Afghan Shiite militants have been fighting on the Assad regime's side for some time, and the scope and strategic purpose of Iran's involvement is becoming increasingly clear.
Robert Jervis reviews Robert Gates's recently published memoir, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War. The reviewer argues that the memoir is very revealing, but inadvertently so insofar as it shows for example Gates's failure to focus on the key issues involved in the decisions to send more troops to Afghanistan and his inability to bridge the gap between the perspectives of the generals and of the White House.
If anyone has earned the right to say "I told you so," it is Barnett Rubin. One of the foremost authorities on Afghanistan, Rubin saw earlier than most the dangers emerging from that blighted land. In his work–as author of The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, an adviser to the United Nations for several years after 2001, a professor at New York University, and an adviser to the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 200–Rubin worked to warn against, prevent, and mitigate the perennial crises afflicting Afghanistan and South Asia.
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, and South Asia
As NATO winds down its long combat operation in Afghanistan, the Alliance is facing a new and dynamic security environment that is more strategically constraining and competitive than at any time since the end of the Cold War. This is spurred by a set of long-term trends that are driving a transformation of global arrangements and power relationships and is further reinforced by fiscal austerity and uncertain political leadership on both sides of the Atlantic. Furthermore, along with these long-term challenges, increasing turbulence in the Middle East and the Ukraine crisis mean that NATO today has serious security concerns to tend to on the immediate periphery of Alliance territory.
Topic:
NATO, Demographics, Science and Technology, and International Security
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Ukraine, Middle East, Asia, and Syria
In an important sense, emerging debates on the war's lessons are premature. The war in Afghanistan is not over; nor is it ending anytime soon. Nevertheless, before conventional wisdom consolidates, two observations on counterinsurgency are worth considering now: whether it can work and how to approach governance reform.
For India, the Western drawdown of forces in Afghanistan will represent the greatest adverse structural shift in its security environment for over a decade. Yet, a fundamental congruity of interests between Washington and New Delhi, and opportunities for cooperation, remain.
If the West wants to harness the potential of cooperating with India in Afghanistan, it needs a better appreciation of India's engagement and motivations, as well as of New Delhi's assets and concerns about Afghanistan's future.
Since 2001, this Iranian scholar argues, Iran has sought to establish security and stability, while advancing regional cooperation in Afghanistan. The only way to manage conflict in the post-exit era is for the West to accept the legitimacy of increased regional cooperation, including Iran's involvement.
When it comes to Afghanistan's future, the United States ironically has more in common with Iran than it does with Pakistan. As Western troops draw down, a look inside Iran's enduring interests, means to secure them, unique assets, and goals that may or not conflict with other regional actors.
Berlin Duvari yikilip Sovyet/Varsova Pakti tehdidi ortadan kalktiktan hemen sonra, NATO degisen uluslararasi sisteme kendini uyarlamaya basladi. Bu süreç zor ve sorunlu olmasina ragmen, önemli basarilar kaydetti. Ama "Nato yasayabilecek mi?" sorusu hep gündemde kaldi. Bu inceleme iddiali öngörüler yerine aktörlerin egilimlerine ve ortamdaki degismelere isaret ederek bir düsünme ve tartisma zemini hazirlamanin gayreti içinde olmustur. Uluslararasi sistemdeki yapisal degisiklikleri irdeleyip, Ittifakin yeni durumlara uyum saglamak için ne gibi politikalar uyguladigini ve söz konusu dönüsümün önündeki engelleri elestirel bir yaklasimla incelemistir. Ortak siyasi iradenin olusmasinin ve askeri yapi ve stratejinin yeni sartlara uyarlanmasinin sinirlarini açikliga kavusturmaya çalismistir. Bu çerçevede askeri doktrin çalismalari ve Afganistan tecrübesi arasindaki etkilesim ve dönüsüm süreci üzerindeki etkileri ele alinmistir. Ayrica sonuç bölümünde, genisleyen Avrupa-Atlantik Bölgesindeki NATO askeri operasyonlarinin mesruiyet sorununa da deginilmistir