... effectively captured Russia's persistent drug problem since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Accounting for one-fifth of the world’s opium market estimated at USD 65 billion, Russia is the world’s largest heroin consumer, all of it flowing from Afghanistan through Central Asia.
The Afghan drug trade supplying the Russian market has fuelled conflict, corruption, and instability in the region, provided financial support to terrorist organisations and led to a devastating addiction and HIV epidemic ...
The long-term impasse that persists in Afghanistan has lead to nostalgia in the country for a "strong hand" that would instantly resolve all problems. However, such assumptions are illusory
The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, which for a time occupied the minds of the world's political ...
... United States’ foreign and military policies. Let us recall, for example, the South Asian concept (the so-called AfPac) put forward by Barack Obama during a speech at West Point in 2008. The primary objective of AfPac was to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in a phased and painless manner (to the extent that this was possible) while at the same time partially shifting the focus of U.S. policy in the region to resolving the longstanding conflict between the central authorities in Kabul and the ...
... down, look no further than the Middle East.
Akop Gabrielyan:
Goodbye, U.S. Foreign Policy?
Within the aforementioned omnibus bill, $4.2 billion is appropriated for the Afghan Security Forces Fund. That’s correct. The U.S. is sending $4.2 billion to Afghanistan to continue its seemingly endless endeavor in the Middle East. In recent years, there have been
serious concerns
regarding U.S. foreign aid to Afghanistan. Furthermore, this news is shocking bearing in mind the release of the
Afghanistan ...
Technology and innovation can be a gateway for the U.S. and Russia to work together and build trust without compromising their core values
Security Outlook for a Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAPI) and U.S. Involvement
To identify innovative solutions for securing the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAPI) from threats and attacks, participating agencies must put together a concerted effort, relying on both physical security ...
The First Bonn Conference
Germany is heavily involved in the Afghan affairs since 9.11.2001; the country has brought in to being the modern Afghanistan thru launching the international Bonn conference “Bonn 1” in December 2001, the said conference toke place right after the collapse of the barbaric regime of Taliban in Afghanistan. Furthermore, it paved the way to engage several rival ...
... Sustainable Development in the Central Asian Region” noted the important role that Central Asian states play in ensuring security, stability and sustainable development in the region. In particular, the resolution noted their efforts to achieve stability in Afghanistan. In this regard, it is necessary to note the progressive growth of interaction within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which celebrated its fifth anniversary on the eve of the SCO summit. Let us not forget that four out of eight SCO members ...
... Arabia and then later Iran, through three stages of Jihadism.
This analysis is taken from an interview with Dr. Kepel.
Stages of Jihadism
The first stage of Jihadism, present from 1979 to 1997, was centered around both a jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and the possibility for Sunni groups to contain Iranian influence at the time. It was effective against Russia in Afghanistan, but this phase was not very successful elsewhere and failed in Algeria, Chechnya, and Egypt. Phase one was characterized ...
The Working Group on the Future of U.S.-Russia Relations’ Report
Central Asia stands out as a comparatively “nontoxic” region where there are limited, but not insignificant, opportunities for U.S.-Russia collaboration both bilaterally and within multilateral frameworks: in the space industry, civil security, job-creation mechanisms and rural human capital, and knowledge sharing for instance. Any proposal of U.S.-Russia cooperation in a concrete domain will have to be made in a tri- or-multipartite...
... expanding cooperation between the two organizations, including with respect to the future of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, possible multilateral nuclear arms control mechanisms in Asia, and likely scenarios for the development of the situation in Afghanistan.
