Pakistan Ties In Spotlight

From the time it became clear there was a Pakistan connection to Saturday's attempted bombing in Times Square, there seemed to be a concerted effort by... read more at NPR

Opium, the CIA and the Karzai Administration - Article

Opium, the CIA and the Karzai Administration

Alfred McCoy's important new article for TomDispatch (March 30, 2010) deserves to mobilize Congress for a serious revaluation of... read more at the History News Network

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Opium and the CIA: Can the US Triumph in the Drug-Addicted War in Afghanistan? - Article

Opium and the CIA: Can the US Triumph in the Drug-Addicted War in Afghanistan?

Alfred McCoy’s important new article deserves to mobilize Congress for a serious revaluation of ... read more at Global Research

Behind Karzai’s war of words - Article

Behind Karzai’s war of words

You’re Hamid Karzai. You’re fed up. And you’re not going to take it any more... read more at the Toronto Star

US Strategy in South Asia: Is It Really Working? - Article

US Strategy in South Asia: Is It Really Working?

It's been reported that remote-controlled US drones have devastated the top leadership of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan... listen at KCRW

Afghanistan experts at USF symposium agree on one thing: Things don't look good - Article

Afghanistan experts at USF symposium agree on one thing: Things don't look good

Almost nine years into the war in Afghanistan, there's still no guarantee of success or even much agreement on... read more at Tampa Bay Times

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Critic: Afghan Offensive A 'Public Affairs Exercise' - Article

Critic: Afghan Offensive A 'Public Affairs Exercise'

A scathing article in the latest Foreign Policy magazine calls the military offensive into Afghanistan's Marjah region "essentially a giant public affairs exercise, designed to shore up dwindling domestic... read more at NPR

What Huge Marja Assault Reveals About Afghan War - Article

What Huge Marja Assault Reveals About Afghan War

In mid-February, a thousands-strong joint U.S. and Afghan force began the assault on Marja, an Afghanistan town said to be... read more at The Wire

Down the AfPak Rabbit Hole - Article

Down the AfPak Rabbit Hole

The release of Tim Burton’s new blockbuster movie, Alice in Wonderland, is days away. The timing could not be more appropriate... read more at Foreign Affairs

The arrest of Taliban No2 could mark a turning - Article

The arrest of Taliban No2 could mark a turning

The arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban military leader, could represent a turning point in... read more at La Presse (translated from French)

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Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar: a 'formidable foe' - Article

Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar: a 'formidable foe'

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is believed to have been in day-to-day command of the Taliban's Afghan insurgency since its... read more at The Telegraph

Gunfights Mark Third Day of Offensive in Southern Afghanistan - Article

Gunfights Mark Third Day of Offensive in Southern Afghanistan

Firefights erupted in the southern Afghan town of Marjah on Monday, where Marines and Afghan forces are battling insurgents as part of... read more at PBS Newshour

Iran's 30-Year War on Drugs - Article

Iran's 30-Year War on Drugs

Over the past 30 years, the poisonous effects of Afghanistan's narcotics industry have steadily transformed Iran's law enforcement and border... read more at World Politics Review

What will deal with Taliban mean for Afghan women? - Article

What will deal with Taliban mean for Afghan women?

In case anyone has forgotten the brutal and cheerless days of Afghanistan's Taliban state in the nine years since the reign of terror ended, there's a... read more at the Toronto Star

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Obama and Afghanistan: America’s Drug-Corrupted War - Article

Obama and Afghanistan: America’s Drug-Corrupted War

The presidential electoral campaign of Barack Obama in 2008, it was thought, “changed the political debate in a party and... read more at Global Research

'Model' district no safe haven - Article

'Model' district no safe haven

They were doing everything right – but something went fatally wrong. The five Canadians who... read more at the Toronto Star

National police Canada's problem in Afghanistan - Article

National police Canada's problem in Afghanistan

From a rocky slope above a village in southern Afghanistan last February, Canadian Forces engineer Matt Austin watched a Taliban suspect... read more at the Toronto Star

Obama is wrong: this is his Vietnam - Article

Obama is wrong: this is his Vietnam

Vietnam is getting worse every day," President Lyndon B Johnson once confessed to his wife. "I have the choice to... read more at the New Statesman

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Vietnam in the Hindu Kush? A Reading Assignment - Article

Vietnam in the Hindu Kush? A Reading Assignment

On November 4, 2009 I was a participant in the latest of Boston University’s semiannual “Great Debates.” The debate question was... read more at The Huffington Post

Afghanistan: Is the 'Surge' Feasible? - Article

Afghanistan: Is the 'Surge' Feasible?

How quickly can the afghan army stand up, so American troops can stand down? It's a question that could determine the success or failure of... read more at Newsweek

Troop surge no guarantee of success - Article

Troop surge no guarantee of success

First the good news: President Barack Obama's expected plan to boost U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan by about 32,000 will... read more at the Toronto Star

Coalition nears turning point in Afghan mission - Article

Coalition nears turning point in Afghan mission

The war Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance found himself fighting was a small one. Under his command, Canadian troops in... read more at CTV News

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Next Steps in Afghanistan - Article

Next Steps in Afghanistan

As President Obama meets with military and diplomatic officials about how to proceed in Afghanistan, continued violence... listen at KQED Radio

Defining 'The Enemy' In Afghanistan - Article

Defining 'The Enemy' In Afghanistan

Before American commanders and policymakers settle on what to do next in Afghanistan, they need to agree on whom they are fighting... read more at NPR

Painting Democracy on Afghanistan - Article

Painting Democracy on Afghanistan

After weeks of high-level diplomacy between Washington and Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to a November 7 runoff election with... read more at the Council on Foreign Relations

Afghan Theatre Conference Aims to Impact Strategies in the Field - Article

Afghan Theatre Conference Aims to Impact Strategies in the Field

”Are we faced with something unique in Afghanistan, something that challenges our entire strategic paradigm?” That question, posed by NPS Defense Analysis Professor John Arquilla... read more at NPS

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University Experts Brief Canada’s New Afghanistan Task Force Commander on Winning ‘Mission Impossible’ - Article

University Experts Brief Canada’s New Afghanistan Task Force Commander on Winning ‘Mission Impossible’

Only days before Lt. Gen. McChrystal released his strategic reassessment of the war in Afghanistan, the about-to-be commander of... read more at NPS

Saigon 2009 - Article

Saigon 2009

For those who say that comparing the current war in Afghanistan to the Vietnam War is taking things too far, here’s a reality check... read more at Foreign Policy

Democracy in Afghanistan is wishful thinking - Article

Democracy in Afghanistan is wishful thinking

As the world watches today's presidential election in Afghanistan, Americans would do well to ponder the lessons of Vietnam... read more at the Christian Science Monitor

SOS Afghanistan – Are the SAS on a doomed mission? - Article

SOS Afghanistan – Are the SAS on a doomed mission?

n August 20th Afghanistan will hold a general election that is deemed virtually certain to return Hamid Karzai and his... read more at Werewolf

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In The Graveyard Of Scholarship - Article

In The Graveyard Of Scholarship

Much rubbish is published in all fields of thought all the time. But Seth Jones’ topic is not, say, Chinese porcelain of the 15th century... read more at Forbes

Meet the Taliban's New Chief - Article

Meet the Taliban's New Chief

If you thought the longtime head of the Taliban was bad, you should meet his no. 2... read more at Newsweek

Experts divided on Obama's new Afghanistan strategy - Article

Experts divided on Obama's new Afghanistan strategy

Nearly two weeks into a major U.S. offensive, experts here remain divided over whether U.S. President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan strategy will... read more at Xinhua News

Afghan strategy architect slams failure to grasp locals - Article

Afghan strategy architect slams failure to grasp locals

International forces have failed to quash the insurgency in Afghanistan because they have failed to understand the Taliban's... read more at CTV News

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Obama's Strategy for Afghanistan - Article

Obama's Strategy for Afghanistan

President Obama just unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan. The Post asked politicians and experts to weigh in. Below are contributions... read more at The Washington Post

Six Experts on Negotiating with the Taliban - Article

Six Experts on Negotiating with the Taliban

Earlier this month, President Obama proposed (NYT) the controversial notion of reaching out to moderate elements of the Afghan Taliban... read more at the Council on Foreign Relations

Applying Iraq's broader lessons in Afghanistan - Article

Applying Iraq's broader lessons in Afghanistan

As the United States and NATO craft a new strategy for Afghanistan, they are likely to apply counterinsurgency lessons learned at great cost during the war in Iraq... read more at the SF Gate

Mobilizing Afghan Militias - Article

Mobilizing Afghan Militias

Empowering supposed "tribal militias" in Afghanistan as a means to defend areas outside of the immediate control of Afghanistan's... read more

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Proceed with Caution on Afghan Tribal Strategy - Article

Proceed with Caution on Afghan Tribal Strategy

With attacks against Afghan civilians and soldiers of the international coalition rising, the U.S. military is searching for a new strategy to... read more at Council on Foreign Relations

All Counterinsurgency Is Local - Article

All Counterinsurgency Is Local

June was the deadliest month for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since the invasion in October 2001. July became... read more at the Atlantic

What’s Wrong with U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan - Article

What’s Wrong with U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan

A military analyst on what's wrong with U.S. strategy... read more at Newsweek

Talking to the Taliban - Article

Talking to the Taliban

Understanding the insurgents is a basic part of reporting on the Afghan war, but it's a remarkably difficult task... read more at The Globe and Mail

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U.S. Tracks Pakistani Tribal Leader's Rise to Power - Article

U.S. Tracks Pakistani Tribal Leader's Rise to Power

In testimony Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said new terrorist attacks in the United States and... read more at NPR

CCS disclaimer
Material contained herein is made available for the purpose of peer review and discussion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.  Most of the content available on this website was updated as of March 2017.