Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar is the historical birthplace and the political base of the Taliban. Now, the country’s second-largest city appears to be becoming the de facto capital under the militant group’s rule. Several officials have recently been transferred from the capital, Kabul, to Kandahar. Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah...
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where half the population, women and girls, are deprived of a basic human right: education. When they finish sixth grade, at the age of 12, Afghans have to leave the benches of regulated schools by order of the Taliban, the fundamentalist militia in power since August 15, 2021...
The landmark Australia-United Kingdom-United States military alliance has been touted as a “strategic masterstroke” and “impressive audacity”, but the hugely ambitious project has a massive Achilles’ heel that could ultimately make it all but unworkable: US bureaucracy. Unveiled in September 2021 and...
North Korea’s barrage of missile tests and China’s swelling military modernization appear to have driven two of Asia’s reluctant partners back into each others arms, with South Korea and Japan agreeing to restore the sharing of highly classified intelligence. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese...
According to a 2022 report from the UN OHCHR, the Tatmadaw government “has collapsed in many areas nationwide, the public health system has effectively broken down, and more than half of all school-aged children have not accessed education for two academic years.” Ye Myo Hein, a global fellow at the Wilson...
A gathering of regional foreign ministers to discuss the way forward in Afghanistan this week brought little in the way of new initiatives but provided a forum for several of Kabul’s neighbors to blame the country’s economic plight on the United States and its Western allies. The United States “was portrayed...
The Biden administration is pushing a revamp of lagging U.S. relations with Africa with a charm offensive that has included a summit of continental leaders in Washington, a parade of high-level diplomatic visits to resource-rich nations and promises of vast private investments. Yet analysts say the White House has...
As Sino-India tensions rise in the inhospitable stretches of the Himalayas and some experts warn that future clashes could escalate into a full-fledged war between the nuclear-armed giants, the US is refocusing on the decades-old border dispute – including a more active role in sharing intelligence – as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy to check Chinese activity in the region. Real-time intelligence provided by the US about...
The repatriation of Islamic State fighters, family members and refugees living in makeshift camps and prisons in Syria will take decades at its current pace, a quandary that U.S. military officials and analysts say adds to the risk of a militant resurgence. More than 50,000 people, mostly women and children from about 60 countries, are housed at a camp named al-Hol, which was described...
Saudi diplomats visited the Iranian capital on Saturday to discuss the reopening of both countries’ embassies, taking the latest material step towards restoring relations under a tripartite agreement announced by Riyadh, Tehran and Beijing in March. Saudi Arabia and Iran, moving to mend ties after seven...