Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Afghanistan

Remembering 9/11

Remembering 9/11

It is difficult to find words as the anniversary of 9/11 arrives again. The inclination is strong to sum-up, to summarize in some way the distance covered, as if distance somehow lends better perspective on the attacks of 9/11. Last year I wrote a blog post calling for reflection and renewal and I think that […]

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Presidential Candidate Romney: AWOL on Afghanistan War

Presidential Candidate Romney: AWOL on Afghanistan War

The United States has been fighting a war in Afghanistan for over ten years. Over 2,000 our bravest men and women have died there during that time period. We still have over 60,000 troops on the ground fighting in the land that hosted Al Qaeda’s leadership a decade ago. Even though, President Obama, the current […]

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Girls On Board

Girls On Board

With August coming to a close here’s something short and inspiring to remind us that unconventional approaches make a difference. Skateboards and Afghanistan sound like an unlikely combination but reality is proving otherwise. Skateistan is an international non-profit charity providing skateboarding and educational programming in Afghanistan (as well as Cambodia and Pakistan). It was set […]

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Civilian Role in Conflict Areas Marches On

Civilian Role in Conflict Areas Marches On

Whether drowned out last week by the U.S. presidential campaign, or the crash of August waves at the beach, a rare but notable news item may have missed most readers. A suicide bomber in eastern Afghanistan killed four Americans, one of whom was a civilian aid worker, only the second such U.S. professional to lose […]

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The Next Showdown in U.S.-Pakistan Relations

The Next Showdown in U.S.-Pakistan Relations

Fresh tests await the epically dysfunctional partnership Last month’s agreement on NATO supply routes provided some hope that the two-year long free fall in U.S.-Pakistani relations was at an end.  But new serious tests await the epically dysfunctional partnership. One sign of the tensions that remain is Islamabad’s mounting accusations that the U.S.-led NATO coalition […]

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The Morality and Effectiveness of U.S. Drone Policy

The Morality and Effectiveness of U.S. Drone Policy

Bradley Strawser, an assistant professor of philosophy at the Naval Postgraduate School, recently (and somewhat predictably) took some flak after the Guardian published a piece in which he appeared to make a fairly unequivocal moral case in support of U.S. drone policy. “It’s all upside. There’s no downside. Both ethically and normatively, there’s a tremendous […]

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The Twitterati: When All Else Fails, Bring Out the 140 Characters

The Twitterati: When All Else Fails, Bring Out the 140 Characters

The Arab Spring awoke people to the power of social media in a political context.  Of course, you would have to be living under a rock to think it was the first time Twitter was ever used to coordinate mass protests — it was hugely prominent in Iran during the 2009 protests, Moldova, and the Greek riots in […]

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Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

While not a movie that makes you say “Wow!” Charlie Wilson’s War is a solid film. Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman are excellent in their roles. The story revolves around Hanks as Wilson, a United States congressman who likes to party. Wilson appears to be the most unlikely candidate to help people in the developing world which is why this movie is so surprising. Roberts […]

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GailForce: Things That Make Ya’ Wanna Go Hmmmm!

GailForce:  Things That Make Ya’ Wanna Go Hmmmm!

As mentioned in my last blog, I’ve been off the grid for a while.  I’m currently in Alabama hanging out with my 85 years young Mom but have been playing catch up with current events.  I have to get up every few minutes and stand in front of her air conditioner but then I gamely […]

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GailForce: Afghanistan and Iraq Lessons Learned

GailForce:  Afghanistan and Iraq Lessons Learned

Been off the blogosphere for the last month because of a project I was working on.  Thought I’d get back into the saddle by looking into the latest on Afghanistan.  On July 10th in response to a reporter’s question, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said the surge had been a success. In response to some […]

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Three Flops That Make Leon Panetta Sad

Three Flops That Make Leon Panetta Sad

Some of the provisions in 2011 Budget Control Act, meaning the failure of the 2011 “supercommittee” to find $1.2 trillion in cuts, are sweeping the media back into a fury of preemptive Armageddon terror.  The rapidly approaching sequestration (a procedure by which automatic spending cuts are implemented)–which will hit both defense and non-defense spending if Congress […]

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Bombies (2001)

Bombies (2001)

  During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped as many as 2 million tons of cluster bombs on Laos. It was called a secret air war but was, of course, no secret to the Laotians. Thousands of people have been killed and wounded by the bombs, which continue to litter the countryside. What director […]

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The Iranian Women in American Journalism Project (IWAJ): Golnaz Esfandiari

The Iranian Women in American Journalism Project (IWAJ): Golnaz Esfandiari

Golnaz Esfandiari is a Senior Correspondent at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty‘s (RFE/RL) Central Newsroom. She is the editor of the Persian Letters blog. Golnaz has served previously as Chief Editor of RFE’s Persian-language service: Radio Farda. She also presides over the newsroom’s Asia Desk. Born in Tehran, Golnaz has traveled to Afghanistan several times to cover the country’s first parliamentary […]

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The Missing Variable Within the Euro-Atlantic Community: Foreign Policy

The Missing Variable Within the Euro-Atlantic Community: Foreign Policy

2012 has been the year of elections and ideological divisions. France is no exception to the rule. On May 15th, 2012, François Hollande officially became the President of France. His first action was to fly to Berlin, despite the weather, in order to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This strategic move is important for […]

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The Bear Comes Back Over the Mountain

The Bear Comes Back Over the Mountain

Russia looks to do its part for Afghanistan, and itself While trigger-happy drones do their part to smooth a coming US drawdown in Afghanistan, pundits and diplomats alike nervously pace the green rooms of news and late-night talk shows. What will a counter-insurgency look like without a stabilizing super power? Whether one bets on red […]

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