The acting foreign minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban-run cabinet, Amir Khan Muttaqi attends a session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Council of Foreign Ministers, in Islamabad, Pakistan, in December 2021.
(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Even in the absence of a moral motive to alleviate famine, there is a strong rationale for the West to do whatever’s necessary to alleviate hunger in Afghanistan this winter.
Men wait in a line to receive cash for food at an initiative organized by the World Food Program (WFP) in Kabul, Afghanistan, in November 2021. The country is faced with harrowing predictions of growing poverty and hunger.
(AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
As the West contemplates how to engage with the increasingly brutal Taliban government in Afghanistan, the country’s people will suffer enormously.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks during a congressional committee hearing on the withdrawal of American troops Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)
This summer’s disintegration of the Afghan government and continuing political turmoil in Iraq provide valuable lessons for the U.S. and its mission to impose democracy on the rest of the world.
Afghan women march to demand their rights under Taliban rule during a demonstration near the former Women’s Affairs Ministry building in Kabul.
(AP Photo)
How can we reconcile competing claims that colonialism of any kind is detrimental with the view that Afghanistan has been failed by the West?
North Korea’s testing of two long-range cruise missiles was a provocative act – but a predictable one, too.
Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
Vassily A. Klimentov, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)
The most important lesson from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan may be our failure to learn from history.
A U.S. Army soldier scans the irises of an Afghan civilian in 2012 as part of an effort by the military to collect biometric information from much of the Afghan population.
Jose Cabezas/AFP via GettyImages
The potential failure of the US military to protect information that can identify Afghan citizens raises questions about whether and how biometric data should be collected in war zones.
In May, Afghan troops raised their national flag as the U.S. pulled out. Now, their flag is down too.
Afghan Ministry of Defense Press Office via AP
The Afghan military’s collapse was the collective result of individual soldiers making rational decisions based on what they expected their comrades to do.
Culture change has been slow and difficult but the will to make life better for Afghan women was there. Now a big question mark hangs over their future.
The author was in this crowd, finally boarding a plane to leave Kabul.
Photo: Hanif Sufizada
Hanif Sufizada got caught in Kabul as the Taliban took over. A scholar and resident of the US who works at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Sufizada describes his experience trying to leave.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan had better equipment, training and funding than the Taliban.
AP Photo/Rahmat Gul
It may be attractive to think that promoting democracy in occupied foreign countries is an appropriate moral and effective path for restoring security and stability. But it’s not accurate.
Forced from their homes by fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces, thousands of families seek refuge in a Kabul park.
Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
When the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghans had endured 22 years of war. The Taliban were on the rise. Little has changed after an additional 20 years of war and suffering.
The U.S. military is handing the keys over to Afghan forces.
Joe Marek/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
For much of the country’s history, Americans won their wars decisively, with the complete surrender of enemy forces and the home front’s perception of total victory.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, center, greets Gen. Scott Miller, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, upon Miller’s July 14, 2021, return to the U.S. at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Alex Brandon - Pool/Getty Images
A scholar and practitioner of foreign policy and national security offers personal and professional perspectives on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.