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August 9, 2010 | Building Civil Society in Afghanistan

Darrell Calvin Brown: President Hamid Karzai and the Government of Afghanistan must continue to give the assessment of the needs of their country’s citizens top priority as they prepare for total independence and self-governance by the year 2014.

October 14, 2009 | Japan's Transition Into Modernisation - Parallels in Afghanistan

Birgit Hütten: Japan, like no other country, has been successful in implementing enormous changes to its political and social structure. The way to modernization and its impact on Afghanistan are vital factors for the development of other Asian countries.

March 8, 2010 | The World Should Not Give Up on Somalia

Somalia is typically associated with war, displacement, terrorism, and piracy, but the country is not the failed state it’s portrayed as. ++ “Somalis are resilient and committed to peace, and sickened by the nihilistic violence of the extremists” ++ The international community needs to get rid of the notions that Somalia’s problems are insurmountable and that Somalia is irrelevant to

January 25, 2010 | Afghan Elections Postponed: Great News

Afghanistan’s electoral commission has postponed elections. ++ If “regrettable,” it is yet a positive sign that realism has finally won over idealism. ++ Afghan leaders acknowledge security issues and shortage of money hindering proper elections, thus proving their ability to endorse political responsibility. ++ Trust and strength are precisely what the Western backers were

October 22, 2008 | Restrained Reactions to Death of German Soldiers

More German soldiers were killed by a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan. ++ The German people’s reaction towards the extension of the German mandate, as well as on the killings, seems to be restrained. ++ Once more the attacks have proven that military protection is a prerequisite for reconstruction efforts. ++ By withdrawing their troops, Germany would have played into the Taliban’s

April 12, 2007 | Robert D. Kaplan on When North Korea Falls

North Korean nuclear tests are symptoms of an unheralded threat: not the exertion of North Korean strength, but the prospective collapse of Kim Jong Il’s government. Weakness in Pyongyang could result in desperation, a WMD attack on the South, or full-on military engagement with Seoul. Drawing on this possibility of collapse, Robert D. Kaplan discusses opportunities for:

1. Reconstruction and