The Taliban Are Not Afghanistan

I cannot begin to count how many times, when talking to a policymaker, a journalist or an ordinary person in Britain, that they have tried to tell me that it’s pointless to oppose the Taliban in Afghanistan, because the Taliban are somehow ‘natural’ or ‘essential’ to the country. They believe that the Taliban are so innate to Afghanistan that they could never be beaten or marginalised. 

The Taliban Created Space for ISIS Violence in Afghanistan

The Islamic State may have been driven out of its capitals in Iraq’s Mosul and Syria’s Raqqa but that doesn’t mean it has gone. In the Philippines, West Africa, and most obviously in Afghanistan, the terror group is thriving and growing.  

Broken Promises to Afghanistan

The defeated allies who fought in and abandoned Afghanistan made a lot of promises to Afghans which they did not keep. Over twenty years many of them related to the shape of Afghan society.  

On Being Cut Off

It is hard to imagine being cut off from the global economy. To have little and less trade entering the country. To have entire industries shut down or operate on skeleton crews. To see few foreign goods. To be able to sell little or nothing to people abroad you previously worked with. 

Wrong and Stupid

The western reaction to the Taliban’s repression of women has been remarkable. Not because it is brave or noble, or accurate. But instead, because it is so out of touch as to be almost comical. 

The Taliban’s Female University Ban Is Not Surprising

The Taliban has banned women in Afghanistan from accessing higher education. Women who turned up to university on 21 December were turned away. They will not be allowed back, the Taliban’s education ministry says.   

ISIS Is Wreaking Afghan Terror

The bomb tore through an examination hall in Kabul on Friday, where students – mostly minority Hazara, mostly young women – were sitting a practice test in preparation for university. Thirty-five were killed, dozens more injured. An unspeakable human tragedy. 

Afghanistan Outsourced

If outsourcing has become inevitable in commerce, we cannot be surprised that it has found its place in government. In matters of national security especially, it can be of use to rely less on soldiers than on mercenaries. Russia makes extensive use of the Wagner Group, mercenaries who operate with the state’s approval in Middle Eastern and African battlefields, doing dirty work in a deniable fashion.

Is America Really Back?

When, on Tuesday, the American secretary of defence Lloyd Austin announced that 500 more American troops would be sent to Germany, a tacit intention of his speech was to convince observers that a terrible thing had been averted in the nick of time.

Dictatorships and the Virus

The coronavirus, which originated in China late last year, has begun its definite spread across the globe. Each day brings news of new infections, and new countries in which symptoms of the virus have been observed. But one surprising locus for the diffusing virus is now Iran, far from China.