Ahmed Rashid

An Elusive Peace in Afghanistan

Free from Washington interference, the US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad pulled off a seemingly impossible feat. On March 12, after sixteen straight days of talks, US and Taliban negotiators wrapped up a significant part of the complex deal that could finally bring an end to the Afghan war.

Pakistan’s Jihadi Proxies

In Kabul, Echoes of Saigon

Despite the shadow of Vietnam, for Afghans the melancholy fact is that the American public is not much engaged with what happens in Afghanistan, either way. Instead, it is looking more like the abandonment they suffered after the Soviets left in 1989.

A New Dawn in Uzbekistan?

After spending decades as a pariah state, feared or at best ignored by even its near neighbors because of its reputation as one of the most repressive and closed nations in the world, Uzbekistan is slowly emerging from the shadows. 

Pakistan’s Unholy Alliance

Pakistan could have so much going for it—if it dedicated itself to bringing peace to the region and denied militant groups a base.

Afghanistan: What Troops Can’t Fix

For Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Afghanistan was “the just war,” but for President Donald Trump it is just a war he didn’t want to deal with.

Afghanistan: It’s Too Late

No matter how many troops the US decides to send to Afghanistan this summer, it will not rectify the political crisis in Kabul.

Wrong About Afghanistan

The capacity of the military to create lasting change in Afghanistan remains limited. How many more lives will have to be lost before the Trump team figures that out?

Trump in the Middle East

In the opening months of the Donald Trump administration, there has been little sign of a coherent foreign policy taking shape.

Remembering Bob Silvers

On the late editor of The New York Review

Iran’s Game in Aleppo

A US-Russia deal on Syria would be seen by many Syrians and by the Arab countries in the region as a surrender to Tehran.

Seeing the Despair of Jihad

Sy Hersh and Osama bin Laden: The Right and the Wrong

ISIS: The Cornered Beast

The military defeat of ISIS in Syria or Iraq seems more than likely to unleash a greater wave of terrorist attacks.

Pakistan: The Army Steps In

The deadly suicide bombing in Pakistan on Easter Sunday has had a devastating effect on relations between Pakistan’s army and civilian government, threatening to bring further instability to the country’s Punjab heartland.

Kabul in Crisis

At least fifty journalists have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, but until this year, nobody had tried to massacre an entire busload of journalists in the center of Kabul.

From Mumbai to Paris

Drawing on methods used in Mumbai in 2008, ISIS has made clear in Paris that it is launching a deliberate all-out war against all those countries that are lining up to fight it in Syria.

Can Afghanistan Hold On?

With the entire Afghan state now threatened by the Taliban, Barack Obama seems likely to leave his successor with the similarly unraveling war he inherited from George W. Bush seven years ago.

Why We Need al-Qaeda

Could the group long considered the most lethal terrorist organization in the
 world be the best option left in the Middle East for 
the US and its allies?

Russia's Reckless Airforce

On April 7, a war between Russia and NATO forces defending the three Baltic republics was avoided by just twenty feet.