ViewsWeek Views from around the world
Going by the warlike history of the region, journalism and the fixer within it become “short term slavery” in the service of relentless imperialist forces that have long kept the region unstable.
September, 2023
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19 September
US Policy of ‘Pragmatic Engagement’ Risks Legitimatizing Taliban Rule
The Biden administration has a choice: Try to keep the Doha deal alive by pressuring the Taliban into intra-Afghan talks, or accept that the deal is now dead. Either way, “pragmatic engagement” with the Taliban has shown itself to be wanting.
August, 2023
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17 August
Why Afghanistan Still Poses a Threat to the Region and Beyond
Two years on from taking control of Afghanistan the Taliban continues to rule through fear and threatens the stability of the whole region.
June, 2023
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22 June
Locust Outbreak in Afghanistan Threatens Major Food Crisis
For nearly 30 years, Mullah Khan Mohammad has worked his family’s land in Surkh Kotal – near the great archaeological site of the same name – in Baghlan province. Baghlan, in northern Afghanistan, is known as the country’s breadbasket due to its significant wheat production. “Since we returned [in the early 1990s, after the Soviet-Afghanistan war], we have been cultivating …
April, 2023
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30 April
What Would it Take to Recognize the Taliban?
ince the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, speculation has been rife over whether the group would achieve the global recognition that has long eluded it. Early on, analysts predicted that in a quest for legitimacy, a reformed Taliban, whose rhetoric promised a modern and moderate approach to governance, would honor basic human rights and prevent Afghanistan from again becoming …
March, 2023
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14 March
Confronting Climate Change — and the Taliban — in Afghanistan
his past December, a fleet of colorful swan-shaped boats lined the muddy banks of Qargha Lake, a reservoir on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. The boats’ owner, 50-year-old Shah Maqsoud Habibi, said his business has vanished, along with much of the lake, a once popular weekend destination for war weary Afghans. Over the past few years, a series of droughts …
January, 2023
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12 January
Afghanistan’s Taliban Reportedly Have Control of US Biometric Devices
n the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and the ouster of the Afghan national government in August 2021, alarming reports indicated that the insurgents had potentially accessed biometric data collected by the U.S. to track Afghans, including people who worked for U.S. and coalition forces. Afghans who once supported the U.S. have been attempting to hide or destroy …
August, 2022
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7 August
Afghanistan: Assassination of Al-Zawahiri Reveals Tensions Within the Taliban
For Afghanistan, al-Zawahiri’s death may have dire implications. Accusations of cooperating with the Americans will affect the already divided Taliban leadership – which could lead to bitter internecine fighting within it. And the presence of a terrorist as prominent as al-Zawahiri supposedly under the protection of senior Taliban cadres will not help US-Taliban relations. It is a direct breach of the Doha accords.
July, 2022
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13 July
In Afghanistan, a Quiet Epidemic of Mass Psychogenic Illness
Reliable statistics on anything are hard to come by in Afghanistan, but Human Rights Watch estimates that depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress affect half of Afghanistan’s population.
June, 2022
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29 June
Earthquake Poses Test of US Resistance to the Taliban
Will the administration take additional steps to help Afghanistan or sit on the sidelines because it won’t recognize the government?
