How Joe Biden failed the people of Afghanistan — and tarnished US credibility around the world
William Maley, Australian National University In April 1961, just months after the young John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States, his reputation for expertise in foreign policy took a battering as a result of the Bay of Pigs fiasco,…
‘I feel suffocated’: Afghans are feeling hopeless, but there’s still a chance to preserve some rights
Nematullah Bizhan, Australian National University Two days ago, a close friend in Afghanistan told me Kabul seems like a graveyard. Silenced. Helpless. And hopeless. This reminds me of the empty streets and hopelessness during my time under the Taliban’s rule in the late 1990s. People…
What is the metaverse? A high-tech plan to Facebookify the world
Nick Kelly, Queensland University of Technology Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the tech giant will shift from being a social media company to becoming “a metaverse company”, functioning in an “embodied internet” that blends real and virtual worlds more than ever before. So…
‘Journalism is sacred work’: Afghanistan’s front line reporters
By Robyn Huang and Matt Reichel It was about 8am on a Monday morning in April 2018 when Bushra Seddique felt the multi-storey apartment building she was living in with her family in Kabul’s Shash Darak district shake. Smoke billowed from the street below. She barely had time to…
While US and Denmark are on their way out of Afghanistan, Islamic State is growing
By: Jonathan Tybjerg and Asad Kosha In the past year, a branch of Islamic State has carried out a number of significant attacks in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the United States, Denmark, and the rest of the Western coalition are on their way out of the country….
Afghanistan 2021 Is Not Afghanistan 1996. That Offers Hope for Peace
By Mirwais Wakil and Anthony Pahnke Many pundits, in their commentary on Afghanistan, are not doing their homework. While it is true that the Taliban have advanced in the country as the U.S. and its allies are in the process of withdrawing their forces, reality is complicated. The situation is…
China in a Post-US Afghanistan
Tridivesh Singh Maini China’s criticism of the US decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is likely due to a deterioration in security, which could negatively affect its investments and BRI-related projects. Background During his meeting with Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, US President Joe Biden referred…
The Afghan Peace Process: Talking to the Taliban
By: Deedar Khudaidad The prospect of a peaceful Afghanistan is only realistic if the Taliban breaks ties with other terrorist groups, agrees to a ceasefire and joins the intra-Afghan peace talks. The Afghan government has been calling for peace talks for many years, yet only…
Sri Lanka’s Persecuted Muslims Are Turning Radical
After decades of persecution by the Sinhalese and Tamils, Sri Lanka’s Muslims are abandoning local syncretic Islam and turning to a more radical version. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday attacks across Sri Lanka. This raises many questions about the existence of…
Prospects of Economic Cooperation Between Central and South Asia
By: Center for Economic Research and Reforms Uzbekistan’s foreign policy, which is aimed at rapprochement and strengthening friendly and mutually beneficial relations with neighboring states, has created a solid foundation for the development of trade and other economic and investment cooperation between Central Asian countries….