ASIA A divide is emerging between how the Asia Pacific region has responded to the Omicron wave of COVID-19, and how North American and Western European countries have responded. East Asia Forum, Jeremy Youde: Asia’s cautious approach to Omicron AUSTRALIA One of the former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials involved with a new […]
Tag: Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN The Taliban is creating a “grand army” for Afghanistan that will include officers and troops who served the old regime, says the official tasked with overseeing the military’s transformation. Latifullah Hakimi, head of the Taliban’s Ranks Clearance Commission, also told a news conference on Monday that they had repaired half the 81 helicopters and planes […]
from: Al Jazeera, Asia Times, Corriere della Sera, East Asia Forum, Euractiv, Global Times, Reuters, RFE RL, RUSI, TASS, The Interpreter, The Strategist AFGHANISTAN The United Nations children’s agency says it will pay Afghan teachers a monthly stipend for at least two months. Salaries have been unpaid for months as the country plunged into economic crisis due […]
News from: Al Jazeera, Astana Times, Atlantic Council, Brookings, Bruegel, Chatham House, CSIS, Defense News, Defense One, East Asia Forum, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Global Times, Human Rights Watch, Japan Institute of International Affairs, Nextgov, Reuters, RFE RL, RUSI, StartMagazine, The Jamestown Foundation, Vatican AFGHANISTAN – USA Where are the detailed Pentagon reports like […]
AFGHANISTAN Bamiyan Buddhas and Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage. Rishika Dhumal, Vivekananda International Foundation: In Afghanistan, Buddhist cave temples are concentrated in three regions: Jalalabad (180 caves), Haibak (200 caves) and Bamiyan (1000 caves). The Bamiyan Buddhas are part of a Buddhist site in Bamiyan Valley of Bamiyan River, 230km northwest of Kabul and 2500m above sea […]
AFGHANISTAN What the US and its allies left behind in Afghanistan. Amin Saikal, The Strategist: The Afghanistan war is over for the United States and its allies. But the suffering of the Afghan people has multiplied under the extremist, repressive rule of the Taliban in the name of Islam. No country today is in as […]
AFRICA Artificial intelligence creeps on to the African Battlefield. Nathaniel Allen, Marian “Ify” Okpali, Brookings: Even as the world’s leading militaries race to adopt artificial intelligence in anticipation of future great power war, security forces in one of the world’s most conflict-prone regions are opting for a more measured approach. In Africa, AI is gradually making its […]
Moscow is not participating in the Oslo-hosted intra-Afghan talks, not even as an observer, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov told TASS on Monday. “We aren’t participating,” he said in response to a question. A delegation of the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia), led by Foreign Minister of the Taliban-formed interim government Amir […]
Humanitarian catastrophe. Frozen assets. International recognition of the Taliban. These issues dominate the current discussion about Afghanistan’s future—with a warranted sense of urgency, given that twenty-three million Afghans face starvation this winter. But too singular a focus on these more immediate events risks obscuring talk about Afghanistan’s longer-term trajectory, as well as how to prevent the current […]
The Pentagon for the first time publicly released drone footage of a botched strike in Kabul that killed 10 members of a family, including seven children, amid the chaotic US withdrawal from the country. The footage was initially obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The New York Times and was subsequently released by US […]
A newly declassified report that warned the Afghan Air Force would collapse without U.S. support underscores the military’s reliance on contractors to operate and maintain sophisticated weapons. The year-old report was released Tuesday amid multiple government investigations of the Biden administration’s withdrawal of all U.S. troops and thousands of Afghans from Afghanistan. Declassified Report Details Afghan Air Force Reliance on Contractors […]
Months before President Joe Biden announced the U.S.’s complete withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, Washington’s watchdog warned that the Afghan air force would collapse without critical American aid, training and maintenance. The report was declassified Tuesday. The report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko, submitted to the Department of Defense in January 2021, […]