Khalil Nouri

Taliban and "peace mission" -- these words do not fit together in the minds of Afghans who know the Taliban's history. But they are the words that we have seen in recent publications, stating that the Taliban intend to open a "peace mission" office in Qatar. The idea...

Kandahar, a conservative and sacred Pashtun heartland, the epicenter of complex Afghan tribal politics where Prophet Muhammad's cloak has resided for over half a millennium, has always played a pivotal role in Afghanistan with all its political makeup. Now there is an intense struggle to name a

Ever since Pakistan began lobbying against Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai's efforts to build a long-term strategic partnership with the U.S., urging him to look to Pakistan instead -- and its Chinese ally -- for help in striking a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuilding the Afghan economy,...

It is typical to scoff at David Miliband's position for his post-political career. But in a recent New York Times article the former U.K Foreign Secretary showed that his intellect and judgment on a number of key issues, including how to bring the Afghan War to an end,...

The success of scientific methodology is due primarily to its objectivity. In politics, unfortunately, there is little objectivity and a lot of emotion that makes visibility of reality on-the-ground very difficult. The unprecedented terrorist act of 9/11 by al-Qaeda, Fascist Islamic Fundamentalists under the auspices of the Taliban, against the...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent trip to Moscow marks an unprecedented state level rendezvous by an Afghanistan Head of State. The first since the Soviet backed President Najibullah's trip; whose term ended shortly after the Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan.

It is a life and death game...

As C.S. Lewis says, "We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive."

The Obama administration has found "fragile" but "reversible" progress...

The United States is due to publish its long-awaited review of the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan this week -- a report ordered by President Barack Obama a year ago when he deployed 30,000 extra troops to the country to combat a bloody Taliban insurgency. However, the current strategy is...

NATO's meeting to build political consensus across the alliance for the post-2011 phase of "gradually" handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan forces will be on the table in Lisbon this week. According to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, "The aim is for Afghan forces to be in the...

There has recently been a call for the establishment of an Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group (APSG) that will be modeled off the Iraq Study Group (ISG) of the Baker-Hamilton Commission. The project is driven by the realization that this regional dilemma cannot be resolved militarily - it requires a political solution....