Taliban
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Pearls of Nonsense About Drones
Major Agha Humayun Amin reviews Christopher Fuller’s See It/Shoot It, a history of the CIA’s drone programme, as disappointing, arguing it adds nothing, rests on a questionable source, and wrongly…
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Podcasts by Major Amin. India, Pakistan, Proxy Wars
Introduces Major Agha Humayun Amin’s podcasts, one covering his background in Afghanistan and his views that no actor there is truly non-state, that the Taliban are Pakistan’s proxy, and that…
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Afghan Peace Process; Postscript
Hamid Hussain posts an exchange with an old Afghan hand of Pakistan’s ISI on the Afghan peace process. The respondent doubts any party can control Afghanistan or that the Taliban…
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Afghan Peace Process
Hamid Hussain assesses the Afghan peace process after the first direct United States and Taliban talks, drawing on regional travel and conversations with Pakistanis, Afghans, Americans and Indians. He frames…
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Kabuki Dance – Pakistan’s Balancing Act
Hamid Hussain argues Pakistan’s regional environment has turned harder under Imran Khan, who faces fast US-Taliban talks, Iran’s isolation and Gulf rivalries amid domestic instability and economic decline. He notes…
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Review: Directorate S
Major Amin reviews Steve Coll’s Directorate S and finds it deeply flawed, citing errors of geography and fact. He argues that US analysts overrated Al Qaeda while the real players…
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The Last Hurdle to Afghan Peace
Major Amin interleaves bolded comments into Brigadier Simon Saraf’s piece on the Afghan peace process. He rejects the Pakistani nationalist reading, arguing that the US has no strategy, that Trump…
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Afghanistan. Exit to Chaos?
The author argues that Trump is right to want out of Afghanistan but will probably waste what gains remain, and that the blame for failure will wrongly fall on corrupt…
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Book Review: The Stan
Reviewing the graphic anthology The ‘Stan by Kevin Knodell and David Axe, the reviewer finds an anti-war book that humanises American soldiers and Afghans alike, but with little strategic big…
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Avtar Singh Khalsa: Lion of Afghanistan
The author profiles Avtar Singh Khalsa, a Sikh member of the Afghan Parliament who reaches out to the Taliban for peace, and quotes a report of a Herat peace meeting,…
