Economist
Failure in Afghanistan shows it has not learned the lessons of Vietnam
K. Taneja & M.S. Siyech, WOTR
The Taliban won the war in Afghanistan. America and its allies lost. While the Taliban holds press conferences, thousands of desperate Afghans flank the runway at Hamid Karzai International Airport, desperate for a flight out of the country. Several fell hundreds of feet to...
François Godement, Institut Montaigne
On July 28, China widely broadcast official photos of China's Foreign Minister greeting Taliban leader Ghani Baradar and his crew. They sat in the very spot where, 48 hours earlier, Wang had lectured US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on America's mistakes in general. Evidently, Beijing presciently picked the right time to upgrade its relationship with the Taliban to near government recognition level. Only two months earlier, in...
Dave Keating, Internationale Politik Quarterly
For the first time, the transatlantic alliance has lost a war. The trauma of that experience—and the sidelining of its European members—has big implications for NATO's future.
Bradley Bowman, Washington Examiner
Responding to the disastrous fallout of his Afghanistan withdrawal, President Joe Biden declared that the "buck stops with me" — and then spent the rest of his first public address on the crisis shifting blame and proffering the same...
Jordan Michael Smith, New Republic
Our foreign policy wise people responded to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by embracing belligerence. What, if anything, have they learned?
Alexander Cooley, Foreign Affairs
How the Region Is Adapting to the U.S. Defeat in Afghanistan
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, ECFR
Europe needs to take a hard look at what worked and what did not work in Afghanistan. Only then can it gradually and realistically build up its own capacities, rather than aim for grandiose schemes that lack public support.
Christopher Preble, Atlantic Council
The discussion about what the United States should do in the aftermath of its war in Afghanistan should proceed in three phases: now, soon, and soon thereafter.
Dimitri Simes, National Interest
Policymakers in the United States and Europe have adopted the position that their mission is to promote democracy worldwide, regularly arguing that if they fail, authoritarian governments will exploit American restraint and join forces.
Financial Times
Joe Biden and Donald Trump are very different politicians. But it turns out the two presidents have one very important policy in common: a commitment to end "forever wars". It was Trump who began negotiations with the Taliban and promised to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan in 2021. It was Biden who brought this process to its chaotic conclusion.
Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy
The withdrawal has been tragic—but it hasn't been a strategic disaster.
Tony Blair, IGC
The abandonment of Afghanistan and its people is tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, not in their interests and not in ours. In the aftermath of the decision to return Afghanistan to the same group from which the carnage of 9/11 arose, and in a manner that seems almost designed to parade our humiliation, the question posed by allies and enemies alike is: has the West lost its strategic will? Meaning: is it able to learn from experience, think strategically, define our interests... Читать дальше...
Matthew Continetti, National Review
‘m now the fourth American president to preside over war in Afghanistan — two Democrats and two Republicans," President Biden said during his speech on August 16. "I will not pass this responsibly on — responsibility on to a fifth president." He needn't have corrected himself. He did indeed irresponsibly bequeath to his successor a terrible situation in Central...
Colin Clarke, FPRI
The Taliban's recent capture of Kabul has the group poised to take back control over Afghanistan. Without question, a Taliban-led Afghanistan is going to be a hospitable operating environment for terrorists, insurgents, and militias of various stripes. But not all terrorist groups are created equal, in terms of capabilities, intent, or relationship to the Taliban. Counter-terrorism officials are alarmed that, capitalizing on the momentum from the Taliban's frenetic storming... Читать дальше...
Christopher Woody, 1945
The Taliban's rapid return to power in Afghanistan has drawn more criticism for the US withdrawal, including that the US is ceding strategically valuable ground to China.
Nina Krushcheva, Project Syndicate
During Russian President Vladimir Putin's 20 years in power, the meaning of the August 1991 plot by Soviet hardliners to topple Mikhail Gorbachev's reformist government has been inverted. Now, the attempted coup is portrayed as an effort by Russian forces to preserve the state, thwarted by anti-Soviet sentiment.
Anthony Gill, AIER
In mid-April 2021, President Biden declared an imminent and rapid withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan based upon a timeline handed down from the previous administration. Not surprisingly, this announcement prompted advances by the...
Kathrin Hille, Financial Times
Anti-Beijing sentiment is growing but the government has done little to prepare the public for war
